Basketball legend Kobe Bryant was one of the greatest and most electrifying players the National Basketball Association has ever produced. Bryant was a global colossus and towering figure who was instant box-office and must-see TV who was wildly popular in his adopted Los Angeles hometown as well as across the country
Bryant, one of the main anchors of the last Los Angeles Lakers NBA dynasty, lost his life in a helicopter crash in a north Los Angeles suburb today at just 41 years old.
The irony is brutal as Labron James had just passed Kobe on Saturday, Jan. 26, for fourth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list
Bryant’s legendary instinct and almost preternatural work ethic spellbound his contemporaries as well as his adversaries and eventually catapulted him to the Mount Everest of all-great sports heroes, not just in the NBA.
In the words of fellow Lakers legend Magic Johnson, the five-time NBA champ Bryant had an almost “psychotic” devotion to personal greatness that made him a pop culture phenomenon and one of the true transcendent sports figures on the modern American landscape.
Bryant leaves us as a five-time NBA champion, two-time NBA Finals MVP, a regular season MVP (2008), a four time All-NBA team member, and three-time All-Defensive player who appeared in more NBA All-Star games (18) than any other player except Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and is fourth on the all-time NBA scoring list with 33,643 points.
As we mourn the passing of an all-time great sports player, let us remember some of the plays that made him immensely popular on the global stage. Here are Bryant’s 10 greatest dunks of his career.
