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Kobe and Vanessa Bryant are Dream Team of Sports Celebrity Couples
He
is a bloodless basketball assassin and the reigning undisputed NBA
champion for the nation’s premier franchise. She is a Latina beauty
queen with a penchant for bustier busting. Together, Kobe and Vanessa
Bryant make up the dream team of sports celebrity couples.
At this moment, Bryant pretty much owns the city of Los Angeles. He is
perched at the pinnacle of the sports universe after capturing his
first NBA championship title without Shaquille O’Neal (fourth overall)
and winning the Finals MVP Award to boot. Bryant is the one of the most
prolific scorers and dynamic personalities in NBA history, the singular
talent of the sports perennially premiere team in one of the world’s
most glamorous cities. A former child prodigy and Naismith High School
Player of the Year out of Philadelphia, Bryant surpassed the
expectations of even the most seasoned pundits, placing on the
first-team of the All-NBA, All-Star and All-Defensive teams almost
every year of his 10-year career. His superlative ball-handling skills,
high basketball I.Q., aerial acrobatics and relentless single-minded
pursuit of greatness have bedazzled fans and foes alike for the past
decade.
Bryant’s
wife also has an interesting story line. The daughter of Mexican
parents, the first lady of basketball was born Vanessa Cornejo Ubrieta
in Panoma, Calif., on May 5, 1982. Her parents divorced when Vanessa
was young and she eventually adopted the name of her stepfather,
Stephen Lane. Bryant met her in 1999 when she was a 17-year-old
background dancer in Tha Eastsidaz’s video “G’d Up.” Despite being
barred from visiting her high school campus and prom because of intense
media scrutiny, Kobe and Vanessa were married six months after meeting.
They have two adorable daughters, Natalie Diamante, 6, and Gianna
Maria-Onore, 2. –terry shropshire
