Kobe Bryant was a dominant basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers, winning five NBA championships. The shooting guard joined the Lakers straight out of high school and immediately became a star, eventually teaming up with center Shaquille O’Neal to form an NBA powerhouse. Bryant racked up many career milestones, including earning the nickname The Black Mamba for his dominance on the court and off it.
Despite an occasionally turbulent personal life, Bryant is remembered as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He was married to Vanessa Lakers, the mother of his two children, and also ran a summer camp for kids called the Kobe Bryant Academy. Among his philanthropic efforts, the athlete partnered with the non-profit After-School All-Stars and helped launch an annual basketball tournament in Los Angeles.
In retirement, Bryant continued to work hard on the basketball court and remained active in the sports community. He was a member of the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic teams, which won gold medals, and in 2015 he wrote the poem Dear Basketball, which was later turned into an Academy Award-winning animated short film featuring his narration.
In January 2020, the retired superstar was killed along with eight other people in a helicopter crash that took place as he and his daughter were traveling to a girls basketball game. Kobe Bryant was 53 years old at the time of his death. This auction item is a limited edition, hand-numbered bobblehead of Kobe Bryant of the LA Lakers. It stands approximately 8″ tall.