Tributes are pouring in from across the globe on Sunday and Monday – Kobe Bryant’s birthday and the now-famous “Kobe Bryant Day” that incorporates both of his jersey numbers during his time with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Kobe was born on Aug. 23, 1978, in Philadelphia. He spent part of his childhood in Italy as his father, Joe, played professional basketball.
The family eventually moved back to the States and Kobe attended Lower Merion High School, just outside Philadelphia. Stellar performances there led to him opting out of college and declaring for the 1996 NBA Draft, where he was selected 13th by the Charlotte Hornets and immediately traded to the Lakers.
The rest, as they say, is history. Kobe would end up spending his entire 20-year NBA career with the Lakers, turning the Purple and Gold into a powerhouse in the 2000s and winning five championships alongside legends such as Shaquille O'Neal and Pau Gasol. An 18-time NBA All-Star, Kobe also won the league's MVP award in 2008 and finished with a career average of exactly 25 points per game.
He finished his NBA journey with a 60-point outing widely considered to be one of the best career-closing performances in sports history.
Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan talk during a game at the United Center in Chicago on Dec. 17, 1997. (Credit: Vincent Laforet/AFP via Getty Images)Revered by athletes and non-athletes alike for his raw determination and winning abilities, Kobe's legacy was set to live on for decades before his life and the lives of eight others, including his daughter GiGi, were lost in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020. The group were traveling from Orange County to Camarillo for a basketball event when the pilot lost his sense of orientation in heavy cloud cover and crashed into the side of a mountain in Calabasas.
Since then, the Lakers legend has become immortalized in several ways, including with a statue of him and GiGi outside Crypto.com Arena, the retiring of both #8 and #24 for the Lakers (the first time in NBA history that a player had two numbers retired by the same team), countless murals in SoCal and across the world and the official designation of Aug. 24 as "Kobe Bryant Day."
The city of Los Angeles had previously designated the date as "Kobe Bryant Day" after his retirement in 2016. A little over four years later (and several months after the fatal helicopter crash), a motion was introduced that designated Aug. 24 as "Kobe Bryant Day" in Orange County as well.
In 2026, the tributes are still going strong for Kobe, who would have turned 48 this year. His wife, Vanessa, posted an old of photo of Kobe sitting on her lap in a folding chair with a simple caption: "Happy birthday, baby. I love you so much. ❤️🙏🏽 8/23."
Jeanie Buss, the governor and minority owner of the Lakers (for now), posted a photo of a signed copy of Kobe's "The Mamba Mentality" book and said that his words continue to inspire her.
Kobe Bryant warms up with daughter Gianna Bryant during the NBA All-Star Game 2016 at the Air Canada Centre on Feb. 14, 2016, in Toronto, Ontario.(Credit: Elsa/Getty Images)Various sports media outlets, including ESPN, Bleacher Report and others, posted tributes of Kobe both on Sunday (his birthday) and on Monday. The Lakers also shared multiple tributes to one of their most famous players.
"Icon. Legend. Laker. Happy Birthday, Kobe," the team's post from Sunday reads. On Monday, they posted a slideshow of Kobe from each of the 20 seasons he played: "33,643 points. 20 seasons. 5 Championships. Two decades of Kobe 💜"
The NBA on Monday also posted footage of three current NBA players discussing their "Welcome to the NBA" moments as rookies; Klay Thompson, Julius Randle and Kelly Oubre Jr. all mentioned the Black Mamba in their stories.
"He gave us 40, and I was on the bench like 'This is a great show,'" admitted Thomspon. "I did have a great game that game -- I shot six for eight and had 14 points off the bench -- but he did give us 40 and it was really cool to witness my hero up close and personal."
"Probably getting up at 4 a.m. and training with Kobe," said ex-Laker Julius Randle, who was drafted by the team in 2014, when asked about his "Welcome to the league" moment. "It was intense ... he just was serious ... when he was working on his craft he took it very seriously."
"I didn't play a whole lot my rookie year so I checked into the game and I was told to go guard [Kobe]," added Oubre Jr. "He's like, smiling and grinning running down the court and I'm looking him in his eyes and showing him I'm not scared. He got the ball, did like a fake turnaround pump fake -- I'm in the air like 'Mr. Jump Out of the Gym' off Kobe's pump fake."
Another post from Monday, collaboratively shared by the Lakers and the NBA's official Instagram, has an even simpler caption: "Mamba forever."
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