As The NBA Season is coming down to the wire, there is one player that showed so much support to the NBA, NBA fans and the sport of basketball. Kobe Bryant was one of the greatest basketball players in NBA History both on and off the court. Sadly, he announced at the beginning of The 2015-2016 season that he will be retiring at the end of the season. It is disappointing to see him go but the great thing is we can see how much he meant to The NBA and all the great memories that he's made with them.
Kobe Bryant was born on August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia. As a child he loved one thing, and that was the game of basketball. He started playing when he was three years old and did very well at it. When he was six his family moved to Italy so his father Joe Bryant, who was also an NBA player and played for multiple teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers, could play abroad. This lasted for seven years, until he officially retired from The NBA in 1991, when Kobe was about 13 years old.
Bryant attended Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, PA and started on The Varsity Basketball Team his freshman year, the first freshman to start on their Varsity Team in decades. For Lower Merion he averaged about 31 points per game, 10 rebounds, and five assists, naming him Pennsylvania's player of the year. In 1996, at the end of his senior year, Lower Merion had retired his number, #33, and he had scored a Lower Merion points record of 2,883 points, which is absolutely amazing for a talented high school player. It seems that a high school player so talented would go so far in basketball, and that is exactly what happened to Kobe Bryant once he graduated from Lower Merion.
After High School graduation, Kobe was drafted 13th by The Charlotte Hornets. Many people thought that wouldn't be the best team for him, since they were not a terrific team, just average. After playing in a summer sports league for a year, he was picked up by The Los Angeles Lakers, where he would play his entire career.
Throughout his approximate 20 year career, Kobe Bryant has had good, bad, and ugly days. He set so many NBA records and played so hard each and every game. He would have bad times on the court, getting criticized for some things, and sometimes not playing his best. He is still the runner-up for most points scored in a game with 81 in 2006, behind Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 100.It's sad that in less than two weeks we will no longer see Kobe Bryant in the NBA, but we will never forget who he is, his support, and all the good times he had playing in the NBA.
