Basketball: Kobe Bryant obituary - The incredible life story of an NBA legend

Kobe Bryant. Photo / AP

COMMENT:

Kobe Bryant was one of the most successful players in NBA history, a basketball superstar who had emerged from scandal to become a pop culture icon.

The 41-year-old Bryant, who has died in a helicopter crash, was the son of an NBA player Joe "Jellybean" Bryant, and was drafted out of high school in 1996.

His father's well-travelled career meant Bryant spent seven years of his childhood in Italy. But Kobe's career involved no such moving about.

He was a one club player, his 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers studded with titles and records, emblazoned by world fame. He won five NBA championships, two Olympic gold medals, 18 All Star selections, the regular season MVP in 2008 while also winning finals MVPs.

In 2006, he scored 81 points in a game against the Toronto Raptors, the second highest in NBA history. As a teenager he won the NBA's slam dunk contest.

And he also was the third highest scorer in NBA history, with 33,643, until overtaken by LeBron James in recent days. Having retired after the 2015/16 season, he will likely enter the Hall of Fame in April.

At the end of his career, he was on about $38m a season, his total Lakers earnings close to $500m.

"I'm here to be an all-time great. Once I made that commitment and said, 'I want to be one of the greatest ever', then the game became everything for me," he once said.

Other memorable quotes included "people just don't understand how obsessed I am with winning" and "friends can come and go, but banners hang forever".

Kobe Bryant in action for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2015. Photo / AP

Beyond the absolute super stardom of a handful of players such as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant was as big as it gets in the NBA and as such he was also a world sports star.

He transcended the sport, and had a global presence, no doubt helped by living in the glitz of Los Angeles.

An instantly recognisable first name helped – Joe and Pam named him after the expensive Japanese beef cut after seeing it on a menu.

There was self-confidence to Bryant which was sometimes described as arrogance. After leading his Philadelphia school to state championships, he ignored doubters and bypassed college to go into the NBA.

Drafted by Charlotte, he was traded to the Lakers where he teamed with established legend and world superstar Shaquille O'Neal who had been signed from Orlando.

They were successful on the court, but their relationship soured for a while when good natured jousting took on a serious edge.

Whatever the off-court judgements, Bryant will always be revered as a player.

The Bleacher Report described Bryant the basketballer as "damn near (Michael) Jordan, but not quite".

Kobe Bryant at the Oscars after winning the award for best animated short for 'Dear Basketball'. Photo / AP

"If Michael Jordan is the perfect ten for a shooting guard, then Kobe is a 9.5. The pathological competitiveness is there. The labels from the cynics in Kobe/Jordan's younger days (selfish, gunner, ball hog) were the same, and the style of play is shockingly similar. Kobe simply does everything nearly as well as Jordan did it.

"Kobe is one of the great scorers in history and an amazing defender and competitor. He tries to have a flare for the moment, but comes up empty more often than Jordan, and at times disheartens his team whereas Jordan inspired them. In short, if Kobe retires with his current total of five rings, one behind Jordan, it will perfectly sum up his career."

There was a major scandal in 2003, when he was arrested in connection with a sexual assault investigation, after a complaint by a 19-year-old Colorado hotel worker. She accused him of rape which he denied, and the case was dropped when she decided not to testify.

Transcripts of the accuser's police interview make disturbing reading. While not admitting guilt, Bryant did apologise to her, as part of a civil suit out-of-court settlement. Bryant's apology stated he believed the encounter to be consensual, but acknowledged later that she did not.

Bryant had been married for two years at the time, to Vanessa Laine. They had met when he was 21, she 17. They had four daughters – the eldest has just turned 17 and their youngest was born in June last year.

Famously, he bought his wife a $6m diamond ring as an apology to her.

From left: Vanessa Bryant, Kobe Bryant, Natalia Bryant and Gianna Maria-Onore Bryant. Photo / AP

Their marriage having survived the scandal, they filed for divorce in 2011, but announced two years later that they were staying together.

Among Bryant's favourite past times was flying helicopters – he used to fly the 80km from his Orange County home to the Lakers venue for games. He reportedly did this to avoid putting his battered body through two hour traffic jams.

But it did add to the glamour image, one which saw him become the first athlete to have a spot on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 2011, a place normally reserved for movie stars. He even won an Oscar, when in 2016 he helped turn one of his poems into a film 'Dear Basketball' which was named best animated short.

Of late, Bryant has also been a big supporter of women's sport, including the claim that a couple of women players were good enough for the NBA.

In a tragic irony, today's Grammy awards are being held at the Staples Centre, where Bryant's Lakers played.

In an indication of his cultural status beyond the basketball court, many of the entertainment industry's most famous names – Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Khloe Kardashian et al. - have inundated social media with tributes.

Swift wrote: "My heart is in pieces hearing the news of this unimaginable tragedy. Kobe meant so much to me and to us all."