One Life.
Kobe Bryant
Basketball player
19782020
The Name People Shout When They Throw Paper
8 sourcesTranscriptRead while listening
The story in brief
Kobe Bryant was born in Philadelphia in 1978, the son of an NBA player whose career took the family to Italy when Kobe was six. Back in Philadelphia as a boy, he played a whole summer without scoring a single point. Ashamed, he thought about quitting basketball for soccer. Instead he became obsessed and studied everything about the game.
At seventeen he skipped college and joined the Los Angeles Lakers. In his first game he scored zero again. With Shaquille O’Neal he won three straight championships, though the two openly clashed. In 2003 he was charged with sexual assault. The case was dropped when the accuser declined to testify, and he apologised publicly and settled a lawsuit. In 2006 he scored 81 points, the most in an NBA game since 1962. After two more championships, he tore his Achilles tendon at thirty-four and still made both free throws.
He announced his retirement in a poem, “Dear Basketball”, and scored 60 points in his last game, at thirty-seven. The poem became a short film that won an Oscar in 2018. In 2020, on the way to his daughter Gianna’s game, their helicopter crashed in fog near Los Angeles. All nine on board died. He was forty-one. She was thirteen. The NBA named its All-Star MVP trophy after him.
In his own words
I would channel my failure as fuel to keep my competitive fire burning.
Maybe this is how my book ends. Maybe Father Time has defeated me… Then again maybe not!
As a person that was able to create stories that inspired their children and families to bond together. And for the children to dream.
Sources (8)
- NBC News and AP on his childhood in Italy, January 2020
- Kobe Bryant, “Zero”, The Players’ Tribune, 15 December 2014
- Basketball-Reference career record and box scores (3 November 1996, 22 January 2006, 13 April 2016), and NBA.com on the 81-point game
- CBS Los Angeles on the 2003 case, 2020
- NBC Sports and NBC Los Angeles on the Achilles game and his Facebook post, 13 April 2013
- Kobe Bryant, “Dear Basketball”, The Players’ Tribune, 29 November 2015, and Sports Illustrated on the Oscar, 5 March 2018
- CBS News, interview with Dana Jacobson, 9 November 2019
- NTSB news release on the crash, 9 February 2021, and Sports Illustrated on the All-Star MVP award, 16 February 2020
Updated October 5, 2026.
Transcript
"Kobe!" People began shouting it whenever they threw paper into a bin.
As a boy, Kobe Bryant played a whole summer without scoring a single point.
Then came five championships. And an Oscar.
Ashamed, he thought about quitting basketball for soccer.
Instead, he became obsessed and studied everything about the game. "I would channel my failure as fuel," he wrote.
At 17, America's top high-school player skipped college for the NBA.
In his first game for the Lakers, he scored zero. Again.
With the season on the line, he took the last shots and missed the rim entirely, four times.
He said he went straight to a gym and shot until sunrise.
Three years later, beside the giant Shaquille O'Neal, he won three championships in a row, though the two openly clashed.
Then he was charged with sexual assault. The case was dropped when the accuser declined to testify; he apologised publicly and settled a lawsuit.
One night, his team down by 18, he scored 81: the most in an NBA game since 1962.
After two more championships, at 34 he tore the tendon above his heel, and still made both free throws before walking off.
At 37, in his last game, he scored 60, outscoring the whole other team in the final quarter.
His goodbye poem became a short film, with music by the composer of Star Wars. It won an Oscar.
When fans said he needed a son to carry on his legacy, his daughter Gianna said: "I got this."
On the way to her game, their helicopter crashed in fog near Los Angeles.
All nine on board died. He was 41. She was 13.
"I'll always be that kid with the rolled-up socks, garbage can in the corner."
