Connor Dayton - Kobe Bryant: NBA Scoring Sensation

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First Edition

Britannica Educational Publishing

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dayton, Connor.

Kobe Bryant: NBA scoring sensation/Connor Dayton.First Edition.

pages cm.(Living legends of sports)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-6804-8113-6 (eBook)

1. Bryant, Kobe, 1978-Juvenile literature. 2. Basketball playersUnited StatesBiographyJuvenile literature. 3. Los Angeles Lakers (Basketball team)Juvenile literature. I. Title.

GV884.B794D38 2016

796.332092dc23

[B]

2014039768

Photo credits: Cover, p. 1 Andy Lyons/Getty Images; p. 4 Stephen Dunn/Getty Images; pp. 7 2000 NBA Entertainment. Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images; p. 9 Frank Ramspott/Digital Vision Vectors/Getty Images; p. 11 Al Tielemans/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images; p.12 1996 NBA Entertainment. Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images; p. 15 AP Images; p. 16 1998 NBA Entertainment. Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images; p.18 2006 NBA Entertainment. Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images; p. 19 New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images; pp. 2021 2004 NBA Entertainment. Photo by Juan Ocampo/NBAE/Getty Images; p. 23 2006 NBA Entertainment. Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images; p. 24 2008 NBA Entertainment. Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images; p. 27 Sacramento Bee/McClatchy-Tribune/Getty Images; pp. 2829 Fort Worth Star-Telegram/McClatchy-Tribune/Getty Images; p. 31 Christian Petersen/Getty Images; p. 32 The Boston Globe/Getty Images; p. 33 Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images; p. 34 2013 NBA Entertainment. Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE/Getty Images; p. 37 Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; p. 38 Barry King/FilmMagic/Getty Images; p. 39 Scott Halleran/Getty Images; cover and interior pages background images iStockphoto.com/block37 (basketball court illustration), iStockphoto.com/Nikada (texture).

K obe Bryant is a shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. He has played for the team since 1996, when he entered the NBA straight from high school. It is rare for a player to be physically developed and mature enough to handle the pressure of going pro at such a young age, but Bryant was up to the challenge.

Bryant is a talented athlete, but he works hard to push himself to record-breaking greatness. Throughout his career, he has maintained a high shooting percentage. He has said that is because he does not practice taking shots at the hoop, he practices making them. This statement is just one example of his competitive nature!

Kobe Bryant (left) drives against Andre Iguodala of the Golden State Warriors during a November 2014 game.

Bryant consistently shows a laserlike focus on the game, no matter what injuries or personal problems he is facing. When he is in his zone and playing the sport he loves, everything else takes a back seat. There is no room for doubt or fear of failure. He says, If youre afraid to fail, then youre probably going to fail.

Bryants hard work has shown itself in a two-decade career and multiple NBA championships won with the Lakers. Fans and sportswriters alike believe that Bryant is one of the greatest athletes currently playing in the NBA. They mention his name alongside retired basketball greats like Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan.

K obe Bean Bryant was born on August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has two older sisters, Shaya and Sharia. His parents are Pamela and Joe Bryant.

Basketball runs in the Bryant family. Kobes father was a professional basketball player in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a power forward for the Philadelphia 76ers, San Diego Clippers (now L.A. Clippers), and Houston Rockets. Young Kobe used to watch his fathers games on television. He would wear a team uniform that matched his dads and pretend that he was playing the game, too.

QUICK FACT

Kobe Bryants parents chose his first name from the expensive type of beef they saw at a Japanese restaurant. His middle name is a nod to his fathers nickname, Jellybean.

This photo of Kobe and his parents was taken in 2000, after the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship.

When Kobe was six, his father moved the family to Italy so that he could play professional basketball in the Italian league. In Italy, Joe Bryant flourished and was a high-scoring player. Kobe remembers that when he watched his dads games, fans sang songs about him.

QUICK FACT

There are athletes on both sides of Bryants family. His mothers brother is Chubby Cox, who played professional basketball in the 1970s and 1980s.

Kobe started playing sports at a young age. He played soccer as well as basketball before he decided to concentrate on basketball. He played basketball as a club sport. At one point, his club was the youth league of the professional team that his father played for. Their uniforms even matched!

Joe Bryant sometimes brought Kobe along to watch him practice with his team. By the time he was thirteen, Kobe had gotten so good at basketball that he could beat some of Joes teammates in games of one-on-one!

Bryant has said that the style of basketball he learned to play growing up in Italy is similar to how the game was played in the NBA in the 1950s and 1960s. He thinks this style focuses on the fundamentals of the game. He says that kids growing up in the United States in his generation were taught what he thinks of as a flashier style of play. When he returned to the United States, Bryant became determined to add these stylish moves to his already great skills. He called this putting icing on the cake.

QUICK FACT

Kobe learned to speak Italian and learned to read books in Latin at his Italian schools.

Joe Bryant played on teams based in the Lazio, Calabria, Toscana, and Emilia-Romagna regions of Italy.

The Bryant family returned to the United States in 1991 and settled in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Kobe Bryant had a hard time fitting in at first because his years living in Italy made him feel out of step with American culture and African American culture. Kobe was also a bit of a loner. As an adult, Bryant believes this is a positive trait because it forces him to stay true to himself.