Kobe Bean Bryant

Kobe Bryant was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the youngest of three children and the only son of former Philadelphia 76ers player and former Los Angeles Sparks head coach Joe "Jellybean" Bryant and Pamela Cox Bryant. He is also the maternal nephew of John "Chubby" Cox. His parents named him after the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant menu. When Bryant was six, his father left the NBA and moved his family to Italy to begin playing professional basketball. Bryant became accustomed to his new lifestyle and learned to speak Italian and Spanish fluently. During summers, Bryant would come back to the United States to play in a basketball summer league. He started playing basketball when he was 3 years old, and at an early age he learned to play soccer; his favorite team was AC Milan. He has said the if he had stayed in Italy, he would have tried to become a professional soccer player; Bryant is a big fan of former FC Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard and their former player Ronaldinho. Upon Joe Bryant's retirement from playing basketball in 1991, the Bryant family moved back to the United States.

Bryant earned national recognition during a spectacular high school career at Lower Merion High School located in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion. His father coached him his sophomore year of high school. At Adidas ABCD camp, Bryant earned the 1995 senior MVP award, while playing alongside future NBA teammate Lamar Odom. While in high school, then 76ers coach John Lucas invited Bryant to work out and scrimmage with the team, when he played one on one with Jerry Stackhouse. In his senior year of high school, Bryant led the Aces to their first state championship in 53 years. During the run, he average 30.8 points, 12 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 4.0 steals, and 3.8 blocked shots in leading the Aces to a 31-3 record. He ended his career as Southeastern Pennsylvania's all time leading scorer 2,883 points, surpassing both Wilt Chamberlain and Lionel Simmons. Bryant received several awards for his performance his senior year including being named Naismith High School Player of the Year, Gatorade Men's National Basketball Player of the Year, a McDonald's All-American, and a USA Today All-USA first team players. Bryant's varsity coach, Greg Downer, commented that Bryant was "a complete player who dominates". In 1996, Bryant took R&B singer Brandy Norwood to his senior prom, however, the 17 year old Bryant made the decision to go directly into the NBA. Bryant's news was met with a lot of publicity at a time when prep to pro NBA players was not very common. Bryant has stated that he decided to go to college after high school, he would have attended Duke University.

Marvericks vs Lakers 101-96

Dirk Nowitzki scored 31 points, Jason Terry added 30 and the short handed Dallas Mavericks won thier fifth straight game, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 101-96 tonight. Dallas Caron Butler, a key part of a seven player trade with Washington on February 13, missed the game because of a negative reaction he had to medication. Witout Butler, Nowitzki and Terry picked up the slack by scoring 22 of the Mavericks final 23 points

Kobe Bryant scored 20 points and moved into 13th place on the career scoring list. Bryant, who passed Reggie Miller, had 25,298 points. After hitting the game winning 3 pointer with 4.3 seconds left to beach Memphis on Tuesday night, Bryant missed a 3 pointer that could have tied it with 25 seconds left.

Lamar Odom led Los Angeles with 21 points, Ron Artest had 13 and Derek Fisher finished with 12. Jason Kidd had 14 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds for the Mavericks, who improved to 5-1 since the trade with the Wizards. Brendan Haywood chipped in 11 points, nine rebounds and five blocks. Neither team led by more than nine in a game went back and forth throughout. There were 24 lead changes and eight ties. Terry hit a 3 pointer that made it 90-84. After Bryant scored to make it 90-86, Nowitzki answered with a 17 footer that stretched the lead back to six with 3:18 remaining. Haywood hit a free throw, the only point over the final 10:46 not scored by Nowitzki and Terry, to make it 93-86. Nowitzki stripped the ball from Andrew Bynum, starting a fast break that ended with Terry's layup and pushed Dallas lead to 95-86 with 2:20 left.

Los Angeles went on a 8-2 run to trim its deficit to three. Odom hit a 3 pointer and Bryant drove for a layup to make it 97-94 with 57.9 seconds left. Shawn Marion missed a short jumper, setting up the Lakers for what appeared to be another late comeback after they rallied to beat Memphis one night earlier. Bryant's 25 footer went long, and Terry and Nowitzki combined to make four free throws to seal the victory.

