Five Times Kobe Was A Legend Off The Basketball Court
During his NBA days, Kobe Bryant was an 18-time All-Star and 11-time All-NBA first-teamer who led the Lakers to five NBA championships. He also scored 33,643 points in his 20-year NBA career and had his number 8 and number 24 jerseys retired shortly after he left the NBA.
That said, Kobe was a legend off the court as well. Below are just five moments Kobe showed that basketball wasn’t his only strong suit.
He Helped Comfort Victims Of A Car Accident More Than Once
In December 2019, Bryant was witness to a car accident in Newport Beach, California and stuck around to comfort everyone involved. The T-bone crash happened at an intersection as Kobe took control of the situation. He did the same thing for others in September 2018 as another accident took place in Newport Beach and even took pictures with the driver whose car was hit.
He Won An Oscar
In 2018, Bryant took home the Oscar for best animated short for Dear Basketball, a film he wrote and narrated about his retirement from the sport. After receiving the award, he spoke to reporters about how it had always been his dream to write.
“I feel better than winning the championship,” Bryant said. “I swear. Growing up as a kid, I dreamt of winning championships and worked really hard. But then to have something like this come out of left field. I heard a lot of people tell me, ‘What are you going to do when you retire?’ I want to be a writer and a storyteller,” he explained. “I got a lot of, ‘That’s cute.’ I got that a lot. To be here right now and have a sense of validation, this is crazy.”
He Was A Philanthropist
Kobe was a long-time volunteer for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Boys Club & Girls Club of America. Along with his wife Vanessa, they also started the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation, which, according to its mission statement, “is dedicated to improving the lives of youth and families in need, both domestically and globally. By providing financial resources and developing unique programs, the Foundation strives to strengthen communities through educational and cultural enrichment opportunities.”
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He Taught His Daughters To Pursue Excellence On And Off The Court
In 2018, Kobe Bryant spoke with PEOPLE about how he used his opportunity to coach his daughters in basketball as one to also teach them valuable life lessons. “A valuable lesson that I can teach them is what it means to pursue excellence and the commitment level that comes with that,” Bryant said. “At the same time, making things fun and challenging, and learning new things. But they’re having a blast, they’ve gotten extremely, extremely good over the course of the last year, and are continuing to work and get better, man. It’s been fun.”
Bryant shares daughters Natalia, 17, Bianka, 3, and Capri, 7 months with wife Vanessa, 37. Their daughter Gianna, who was 13, was also killed in the helicopter crash.
His High School Named Their Gym After Him
Kobe was a legend long before he put on the purple and gold. At Lower Merion High School in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania he balled out in such a fashion that it allowed him to skip college and enter the NBA Draft where he would be selected 13th in the 1996 class. In 2010, in honor of Bryant’s achievements, Lower Merion dedicated their gymnasium to Kobe and named it Bryant Gymnasium. The event also raised tens of thousands of dollars for the district, to which Bryant donated $411,000.
Rest in power, Kobe and Gianna Bryant.
