With a beginning lineup of O'Neal, Malone, Payton, and Bryant, the Lakers were capable of reach the NBA Finals. However, they had been upset in 5 games by the Detroit Pistons, who received their first championship since 1990. In that collection, Bryant averaged 22.6 points per recreation and 4.four assists. Jackson's contract as coach was not renewed, and Rudy Tomjanovich took over.

He was also the overall league MVP in 2008.The accident shocked basketball fans and athletes from throughout the nation and around the world. Countless tributes were held to honor Bryant, his daughter and the others killed in the crash. Bryant returned for the 2014–15 season, his nineteenth season with the Lakers, who had changed D'Antoni with Bryant's former Lakers teammate, Byron Scott. On November 30, 2014, in a 129–122 additional time victory in opposition to the Toronto Raptors, Bryant recorded his 20th career triple-double with 31 factors, 12 assists and eleven rebounds. At age 36, he became the oldest NBA participant to ever achieve 30 factors, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a recreation.

With profession averages of 25.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists, and 1.4 steals per sport, Bryant was thought-about one of the complete gamers in NBA history. He is the fourth-leading scorer in league history with 33,643 factors. He was the primary player in NBA history to have at least 30,000 career points and 6,000 career assists, and was considered one of solely four gamers with 25,000 points, 6,000 rebounds, and 6,000 assists. Bryant led the NBA in scoring through the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. His 81-point performance towards Toronto in 2006 was the second-highest in NBA history, behind solely Chamberlain's 100. He scored no less than 50 factors 24 occasions in his profession, which is third in league historical past behind Jordan and Chamberlain ; six instances Bryant scored at least 60.

But after I obtained within the recreation, Kobe Bryant was that bar for all of us and make no mistake about it we were making an attempt to make him proud. We by no means in all probability spoke it, said it to the media, or stated it to him, but deep down inside, that’s what we have been attempting to do. And I suppose he knew, as a end result of the way that we competed versus each other. That's what made Kobe alive, when he felt the respect from a competitive standpoint, more so than the words.

Bryant had famously travelled by helicopters for years. He routinely flew from Newport Beach, California to Los Angeles Stapes Center in his Sikorsky S-76 chopper when he performed for the L.A. Retirement seemed like the top one means or the other, but then, tragically, the real end came when Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in 2020. Read on to be taught more about this icon, who was taken too soon.

This adopted with O'Neal successful the MVP and Bryant being named to the All-NBA Second Team and All-NBA Defensive Team for the first time in his career (the youngest player to obtain All-Defensive honors). While playing second fiddle to O'Neal in the playoffs, Bryant had some clutch performances, including a 25-point, 11-rebound, 7-assist, 4-block sport in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals in opposition to the Portland Trail Blazers. In the 2000 Finals, towards the Indiana Pacers, Bryant injured his ankle in the second quarter of Game 2 after landing on the Pacers' Jalen Rose's foot. In Game four, Bryant scored 22 factors in the second half and led the team to an OT victory as O'Neal fouled out of the game. With a 116–111 victory in Game 6, the Lakers gained their first championship since 1988.

He was affected by soreness in his knees, ft, back, and Achilles tendons and Scott deliberate to scale back his workload going forward. Though he was right-handed, he returned to play within the recreation and ran the offense while taking pictures, dribbling, and passing virtually exclusively along with his left hand. The Lakers completed the season with a document of 21–61, surpassing the franchise record for many losses in a season that they had set the earlier yr. Bryant wished a sixth championship to match Jordan's complete. The Lakers started the 2010–11 season by profitable their first eight games. In his ninth sport of the season, playing in opposition to the Denver Nuggets, Bryant grew to become the youngest player in NBA historical past to reach 26,000 profession points.

As he has always liked the special challenges of superhero stories, Bryant loves the Harry Potter movies—until Seto starts needling him. Judy Seto, the bodily therapist who has meant so much to Bryant in his career, is over at Bryant's residence within the offseason to work on the knee. Sports Illustrated, 60 Minutes, every thing under the All-Star 1997 sun. Bryant's fame has erupted in his second NBA season, much to the consternation of Lakers vice president Jerry West and coach Del Harris. On this present day in 2012 after a day game at Staples Center, Macdonald is heading home and notices a well-recognized white Bentley momentarily slowed in a unique lane of freeway visitors. Macdonald passes Bryant's automobile for a change, but before he does, he seems immediately over with eyes broad and offers up to Bryant a pleasant greeting with a certain part of his hand.