The Mavericks were without one of those acquisitions when the team announced just before the tip that Butler wasn't going to play.
Stevenson started in Butler's place and guarded Bryant for most of the first quarter. Bryant struggled early, missing his first five shots.
Bryant had a couple of baskets to cap a 10-0 run late in the second quarter. He hit an off-balance 13-footer, his first points of the game, and followed with another basket to give the Lakers a 48-39 lead with 2:58 left in the first half.
Dallas closed with a 10-2 surge before halftime. Terry, who had 18 points in the first half, hit three free throws, to bring the Mavericks within 50-49. The Mavericks grabbed the lead by scoring the first six points of the third quarter. Kidd closed the quarter with a 29-footer from beyond the arc just before the buzzer sounded, putting Dallas up 74-72.

Rapper Jay-Z and wife Beyonce had courtside seats for the game. Jay-Z performed in Dallas at the American Airlines Center on Tuesday night. The Lakers have won eight out of their past 11 over the Mavericks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0IXDU1NqgE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pUfASvehLs

2007-Present

2007-2008

After reacquiring Derek Fisher, the Lakers started the 2007-08 season fairly well, supported by the flourishing Andrew Bynum. However, Bynum's season ended to injury in January, leading the Lakers to trade Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron Mckie, the draft right to Marc Gasol, and two first round draft picks to the Memphis Grizzlies for Pau Gasol and a second round draft choice. After the trade, the Lakers went on to clinch the first seed in the Western Conference with a 57-35 record. Kobe Bryant was awarded the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, becoming the first Los Angeles Lakers player to have won the award since Shaquille O'Neal won the award in 2000. The Lakers went to the playoffs and defeated the Denver Nuggets in four games, the Utah Jazz in six games, and the defending champion San Antonio Spurs in five games. They entered the NBA Finals for the first time in four years, facing their long time rivals, the Boston Celtics, whom they had not played in the Finals in 21 years. The Lakers eventually lost the series in six games.

2008-09

In the 2008-09 season, the Lakers returned to championship form. Los Angeles finished with a 65-17 record, easily winning the Pacific Division and clinching first place in the Western Conference. After eliminating the Utah Jazz 4-1, they needed 7 games to fight off the Houston Rockets and six to defeat the Denver Nuggets, to win the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers quest for another title was successfully completed, as they defeated the Orlando Magic in the 2009 NBA Finals in five games, and won their 15th title, their first in seven years. Kobe Bryant was named the NBA Finals MVP for the first time in his career. On January 13, 1010, the Lakers became the first team in NBA history to win 3,000 regular season games, in a 100-95 win against the Dallas Mavericks.

TONIGHT!!!

Los Angeles Lakers (42-14) at Memphis Grizzlies (28-27), 8pm

The Los Angeles Lakers hope to have Kobe Bryant back in the lineup tonight when the club kicks off a brief two game road trip in Memphis. The Lakers superstar had missed the previous five games, including last Thursday's heartbreaking 87-86 loss to Boston in LA. Ray Allen scored a game high 24 points in that one. Bryant continues to struggle with a sprained left ankle as an injury to the tendon outside the lower left leg. The Lakers dropped their first game in five tries without the star guard against the Celtics, failing to take care of a situation Bryant usually trives in. Veteran Derek Fisher was called on to fired the last shot to win it, a jumer under pressure that didn't even draw iron from the high right elbow as time expired.

Pau Gasol scored 22 points with seven rebounds, Ron Artest added 15 points and eight rebounds for the Lakers Andrew Bynum totaled 14 points and nice rebounds, and Lamar odom compiled 13 points and 14 rebounds. LA's extended four day break figures to help Bryant, who is now just 34 points behind Reggie Miller (25,279) for 13th on the all-time NBA scoring list.

The Grizzlies, meanwhile are coming off a win over hapless New Jersey on Sunday. Rudy Gay poured in 29 points and grabbed eight rebounds in that one as Memphis rallied in the second half to defeat the Nets, 104-94.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_TpHWQO4QE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_7RiXZckX4

Lakers seasons throughout the years

1999-2004

Prior to the 1999-2000 season, the Lakers hired former Bulls coach Phil Jackson as head coach and resigned veterans Brain Shaw, John Salley, Ron Harper, and A.C. Green, who was with the Lakers during the "Showtime" era. The team also moved to a new arena, the Staples Center.

