PHILADELPHIA - Kobe Bryant, a prodigy at Lower Merion High who leaped into the NBA at 17 and became a basketball legend during two spotlit decades in Los Angeles, was among five persons killed Sunday when his private helicopter crashed in Calabasas, Calif.
Bryant was 41 and had been retired since the 2015-16 season.
Ironically, on Saturday, during a Lakers-76ers game at the Wells Fargo Center, LeBron James surpassed Bryant's career point total of 33,467 to move into third place on the NBA's all-time scoring list.
A fiery competitor, he also projected an icy cool, a dichotomy that gave him cachet with young basketball players everywhere.
"I wear No. 24 because of Kobe," Imhotep Charter High School senior KamRohn Roundtree said Sunday. "That was my favorite player growing up. To find out he died, it really hit me hard."
Bryant's professional resume was striking. In addition to two Olympic gold medals, he captured five NBA titles with the Lakers, twice was the league's scoring leader and ranks fourth in points in both the regular season and postseason. The league's 2008 MVP, he twice was NBA Finals MVP. He was an 18-time All-Star and 11 times a first-team all-NBA performer. And his defense was nearly as impressive as his offense. Nine times, he earned a spot as a first-team all-NBA defender.
But while he was one of the greatest talents to emerge from the basketball-rich Philadelphia area, Bryant wasn't universally loved here, in large part because of a two controversial comments early in his career.
During one of his first returns here as a Laker, he insisted on a distinction that riled area fans, claiming he wasn't really a Philadelphian because he'd been raised and played outside the city, in one of its more upscale suburbs. Then, after his Lakers lost to the 76ers in Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals, Bryant predicted he would come back here and "cut their hearts out."
The Lakers did capture the title in Philadelphia, the second of the five he won, and even his most ardent critics came to acknowledge him as among the best to ever play the game.
All wasn't rosy, however. In addition to the heat he took from Philadelphia fans, Bryant feuded often with Lakers teammate Shaquille O'Neal and was called "uncoachable" in a book by longtime Lakers coach Phil Jackson.
But the biggest controversy came in 2003 when a 19-year-old hotel employee at a Colorado resort accused him of sexual assault. Bryant admitted to the encounter but denied it was an assault. Charges were dropped after the victim refused to testify. She eventually filed a civil suit that was settled out of court, with Bryant apologizing but not admitting guilt.
Kobe Bean Bryant was born August 23, 1978, in between his father's third and fourth seasons with the 76ers. His unusual middle name was a nod to Joe Bryant's nickname, "Jelly Bean."
When the elder Bryant's NBA career concluded in 1983, he moved his family to Italy where he played professionally for another seven seasons. Growing up abroad, Bryant learned the language, eagerly absorbed the culture, and most significantly began to hone his rare basketball talents. By the time the Bryants returned to the United States and settled in Lower Merion, he was primed for a record-setting tenure there.
A four-year starter with the Lower Merion Aces, Bryant set a Philadelphia-area scholastic scoring career record, surpassing the totals of both Wilt Chamberlain and Lionel Simmons with 2,883 points. He was already a one-name national sensation when as a senior he averaged 30-plus points a game, leading the Aces to a Pennsylvania state championship and winning the Naismith High School Player of the Year Award.
He was 6-foot-6, strong, quick, physically gifted and intelligent, assets that teammates and coaches said were burnished by a frightening competitiveness.
"There's an oft-told story of him chasing 5-7 Bobby Schwartz through the hallways after a Schwartz turnover cost Kobe's team a victory during a drill," said Michael Egan, a Lower Merion assistant then.
Heavily recruited by Villanova, Duke, Michigan, North Carolina and dozens of other schools, Bryant was invited to a workout by 76ers coach John Lucas. After Lucas said the teenager was good enough to be the first overall choice, Bryant entered the NBA draft.
He was chosen 13th overall by the Charlotte Hornets and subsequently traded to the Lakers.