Kobe Bryant is the youngest child and only son of Joe and Pam Bryant. His parents named him after the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant menu.

At the age of six, Kobe, his parents and two older sisters, Shaya and Sharia, moved to Italy, where his father began playing professional basketball. He became accustomed to the lifestyle and became fluent in Italian. At an early age, he learned to play soccer and his favorite team was AC Milan. At the age of 7, Kobe got his first leather basketball. It became his constant companion. Bryant even slept with it. Bryant once said that if he had stayed in Italy, he would have tried to become a professional soccer player.

In 1991, the Bryants moved back to the United States. A spectacular high school career at Lower Merion High School in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, brought Bryant national recognition. While his SAT score of 1080 would have ensured his basketball scholarship to various top-tier colleges, the 17-year-old Bryant made the controversial decision to go directly to the NBA.

Kobe Bryant joined the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996 and became part of a celebrated one-two punch with center Shaquille O'Neal. The pair led the Lakers to NBA championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Bryant was an NBA prodigy, jumping straight from high school to the pros. (He was drafted in 1996 by the Charlotte Hornets, then traded to the Lakers for center Vlade Divac.) Bryant's charisma and flashy talent led some to compare him with former NBA superstar Michael Jordan. In July 2003 Bryant was charged with sexual assault after an encounter with a 19-year-old resort employee in Colorado; Bryant insisted that his relationship with the woman was consensual. The case was eventually dismissed and Bryant settled a civil suit with the woman out of court. Bryant continued to play with the Lakers, and on 22 January 2006 scored 81 points in a game against the Toronto Raptors. It was the second highest-scoring individual performance in NBA history, trailing only the 100 points scored by Wilt Chamberlain on 2 March 1962.