50 Interesting Facts About Kobe Bryant

Last updated on January 6th, 2021

10 Interesting/Fun Facts About Him

42. Kobe spoke fluent Italian.

43. At 18 years and 2 months, he was the youngest player to start a game in the NBA back in 1996.

44. In 1997, Kobe was the NBA slam dunk champion.

45. As a member of the United States men’s basketball team, he was the winner of two basketball Olympic gold medals in the year 2008 in the Beijing games and in the 2012 London games.

46. Kobe occupies the fourth position on the all-time scoring list of the NBA.

47. On December 14, 2014, Kobe surpassed Michael Jordan with 32,310 career points to occupy the third position on the all-time scoring list of the NBA. Michael Jordan, Kobe’s idol, said Kobe is the only person to ever approach Jordan’s work ethic.

48. Kobe penned the poem “Dear Basketball” in 2015 and in 2017, he was the narrator for its adaption into a short film of the same name. It won an Academy Award in the category of Best Animated Short Film.

49. During a half-time ceremony in December 2017, Kobe’s jersey numbers 8 and 24 were retired by The Lakers.

50. “The Mamba Mentality: How I Play” is a book published by Kobe in 2018. In the book, he outlined the approach he took to basketball. Its title reflects a nickname “The Black Mamba,” which he called himself during his days of playing in the league.

51. Kobe was voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame posthumously.

Kobe Bryant Quotes 

1. “The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.”

2. “If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.”

3. “Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success.”

4. “I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.”

5. “It’s the one thing you can control. You are responsible for how people remember you—or don’t. So don’t take it lightly.”

6. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.”

7. “Haters are a good problem to have. Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones.”

8. “Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they’ve taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.”

9. “Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change.”

10. “The moment you give up, is the moment you let someone else win.”

11. “If I panic, everyone else panics.”

12. “I realized that intimidation didn’t really exist if you’re in the right frame of mind.”

13. “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.”

14. “Once you know what failure feels like, determination chases success.”

15. “The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.”

16. “My parents are my backbone. Still are. They’re the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.”

Kobe Bryant – Quick facts and statistics