A recent death has not shocked the sports world more than the passing of Kobe Bryant did in late January, as the entire world seemed to pause for a week. The NBA even considered canceling games so that hoopers around the league could mourn the loss of one of basketball's greatest shooting guards.
The death of Kobe, his daughter Gianna Bryant, and everyone else on that helicopter hit a lot of people hard, but it had to hit Joe and Pamela Bryant the hardest. Losing a son and a granddaughter in one day is certainly something that no human being should have to endure.
While it did come to a tragic ending, the relationship between Kobe Bryant and his parents is a rather complicated one that deserves to be dove into.
Kobe was the youngest of three children, growing up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with Joe and Pamela Cox Bryant. At the time of Bryant’s birth, Joe was in the midst of his own NBA career.
Joe ended up carving out a solid career for himself as mostly a role player, suiting up in the NBA for eight seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, the San Diego Clippers and the Houston Rockets. Over his NBA career, Jellybean averaged 8.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game while shooting 45.0 percent from the field and 74.3 percent from the free-throw line.
Following the 1982-83 season, Bryant elected to play overseas in Italy, which is why Kobe ended up spending most of his childhood on the other side of the world. By the time his family moved back to Philadelphia when Kobe was 13, he could speak fluent Italian.
As Kobe started to enter the spotlight as a star high school player, Joe Bryant had moved into a coaching role, leading a women’s varsity basketball team at Akiba Hebrew Academy in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. He soon left that job for an assistant coaching position at his alma mater La Salle University.
Even though Kobe had a great childhood by all accounts, things started to get rocky as Bryant got more and more popular. While Kobe was notoriously stoic and kept quiet with the media, he appeared to be completely estranged from his parents by the time he was a household name.
While it is merely speculation, some commentators believed the rift between Kobe and his parents hit a new level when he married Vanessa Cornejo Urbieta, as neither of Kobe's parents attended their wedding in 2001.
Things seemed to improve as Bryant reached a more veteran stage in his career. Kobe's mom and dad were spotted at the 2010 playoffs cheering on their son. However, the relationship took another dark turn in 2013 when it was revealed that Joe and Pamela were attempting to auction off a collection of their son’s memorabilia.
It got very sad towards the end of Bryant's career, as neither of the parents attended Kobe's last game and his retirement ceremony.
Kobe said some poignant things about his tumultuous relationship with his parents in the few years before he died, whether it was in a letter to his younger self in the Player's Tribune (where Kobe stated there was a lot of “tears and heartache, some of which remains to this day”) or in his lengthy post-retirement interview with ESPN (where he used a few choice four-letter words to describe his relationship with his mother and father).
Upon Kobe's death earlier this year, the Joe and Pamela Bryant didn't make any sort of public statement, but were seen at the funeral talking to Magic Johnson and Derek Fisher.
Even though their relationship was a roller coaster ride that got dark towards the end, the estrangement between Kobe and his parents didn't seem to extend to his grandchildren.
A former coach of Bryant told the Daily Mail that he spotted Kobe and his dad being friendly at a few youth basketball tournaments, seeming to let bygones by bygones.
Joe appeared to be rather close with Gianna before her tragic death five months ago. Seeing how the relationship would have blossomed is one of the saddest parts of the traumatic helicopter crash, as perhaps their bond could have helped Kobe repair that complicated relationship.
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