Kobe Bryant

1978–2020 · NBA guard · 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers

Kobe Bean Bryant was born 23 August 1978 in Philadelphia and played his entire NBA career — 20 seasons, 1996 to 2016 — with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning five championships. After retiring he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Dear Basketball (2017). He died on 26 January 2020 in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. His self-styled “Mamba Mentality” made him one of the most quoted athletes alive — and, like every such figure, a magnet for lines nobody can source.

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“Everything negative — pressure, challenges — is all an opportunity for me to rise”

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