kobe bryant basketball best star

Kobe Bryant has very quickly become one of the all time greats in the NBA. His story has been a controversial one involving public and hostile rifts with former LA Lakers partner, Shaquille O'Neal and a very public rape charge by a young hotel employee which eventually was dropped from criminal prosecution and later settled in a civil law suit.


Love him or hate him, it can't be disputed that on-court he makes things happen and he was fundamental to the magical LA Lakers 1999 - 2002 seasons where they won an historical three NBA titles in a row. He's currently number 7 on the America's favorite sportstar list behind sporting icons like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Brett Favre and is very likely to stay there for some time.


By age 14 he would be beating him one-on-one! As a boy he dreamt of going straight to the NBA from High School (basically as soon as the NBA draft rules would allow him) and he continued to make his mark up to this point taking his High School team from non-contenders to state champions in the four years he was playing with them.

In 1996 the big day arrived - the first NBA draft that he was eligible for - and he went straight to the Charlotte Hornets after which he was soon transferred to the LA Lakers for the 1996 - 1997 season. He was then the youngest ever player to start an NBA game. His first three seasons were successful ones


However, neither the triumphs of the Lakers or the awe-inspiring partnership of two of the most gifted basketball players the sport has ever seen were to last. In the 2002 - 2003 season the Lakers failed to make it past the playoffs and growing conflict between leading duo Bryant and O'Neal was causing rifts in the team.