Along with LeBron James, he was one of many first two players to publicly named to the 2006–2008 U.S. preliminary roster in 2006 by Jerry Colangelo. However, he was as quickly as again sidelined after knee surgical procedure and didn't take part in the 2006 FIBA World Championship. The 1998–99 season marked Bryant's emergence as a premier guard in the league. With beginning guards Van Exel and Jones traded, Bryant began every sport for the lockout-shortened 50-game season. During the season, Bryant signed a 6-year contract extension value $70 million. This saved him with the Lakers until the tip of the 2003–04 season.

On January 26, 2020, a helicopter carrying former pro basketball player Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others crashes in Calabasas, California, roughly 30 miles north of Los Angeles; everybody on board dies. Bryant’s dying despatched shockwaves through the American sporting world. Bryant was an avid helicopter commuter who began utilizing this novel transport methodology throughout his Los Angeles Lakers days. Unfortunately, this time one thing went badly mistaken. According to eyewitnesses, the helicopter's engine had began "sputtering" before going down. All five folks on board, together with Bryant himself and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, perished in the fiery crash.

In an annual survey of NBA basic managers, he was selected in 2012 for the 10th consecutive season because the player they most wanted taking the shot with the sport on the line. Bryant enjoys being the villain, and revels in being booed and silencing the crowd along with his play. Throughout his profession, he has been disparaged for being a selfish high-volume shooter; he has missed extra area goal makes an attempt in his profession than any other participant in NBA history. On June 23, 2008, he was named to the USA Men's Senior National Team for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Bryant declined to play within the 2000 Olympics as he was getting married within the off-season. Bryant was initially selected for the FIBA Americas Championship in 2003, but withdrew after present process arthroscopic shoulder and knee surgeries.

In that same month, Bryant also became the primary player since 1964 to score forty five factors or extra in 4 consecutive video games, becoming a member of Chamberlain and Baylor as the one gamers to take action. For the month of January, Bryant averaged forty three.four factors per sport, the eighth highest single month scoring average in NBA historical past and highest for any participant aside from Chamberlain. By the top of the 2005–06 season, Bryant set Lakers single-season franchise data for many 40-point video games and most points scored . He gained the league's scoring title for the first time by averaging 35.4 points per sport, changing into just the fifth participant in league history to average a minimal of 35 in a season.

"Kobe Bryant's 'airball recreation' in 1997 was as defining moment in his career". "Kobe Bryant's work with youngsters brings joy, although sometimes it's fleeting". At the time of his death, he was working with Brazilian author Paulo Coelho on a children's book aimed at inspiring underprivileged children.

January 26, 2023, is the third anniversary of the demise of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and 7 others who perished in a helicopter crash in California. NBA Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant was introduced Thursday as the duvet athlete for NBA 2K24. It's the fourth time Bryant might be on the cover of NBA 2K.

Among his philanthropic endeavors, the basketball nice partnered with the non-profit After-School All-Stars as part of the Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation. He additionally ran an annual summer time camp called the Kobe Basketball Academy. In July 2003, Bryant was charged with one depend of sexual assault on a 19-year-old female lodge worker in Colorado.

In that first-person article, Bryant talked about how he 'obsessively hunted' Allen Iverson after AI frustrated him after an everyday season game in Philadelphia. The life they led — part fairy story and half prolonged family drama — would explode in the summer 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 might also have set him aside from different gamers who grew up underneath very completely different conditions. He was known to keep to himself on the team bus, listening to music or speaking on the telephone. Some teammates considered him as distant and even aloof.