Kobe Bryant was born on August 23rd, 1978 in Philadelphia, PA.
He is the son of a former NBAer Joe Bryant. When Joe left the NBA to play in Italy, 5 year old Kobe went with him too.
Bryant finished his HS career at Southeastern as the high school all-time leading scorer, breaking Wilt Chamberlain's record.
Kobe decided to skip college and join the NBA. He was drafted 13th in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets, who traded him to the L.A Lakers for Vlade Divac.
In his rookie season, Bryant appeared in 71 games, playing sg, pg and sf.
He averaged 7.6 ppg, 1.9 rpg and 1.3 apg in 15.5 mpg.
Kobe became the youngest player ever to start an NBA game, when he was 18 years, five months, 5 days.
Bryant was the leading scorer of the Rookie All-Star game, scoring 31 points. Then he won the Slam Dunk contest, and became the first Laker to do that.
In his second season, Bryant became the youngest All-Star in history when he was voted to a starting spot in the Western Conference lineup. Bryant scored a team-high 18 points.
Kobe appeared in 79 games. He scored in double figures in 65 of the 79 games he played.
He finished with 15.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg and 2.5 apg in 26 mpg.
In Kobe's 3rd season, he became a starter for the Lakers. He played all 50 games as a starter, playing 37.9 mpg.
His fg% went up from 42.8 in his 2nd season to 46.5 in his 3rd, his ft% went up from 79.4 to 83.9.
He scored 19.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg and 3.8 apg.

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