“Shaq Diesel” and the crew watched footage of the iconic play before sharing thoughts on the Los Angeles Lakers’ comeback win over the Portland Trailblazers that yr. Shaquille O’Neal reminisced on his days playing with Kobe Bryant during Game 2 of the 2023 NBA Finals. Intraday Data offered by FACTSET and subject to terms of use. Historical and present end-of-day knowledge offered by FACTSET. Real-time last sale data for U.S. inventory quotes mirror trades reported via Nasdaq only. Intraday data delayed a minimal of quarter-hour or per trade requirements.

Bryant was already coaching Gianna at the youth level—they were on their approach to a game that tragic day on January 26, 2020. If he ever wished to teach the sport to others, at any stage, he could have made a wonderful coach. I vividly bear in mind Kobe sitting around eating french fries and talking basketball as a little kid. When we'd be at the shootaround before the game, Kobe could be trying to warm up with us. I’m not talking like, you realize, shagging rebounds, like a ball boy or whatever.

After finishing 50–32 in the regular season, the Lakers floundered within the playoffs and misplaced within the Western Conference semi-finals in six games to the eventual NBA champions San Antonio Spurs. The son of former NBA participant Joe Bryant, he was born in Philadelphia and partly raised in Italy. As a rookie, Bryant earned a reputation as a high-flyer by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest, and was named an All-Star by his second season. In the 1996 Western Conference Semifinals with the game on the line, Bryant shot 4 airballs to the chagrin of his teammates and Laker followers. He later recounted in his "Muse" documentary that when he got back to Los Angeles, he went to a close-by highschool, and spent the complete day taking pictures within the fitness center. It was a defining moment that changed the trajectory of his career with him popping out stronger the following season.

Bryant began playing basketball when he was three, and the Lakers had been his favourite team when he was growing up. When Bryant was six, his father retired from the NBA and moved his family to Rieti in Italy to proceed enjoying skilled basketball. After two years, they moved first to Reggio Calabria, then to Pistoia and Reggio Emilia.

The Lakers are on the highway, and after back-to-back video games in Washington and Brooklyn, Mike D'Antoni has nothing scheduled for the team in suburban Detroit. The Lakers have returned from a road journey, and the gamers, coaches, staffers and broadcast crew fan out from the aircraft to their automobiles for separate drives home. Bill Macdonald, the Lakers' TV voice, lives in Newport Coast in South Orange County, like Bryant. On a typical drive residence from LAX, Macdonald will see Bryant's automotive blaze past him—invariably, unapologetically. The Lakers have simply performed a Sunday afternoon game in Houston. Chris Douglas-Roberts of the Charlotte Bobcats has lost a 2014 first-round playoff game to the Miami Heat.

He was essentially the most savage competitor in sports activities at least since Michael Jordan retired. Nike sponsored her, same as him, which is how each arrived in the same place, on the same set. Eventually, she mustered the braveness to strategy him, this basketball deity, beloved throughout the world. She asked for a photograph, starstruck; her favorite image, even now. And but, while her hero understood what he meant to different individuals, he didn’t act like he knew that his presence stuffed hearts and weakened knees.

Kobe Bryant was a 20-year Los Angeles Lakers participant who received 5 NBA championships, two Olympic gold medals, and 18 NBA All-Star selections during his time there. He turned a task mannequin for aspiring athletes around the world because of his unwavering work ethic and his endless quest for greatness. Amanda Gordon and her husband, Philip, mourn the demise of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant close to the positioning of a helicopter crash Calabasas that claimed the lives of the Lakers legend, his daughter, Gianna, and 7 others Sunday. Fans gather outdoors Staples Center in Los Angeles to mourn the demise of Kobe Bryant after information unfold that Bryant and his daughter Gianna were among the 9 killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas. A couple pay their respects at a memorial at house plate in honor of Orange Coast College head baseball coach John Altobelli, who perished with spouse Keri, and daughter, Alyssa, in Sunday’s helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant. Magic Johnson referred to as him “a totally different cat,” and he was.

In that first-person article, Bryant talked about how he 'obsessively hunted' Allen Iverson after AI frustrated him after a daily season game in Philadelphia. The life they led — part fairy story and half extended family drama — would explode in the summertime of 2003 when Bryant, visiting Colorado to rehab from a knee surgical procedure, was accused of raping a 19-year-old hotel employee. Bryant’s curious background may additionally have set him other than different players who grew up under very totally different circumstances. He was identified to maintain to himself on the team bus, listening to music or talking on the phone. Some teammates considered him as distant and even aloof.