Born on August 23, 1978

Kobe Bean Bryant is an American professional basketball player that is one of the most successful and well-known basketball players of all time worldwide, who has done great job for the popularization this sport. Kobe plays the shooting guard position for the Los Angeles Lakers in NBA, and has already got 4 NBA All-Star Game MVP awards in his career (2002, 2007, 2009, 2011) and 1 regular season’s MVP in 2008.

As of February 2012, Black Mamba (nickname of Kobe Bryant) ranks 3^rd and 5^th on the league’s all-time post-season scoring and all time regular season scoring lists and of course black mamba is the all-time leading scorer in the history of Los Angeles Lakers. The passion, enthusiasm and the daily hard work has made his gifted skills rise and these days Kobe is already listed among the top 100 greatest sport athletes of all time.

• “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.”
  Kobe Bryant

• “I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan, I only want to be Kobe Bryant.”
  Kobe Bryant

• “What I’m doing right now, I’m chasing perfection.”
  
  Kobe Bryant

• “I’ll do whatever it takes to win the games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handling a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game winning shot.”
  Kobe Bryant

• “When he comes in the game and he senses any fear in your team, or in the guy who’s guarding him… oh, he’s gonna eat you up!”
  Jason Terry about Kobe

• “It doesn’t bother me at all. Do I hold any hard feelings? Not at all… Life is too short to sit around and hold grudges. I don’t hold any whatsoever.”
  Kobe Bryant

• “I’ve repeatedly said he’s the best player in the world. There’s nothing he can’t do. I would say there’s no shot he can’t make.”
  D. Nowitzki about Kobe

• “The whole Michael thing does drive me nuts sometimes because people won’t leave it alone. He’s bald, I have hair. He’s almost 40, I’m 22. Seriously though, I wish people would let it be and let me just be Kobe.”
  Kobe Bryant (2001 interview with “Basketball Digest”)

• “You always have to be on edge. You always have to take every practice, every game, like it is your last.”
  Kobe Bryant

• “There’s been a lot of talk of me being a one-man show but that’s simply not the case. We win games when I score 40 points and we’ve won when I score 10.”
  Kobe Bryant

• “I enjoy playing at the heart of it is just a kid who really loves playing the game of basketball.”
  Kobe Bryant

• “After Kobe missed those free throws, I called Nick Young and Gilbert Arenas over, and told them, ‘be ready’.”
  Flip Saunders on Kobe