Recently, the whole world was deeply saddened when it learned that basketball legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Maria Bryant were two of the nine victims who died in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles. It is known that at that time, he and his daughter were on their way to Gianna’s basketball practice at Bryant’s Mamba Academy.
Kobe Bryant is one of the best players with outstanding achievements associated with the NBA. Starting his career at the age of 18, he won 5 NBA championships in 20 years as a professional player for the Los Angeles Lakers and was named NBA MVP in 2008 with a total of 18 finals appearances. Besides, Bryant also took home the gold award at the 2018 Oscars for the Best Animated Short Film category with Dear Basketball .
Despite all the awards and achievements, there are some things about Bryant that few people know. Let’s explore with Saostar 7 interesting facts about All-Star, who will definitely pass away as one of the talented legends that the world admires and remembers forever.
Fluent in Italian
Bryant spent part of his childhood in Italy and he began learning Italian at the age of six in school. To this day, the former NBA player still speaks the language fluently and uses it to communicate with some of his teammates on the court.
In Italian schools, more people are interested in soccer than basketball during recess. So, Bryant started picking up the language quite quickly in an effort to play with other friends and has been fluent in Italian ever since.
Bryant was once named after a steak
Bryant’s name isn’t exactly a common one, and there’s a pretty funny story behind it. Before he was born, Bryant’s parents, Joe and Pamela, saw Kobe beef on a restaurant menu and liked the name so much that they wanted to use it for their son.
Bryant’s parents
Not many people choose to name their daughter after a piece of meat or dish. And perhaps it was Bryant’s fame after joining the NBA that made the name Kobe Bryant as famous as it is today.
Bryant took Brandy to his high school Prom
Most of us have brought our girlfriend or a female friend to our high school prom. And Bryant decided to bring a music star – R B singer Brandy Norwood to the gala. Surely in the past, this made him famous in the eyes of his friends before even succeeding in basketball.
Considered taking out of high school
Bryant made headlines when he was drafted out of Lower Merion High School with the No. 13 overall pick in 1996, and it wasn’t just because of his age. The lifelong member of the Lakers was the first drafted out of high school, an impressive milestone and clearly the right decision.
How Kobe met his wife Vanessa
The two actually met back in 1999, when Vanessa was just a 17-year-old student in high school. At the time, she was serving as a background dancer in a music video. But what was Bryant doing there?
Besides checking out the photo shoot for The Eastsidaz, Bryant was in the studio recording his own rap that never actually came out. Perhaps it would have been better if his skills with the mic never caught on.
Why did Kobe wear number 8?
Bryant wore number 33 for most of his high school career, so why did he switch to number 8 when he reached the NBA? There are two reasons, first, he wore the number when he grew up and played in Italy. And secondly, that’s also the sum of the numbers he wore at the Adidas ABCD camp: 1,4 and 3.
Middle name: Bean
Last but not least interesting, Bryant’s middle name is not the name printed on his birth certificate. His parents chose the middle name Bean for Bryant, most likely due to his father’s childhood nickname “Jellybean”. That’s a pretty unique nomenclature for someone who does anything out of the ordinary, so it seems like this middle name is a great fit for Bean as well.