In a 2008 video promoting Nike's Hyperdunk sneakers, Bryant appears to leap over a speeding Aston Martin. The stunt was thought-about to be fake, and the Los Angeles Times said an actual stunt would most likely be a violation of Bryant's Lakers contract. On February 9, 2009, Bryant was featured on the quilt of ESPN The Magazine.

On April 12, Bryant suffered a torn Achilles tendon in opposition to the Golden State Warriors, ending his season. Lakers general supervisor Mitch Kupchak had spoken to Bryant about his intensive taking part in time 10 days earlier, however Bryant insisted the minutes needed to continue given the Lakers' playoff push. Bryant had surgery on April thirteen to restore the tear, and it was estimated he would miss six to nine months. He ended the season with customary averages of 27.3 factors, 5.6 rebounds, and 6 assists per recreation on forty six.3% taking pictures.

In his second sport again after resting, he had 23 factors, eleven assists, and eleven rebounds in a 111–103 win over Denver, and have become just the third player in league history to report multiple triple-doubles in a season at age 36 or older. On January 21, 2015, Bryant suffered a rotator cuff tear in his right shoulder while driving baseline for a two-handed dunk in opposition to the New Orleans Pelicans. Though he is right-handed, he returned to play in the sport and ran the offense while shooting, dribbling, and passing almost completely together with his left hand.

It’s one other reminder that Bryant, who died at forty one, was actually simply starting the off-court chapter of his life. The post-NBA career was already displaying great promise—Bryant gained an Oscar in 2018 for Best Animated Short Film, for example—and the video displays his smarts and curiosity. Bryant was already coaching Gianna at the youth level—they were on their method to a sport that tragic day on January 26, 2020. If he ever needed to teach the game to others, at any stage, he may have made a wonderful coach.

Kobe Bryant walks off the court with his wife, Vanessa, and daughter Natalia after scoring a career-high eighty one factors in a Lakers win over the Toronto Raptors at Staples Center on Jan. 22, 2006. Despite Jason Kidd’s hand in his face, Kobe Bryant places up the profitable shot in the Lakers’ victory over the Phoenix Suns in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals at Staples Arena. Kobe Bryant drives past Chris Webber in Game four of the primary spherical of the 2000 Western Conference playoffs at Arco Arena in Sacramento. The Kings gained, , but the Lakers went on to win the series in 5 video games and advanced to face the Phoenix Suns in the subsequent round. Kobe Bryant is dejected after losing the ball late within the second half of Game three of the 1999 Western Conference semifinals towards the San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs on the Forum. The Lakers lost, , giving the Spurs a 3-0 advantage within the sequence.

In 2012, Bryant was honored as one of many 35 Greatest McDonald's All-Americans for his high-school play in addition to his later accomplishments. Kobe Bryant's life was minimize brief in a helicopter accident in Calabasas, California, on Jan. 26, 2020. The legendary basketball player died alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and 7 other individuals on board, including the pilot. The group was touring to a basketball game on the Mamba Sports Academy. None of that could cease the 6-foot-6 shooting guard from changing into one of many greatest in the historical past of the game, equally harmful driving to the basket or taking pictures from outside. None of it may dull the sense of shock that came to visit Los Angeles, a metropolis that grew to love him, when he died Sunday in a helicopter crash that also took the lives of his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and 7 others.

For one, I couldn’t quite consider that Bryant was doing this. Here he was, in his absolute prime—he was coming off an MVP season and about to win the first of one other repeat pair of NBA titles—and he was all in. I felt less nervous than stuck in an excitable fog, understanding that we had one thing good. Kobe Bryant’s free-throw-shooting method would be simply as relevant in 2023, and past, as it might be in 2009. Parents may watch the video with their children, and their children would watch with their kids, and so on. Bryant is the second-highest-paid NBA player ever, with $323 million in profession wage.

On December 18, in a 101–100 win over the Charlotte Bobcats, Bryant scored 30+ factors in his seventh consecutive game, the longest streak ever by an NBA participant after turning 34 years old; it was the fourth-longest such streak in his career. His streak can be snapped at 10 on December 28 in a 104–87 win over the Portland Trail Blazers, when he scored 27 factors, sitting out the whole fourth quarter. In a transfer to enhance the team's protection, D'Antoni started having Bryant guard the opponent's greatest perimeter participant; Bryant was the primary defender on the Cavaliers' Kyrie Irving, who was held to fifteen points.