Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a National Basketball Association player for the Los Angeles Lakers; he is also the son of former NBA player Joe "Jellybean" Bryant.

Early Life
Bryant spent much of his childhood in Italy, where his father played professional basketball. Consequently, he speaks fluent Italian. Bryant entered the NBA at the age of eighteen after a spectacular high school career in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion. He was originally selected 13th by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1996 NBA Draft, but they traded him on July 11, 1996 to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Vlade Divac. Though young and somewhat introverted, Bryant's immense talent made an immediate impression with his teammates on the practice court.

He married Vanessa Laine on April 18, 2001 in Dana Point, California and their daughter Natalia Diamante was born on January 19, 2003. His parents initially disapproved of the marriage, but have since reconciled with Bryant.

NBA Career
Bryant's career trajectory as an NBA player out of high school has been exceptional. By the age of 24, Bryant had already won many individual accolades, from inclusion in the All-NBA teams and a seven time selection as a NBA All-Star. Bryant, along with former teammate Shaquille O'Neal, helped lead the Lakers as perennial championship contenders, resulting in three consecutive NBA championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002. The Lakers also ventured to the 2004 Finals against the Detroit Pistons, but lost the series four games to one. Following the loss to the Pistons, Bryant opted out of his contract to test the free agent market. After flirting with the idea of joining several teams, including the Lakers' cross-town rivals the Los Angeles Clippers, he signed a new seven-year deal with the Lakers worth over $136 million on July 15, 2004.

Bryant's youth, style, good looks, and accomplishments on the basketball court made him one of the most popular and marketable players in recent years and became a spokesperson for companies such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and Nutella. He has also had exclusive shoe deals with Adidas and, more recently, Nike.

Much of Kobe Bryant's meteoric rise to NBA super stardom is attributed to his consummate work ethic. In each of his years in the league, Kobe showed improvement in all areas of his game, from shooting to strength to defense. He is also on-court a very composed, competitive player with impressive concentration, able to deliver the toughest and clutch shots at the times most needed. It is these attributes that have made him a premier player in the NBA.

Controversy and Trial
Kobe Bryant is, however, open to a lot of criticism spawning from what critics consider, a collection of personality flaws. Detractors have branded Kobe as a selfish, egotistic player who pads his own achievements at the expense of his team. These criticisms came under great discussion following sexual assault allegations stemming from his June 2003 encounter with Katelyn Faber in a Vail, Colorado hotel room. Kobe's formerly squeaky-clean image consequently took a big hit.

Although these charges were eventually dropped in the fall of 2004 (a civil suit followed but has since been settled as well), Kobe's tarnished image continued to swan dive. Furthering Kobe's blemished reputation was the public rift through the Laker center core of O'Neal, coach Phil Jackson, and him. In well-documented episodes throughout their careers together on the Lakers, mainly over leadership of the team, Shaq and Kobe have feuded in dramatic fashion. The 2000-era Lakers were built around the dominant center in O'Neal but Kobe seemed to tire of his formal role as "second fiddle" on the team. The two [Bryant and O'Neal] would often launch jarring verbal attacks at each other, beginning with Shaq's allegations of Kobe as a ball hog and Bryant's maligning of O'Neal as "fat." While both party's evaluations of each other were not far removed from the truth, their much-publicized beef quickly became must-see news items, tantamount to a hypnotizing soap opera, in the sports world.

Bryant's prodigious talent, coupled with his immense ego, has also led him to clash with coach Jackson. While offensively efficient in Phil's "triangle offense," Kobe had a personal distaste for Jackson's brand of ball playing and subsequently called it "boring." Often in games, Bryant would disregard the set offense completely to expand on his own set of basketball moves, incensing the normally calm Jackson. Kobe managed to test Phil's patience enough to make the "Zen Master" demand that the shooting guard be traded, although Laker management rejected the request. When Phil's coaching contract ran out following the 2003-04 season and the Lakers failed to produce a championship despite sporting, in addition to Shaq and Kobe, hall-of-fame caliber players in Karl Malone and Gary Payton, Jackson was not invited back to coach the team. Many fans attributed Jackson's departure directly to Bryant, whom Laker owner Dr. Jerry Buss championed.

For these reasons, many basketball fans have blamed Bryant for the break-up of the Lakers' dynasty after the 2004 Finals loss to the Pistons. Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat, resulting in a complete overhaul of the Laker roster, with Kobe Bryant as its centerpiece. (It should be noted, however, that Coach Rudy Tomjanovich resigned as Lakers Coach midway through the season, leaving the future of the Lakers in career assistant coach Frank Hamblen's hands.) Bryant's first chance at the helm of a team would be a very rocky one, however. With his reputation already badly damaged from the proceedings in Colorado, Kobe was closely scrutinized and consequently highly criticized in the 2004-05 NBA season. First came a pot-shot from Phil Jackson, who published The Last Season: A Team in Search of its Soul a book detailing the sordid events of the Lakers' tumultuous 2003–04 season. In it, Jackson outlined numerous criticisms of Bryant, calling him "uncoachable," along with other unsavory adjectives.

The feud between Kobe and O'Neal also extended beyond the West Coast. Motivated to win a ring without Kobe, O'Neal slimmed down after his arrival in Miami and proceeded to poke at Kobe's chops by refusing to call his former teammate by name, referring to Bryant only as "him" or "that guy." Shaquille was also visibly upset when transcripts of Kobe's police interrogations became public; Bryant had told investigators that O'Neal had paid large sums of money to numerous women when the former Laker center was faced with similar situations as Bryant's in the past. O'Neal retorted by stating, "I'm not the one buying love," referring to the $4 million dollar ring Kobe bought for his wife as a gift of contrition after the rape charges surfaced. On the court, the two barely acknowledged each other, even in nationally broadcast games. Their feud culminated in marquee regular season match-ups dubbed "Kobe VS. Shaq." Both times, the Heat came out on top (helped by the emergence of second-year superstar Dwyane Wade), and was overall the better team in the regular season, owning the best record in the Eastern Conference (59-23) and sweeping playoff opponents before losing in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Lakers, on the other hand, stumbled to a 34-48 record, sending themselves out of the playoffs and into the NBA Draft Lottery for only the second time in 11 years. The conflict between O'Neal and Bryant will undoubtedly continue into the future, as followers of basketball wait in anticipation to see which player will win a championship first.

Future
Kobe has a massive bout of rebuilding to undertake in both his personal and basketball life. In the middle of the 04-05 season, Bryant publicly admitted that leading a team was much harder than he had expected. His personal achievements regressed, as he failed to make All-NBA First Team and Defensive Team for the first time in 3 and 2 years, respectively. He also had trouble with some of his teammates, although less widely publicized than those with O'Neal. On the court, he had trouble finding a good rhythm and at many times appeared frustrated on the floor during many of the Lakers' losing moments.

Some believe, however, that Kobe has learned much from his first season of adversity and is ready to tackle the next season with a new sense of zeal. He has since reunited with Phil Jackson after a one-year hiatus and has given a pledge to bringing back a winning season. Personal matters for Kobe have also looked up a bit. For the first time in two years, his image is once again in commercial endorsements. Nike decided to publish print ads of him in a July 2005 issue of Sports Illustrated.