Kobe Bean Bryant an honest player who was the son of former NBA player Joe “Jellybean” Bryant. Joe was good but in no way a superstar. He had a short seven-year NBA career and played for the Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, San Diego Clippers, and Houston Rockets. He named Kobe as such because of his fondness of Japanese Kobe beef.
Kobe was a highschool phenom at Lower Merion highschool . He was one of the few freshmen in his school’s history to start for the men’s basketball squad. Though Bryant reinvigorated the team, they stumbled to a 4-20 record. However, subsequent three seasons were phenomenal and therefore the Aces marched to a sterling 77-13 record. Kobe capped off a stellar high school career with averages of 30.8 points, 12 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 4.0 steals, and 3.8 blocks.
A lot of colleges wanted to recruit Kobe but he elected to travel straight to the NBA. He was selected as the 13th pick for the Charlotte Hornets in the 1996 draft. The team previously made a deal with the Los Angeles Lakers for center Vlade Divac and they offered their pick. One of the reasons the Lakers picked up Kobe is because he impressed them with his workout with Lakers legend Michael Cooper. Michael was the Lakers’ defensive stopper during the Magic Johnson Showtime era, yet Kobe picked apart his defense like it was nothing.
While Kobe was obviously talented, he was not exactly the best teammate. He was a loner who sat on his own on the team bus and did not fraternize with his teammates. Even though he was a rookie and he had veterans such as Robert Horry on the team, he demanded that the ball be passed to him. Veterans with championship experience such as Horry took offense to this brash attitude as they felt disrespected.