Born c. 1955, Joe "Jellybean" Bryant excelled in basketball as a high school student in his native Philadelphia. He went on to play college basketball at La Salle University, making First Team honors in the 1974-75 season. In his junior year, Bryant left La Salle to join the NBA, where he played for eight seasons. As a journeyman forward, he averaged 8.7 points per game in 606 career NBA games with the Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Clippers, and Houston Rockets. In 1984, retiring from the NBA, Bryant moved to Rieti, Italy, where he would play professional basketball in the Italian league. He later played in Switzerland and France as well, taking his family with him. Bryant returned to the United States after eight years in Europe, and later took a job as an assistant coach at La Salle. He remains very close to his son, Kobe. "He's always been there for me," Kobe told Dick Weiss of the New York
Daily News in 1996. "We can talk about anything. I love him to death."
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments Add a comment…
11 days ago
kobe is the best basketball player ever...he is way better than lebron james...keep doing what you do kobe.
10 months ago
oh my god i would love to meet kobe he is like my idiol he is my hero
about 1 year ago
Hello, My name is Tarrin George an i'm from jeanerette in the U.S. it would be a hounor to meet your son Kobe Bryant. I have a dream to play basketball for the NBA one day so i would like to know how it feel to talk to a NBA player an see how a pro live there life.