1999-2000
At the start of the 1999-2000 season, the team won 31 of their first 36 games. They won 67 games, the most games since they won 65 in the 1986-87 season. The team eliminated the Sacramento Kings and the Phonenix Suns in the first two rounds of the playoffs. After taking a three games to one lead in the Western Conference Finals, the Trail Blazers came back to force a game seven. The team was down by 15 points but went on 19-4 run to tie the game. The Lakers won 89-84 and went to the NBA Finals. The team defeated Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers four games to two in the 2000 NBA Finals to win their first title since 1988.

2000-01
The following season, the team won 11 fewer regular season games. The team, however, swept the first three rounds of the playoffs, beating the Trail Blazers in three and the Kings and Spurs in four. The team met Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2001 NBA Finals; the Sixers took game one in overtime. The team came back, taking four in a row to clinch their second straight title. The team had a 15-1 record in the postseason, the best in NBA history.


REBUILDING: 2004-07

2004-2005
During the 2004 offseaon, the team entered the rebuilding phase when O'Neal was traded to the Mami Heat for Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Bulter and a first-round draft pick. The team also traded Rick Fox and Gary Payton to the Boston Celtics, for Chris Mihm, Marcus Banks, and Chucky Atkins. Derek Fisher, frustrated with losing playing time, out of his contract and signed with the Warriors. As Phil Jackson was not brought back to coach the team for the 2004-05 season, the team hired Rudy Tomjanovich. Almost only Kobe Bryant remained on the team; after key injuries to Bryant and Odom finished with a 34-48 record in 2005, missing the playoffs for the fifth time in their franchise history. Since the team failed to make the playoffs, they were in the 2005 Draft Lottery, their first since 1994.

2005-06

With the tenth overall pick, the Lakers selected Andrew Bynu, a center from St. Joseph High School in Metuchen, New Jersey. The team also traded Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins to the Washington Wizards for Kwame Brown and Laron Profit. Jackson returned to coach the team after Rudy Tomjanovich resigned midway through the previous season. On January 22, 2006, Kobe Bryant scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second highest total in NBA history. Ending the season with a 45-37 record, the team made the playoffs for the first time since 2004. After taking a three games to one lead in the first round, the Phoneix Suns came back to take the series in seven games.

2006-07

In the following season, they won 26 of thier first 39 games. For the rest of the season, they lost 27 of their last 43 games, including a seven game losing streak. The team was eliminated in the first round by teh Phoneix Suns again, four games to one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNlq1jXzSw8

The Beginnings

The Lakers franchise was founded in 1946 in Detroit, Michigan before moving to Minneapolis, where the team got its official title from the state's nickname, "Land of 10,000 Lakes." The Lakers won five championships before relocating to Los Angeles in the 1960-61 season. The Lakers lost all of their eight appearances in the NBA Finals in the 1960s, despite having help from Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. In 1972, the Lakers won their sixth title, first in Los Angeles, under coach Bill Sharman. The Lakers popularity soared in the 1980s when they won five additional championships during a nine year span with the leadership of Hall of Farmer's Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jab bar, James Worthy and coach Pat Riley, the franchise's all-time leader in regular season game wins and playoff games coached and wins.
Two of those championships during that span were against their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics. From 2000 to 2002, the Lakers won three titles consecutively with the help of Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson. After losing both the 2004 and 2008 NBA Finals, the Lakers captured the championship for the 15th time in 2009, defeating the Orlando Magic four games to one.

The Lakers hold records for having (into the 2009-10 season) the most wins (3,000), the highest winning percentage (61.8%), the most NBA Finals appearances (30), the second fewest non-playoff seasons with five (San Antonio Spurs have four), and the second most NBA championships with 15, behind the Boston Celtics 17. They also hold the record for compiling the longest consecutive with streak (33) in U.S. professional team sports (also an NBA record) in the 1971-72 season. Hall of Famers have played for the Lakers, while four Hall of Famers (John Kundla, Bill Sharman, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson) have coached the team. Four Lakers (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant) have won the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for a total of 8 MVP awards.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/clubhouse?team=lal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-yiQmDDMKc