Kobe Bryant Basketball Star of USA

Kobe Bryant is a basketball star of the United States who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. He is an American All Star shooting guard in the National Basketball Association and was its scorer in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. He is the only son of Joe Bryant who was at one time a Philadelphia 76er player and Los Angeles Sparks head coach.

Kobe is a shooting guard who plays small forward sometimes. He is a prolific scorer and averages 24.6 points per game of his career. Other statistics are an average of 4.5 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.5 steals for every game. Kobe Bryant is famous for his ability to create shots for himself and is an expert outside shooter who shares the single-game NBA record for three pointers made with twelve.

Apart from this Bryant is also a valuable defender having made the All-Defensive 1st or the 2nd team in seven of the last eight seasons. Kobe Bryant shot into national limelight in 1996 by becoming the first guard in league history to be drafted right out of high school. After three years of steady improvement Bryants fortunes changed for the better as, under Phil Jackson, he became the one of the frontline shooters of the league.

This was borne out by Kobe Bryants annual presence in the leagues All-Star, All-NBA and All-Defensive teams. The Los Angeles Lakers repeatedly became championships favorites under Bryant and Shaquille ONeal who formed a hugely successful center-guard combination. Their success gave the Lakers three consecutive NBA championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

After a series of conflicts and turmoil, both on the court and in personal life, Kobe Bryant found himself in the 2005-06 NBA season trying to live up to his earlier professional reputation. Despite personal differences with Jackson, he played well and even resolved his problem with former teammate Shaquille ONeal. The team managed a 45-37 win which was an eleven game improvement over the previous season and the entire team seemed to be playing in the same rhythm.

Kobe Bryant was doing exceedingly well in individual performances too and in a game against the Toronto Raptors, he scored 81 points taking his team to 122-104 victory. It was the second highest score in the history of NBA, second only to Wilt Chamberlains Legendary 100 point game in 1962. Kobe Bryants remarkable career has however been flawed by personal problems.

In 2003, Kobe Bryant was accused of sexually assaulting a woman but the charges were eventually dropped when she refused to testify. The two sides finally came to an out of court settlement, the details of which were never made public.

Bryants reputation further plummeted when acrimonious details of his rivalries with teammates like ONeil and Malone were publicized and he was criticized for his performances as well. In spite of returning to the best of his professional form, his future with Los Angeles Lakers remains uncertain and recently Kobe Bryant has expressed an interest in moving on with his life to a future beyond the Lakers. Kobe Bryant