Destined to be Progidy: Kobe descended from families of basketball stars on both sides of the family... His father Joe "Jellybean" Bryant played in NBA for 8 years and his mother's brother "Chubby" Cox played briefly with Washington Bullets. European Roots: Joe Bryant relocated with his family to Italy to play in the Italian League. And 6-year-old Kobe started becoming entwined with Italian culture, football, and basketball. Kobe The Dance to the Death in High school: Kobe would make his high school teammates play 1vs1 to 100 points. Once he battled with a bench warmer to 100, multiple times. In his worst game, he still won: 100-12! Never Played College Basketball: As he returned to America, he faced troubling times as he suffered a brutal 4-20 campaign in his freshman year, but Kobe being Kobe, went 77-13 over the rest of his career. Kobe would go on to win a state title and national honors, including the Naismith High School Player of the Year Award. Pre-Draft Admonitions: A fair amount of people said he was better off to play college basketball for one or two years and then declare for the draft. At 17 year old, in the workout for Lakers, he destroyed everybody, including NBA defensive star Michael Cooper and the rest is history...