The Lakers finished the season with a record of 21–61, surpassing the franchise document for most losses in a season that that they had set the earlier yr. Bryant wanted a sixth championship to match Jordan's complete. The Lakers started the 2010–11 season by successful their first eight games.

As loopy as it now seems, there was a protracted stretch within the ’90s when the precept knock on Bryant was his alleged insincerity. He smiled continuously, spoke Italian, and took Brandy to the prom. He adopted a “plain vanilla” persona modeled after Julius Erving, regardless of a clear aspiration to embody probably the most typical definition of urban cool; it often got here throughout like Grant Hill trying to impersonate Allen Iverson.

To learn what would work and for who, I began doing homework and watched how they behaved. I learned their histories and listened to what their objectives had been. I learned what made them feel safe and the place their greatest doubts lay. Once I understood them, I might assist deliver one of the best out of them by touching the proper nerve on the right time.

The Lakers gained the subsequent recreation as properly, however dropped Games three and 4, even with Bryant putting up 33.5 points per game. The Lakers then won the next two games to win the semifinals in 6. This set up a Western Conference Finals berth against the San Antonio Spurs. The Lakers defeated the Spurs in 5 games, sending themselves to the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.

A fierce competitor, Bryant made opponents and teammates alike the objects of his scorn. Many players have thought of him difficult to play with due to his high stage of commitment and performance. Bryant's longtime head coach Phil Jackson noted a giant distinction during his two Lakers teaching stints in Bryant's demeanor in path of his teammates. Bryant dunking against the Milwaukee Bucks, 2013Bryant was main the league in scoring through a lot of the first forty two games. With a disappointing 17–25 begin to the season, D'Antoni had Bryant became the first facilitator on offense and Nash was moved off the ball and became extra of a spot-up shooter.

Thirty minutes later, the helicopter was within the air, traveling from John Wayne-Orange County Airport to Camarillo, California, the place the passengers would then be pushed to a youth basketball game in close by Thousand Oaks. Bryant was joined on the flight by his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna; John and Keri Altobelli and their daughter, Alyssa; Sarah Chester and her daughter, Payton; and Christina Mauser, an assistant coach. On January 26, 2022, coinciding with the 2nd anniversary of his dying and the helicopter crash, a statue of Bryant and his daughter Gianna was placed on the website where the crash occurred.

Branch said that previous to the commerce settlement, the Hornets by no means even thought-about drafting Bryant. Prior to the draft, Bryant had worked out in Los Angeles, the place he scrimmaged in opposition to former Lakers players Larry Drew and Michael Cooper and, according to then-Laker supervisor Jerry West, "marched over these individuals". On July 1, 1996, West traded his starting heart, Vlade Divac, to the Hornets in trade for Bryant's draft rights.

In exchange for the additional court docket time, I wore a Southern Nazarene University T-shirt in the clip. In his younger days, Bryant partied with some of the finest and brightest in the league and was friends with quite a few celebs. His time in Italy might have influenced Bryant's love for Italian cars. He once walked right into a Ferrari dealership and wrote a $329,000 verify for a 458 Italia.