The life they led — part fairy tale and half extended household drama — would explode in the summertime of 2003 when Bryant, visiting Colorado to rehab from a knee surgical procedure, was accused of raping a 19-year-old hotel employee. Bryant’s curious background may additionally have set him other than different gamers who grew up under very totally different circumstances. He was identified to maintain to himself on the team bus, listening to music or talking on the telephone. Some teammates considered him as distant and even aloof. In those early days, Bryant bought a Pacific Palisades residence, the place he lived with his dad and mom till they eventually moved a quarter-mile away.

That includes the $15 million that a jury in a federal court awarded to Vanessa Bryant in August within the case after finding that firefighters and deputies violated her privateness and caused her emotional misery. "Today marks the profitable culmination of Mrs. Bryant's courageous battle to carry accountable those who engaged in this grotesque conduct," stated Luis Li, legal professional for Vanessa Bryant, Kobe Bryant's wife. "She fought for her husband, her daughter, and all these in the neighborhood whose deceased family have been handled with similar disrespect." In 2003, Bryant was accused of rape by a 19-year-old hotel employee in Colorado. Kobe admitted to dishonest on his wife Vanessa, but claimed the sex was consensual. The alleged sufferer eventually dropped the case; based on some research, the effects of the case are still being felt, with rape victims much less keen than ever to publicly accuse their attackers out of fear of being publicly shamed.

At the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, he gained two gold medals as a member of the united states national team. In 2018, he gained the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for his 2017 movie Dear Basketball. On January 26, 2020, the basketball legend, his daughter Gianna and seven other passengers died when their helicopter crashed and caught fireplace in Calabasas, California. The chopper was on its approach to Kobe’s Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks forward of a recreation.

Bryant led the NBA in scoring through the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. His 81-point performance in opposition to Toronto in 2006 was the second-highest in NBA history, behind only Chamberlain's a hundred. He scored at least 50 factors 24 instances in his career, which is third in league history behind Jordan and Chamberlain ; six instances Bryant scored no less than 60. He was simply the third player in NBA historical past to average 40 factors in a calendar month, which he accomplished 4 instances.

Every Kobe fan knows his alter ego is "Black Mamba." But, the moniker's roots have a deep emotional and intellectual significance in Bryant's life. He explains in "Kobe Bryant's Muse" that in 2003 he was being closely ridiculed by the crowd and felt like his life was spiraling uncontrolled. So, he created the Black Mamba to detach from that actuality. While discovery and pretrial hearings consequentially occurred, Bryant's accuser ultimately requested the prosecutors to drop the criminal case. The woman's attorneys said the truth that her name and extremely delicate transcripts have been leaked to the media brought on her to lose faith in the justice system, and one of her attorneys didn't expect the trial to obtain success for the lady.

“I just really feel like I’m letting other people down,” Ryan mentioned about being injured. So he might squeeze in a third exercise daily while not taking time away from his youngsters. Ryan mentioned the mindset he realized from Bryant goes past football. But few are as religious as longtime defensive back Logan Ryan.

However, he played within the season opener to start his 20th season with the Lakers, surpassing John Stockton's league document of 19 for the most seasons with the same staff. On November 24, 2015, the Lakers fell to 2–12 after losing 111–77 to the Warriors. Bryant scored just 4 points in 25 minutes on 1-for-14 capturing, matching the worst-shooting recreation of his profession in which he tried a minimal of five pictures. On December 1, 2015, Bryant played his last recreation in opposition to his hometown staff, the Philadelphia 76ers, where the Lakers lost 103–91. In the 2001–02 season, Bryant performed eighty games for the first time in his profession.

Although later seasons had been marred by accidents, he surpassed Michael Jordan for third place on the NBA all-time scoring record in December 2014 and retired in 2016 after scoring 60 factors in his ultimate recreation. In 2018, Bryant earned an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Dear Basketball. On January 26, 2020, he was in a helicopter crash that killed Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gigi and 7 others. As of June 2012, Bryant ranks third and fifth on the league's all-time post-season scoring and all-time regular season scoring lists, respectively. He can also be the all-time leading scorer in Lakers franchise history. Since his second year within the league, Bryant has been chosen to start each NBA All-Star Game that has been held in the last fourteen years.