Today we celebrate five-time NBA champion, two time Olympic Gold Medalist, philanthropist, Academy Award winner, author, husband, father and career Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant.

To learn more, read 2018’s The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant, 2022’s The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality by Mike Sielski. Watch the 2015 documentary Kobe Bryant's Muse, now on Showtime, the 2019 All the Smoke video podcast episode featuring one of his final interviews, also on Showtime.

Watch Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel's retrospec ...