34 years ago today a JellyBean named his seed after a Japanese beef. 34 years later, many of us have nicknamed that beef after a deadly snake and labeled it our favorite or the best in the NBA and to many one of the best ever. Bleacher Report writer Adam Fromal created a nice tribute to the snake/iVillage writer called “34 Most Amazing Kobe Bryant Career Highlights to Celebrate Mamba’s 34th Birthday“
Here’s his list with videos for each. If you want to read his full description of each moment please go to the original article on LA Times. Following his 34 are an additional 10.
- Drafted and Traded, 1996 – Picked 13th by the Hornets and traded to the Lakers for Vlade Divac
- First NBA Start, 1997 – Kobe scored 12pts, 3rebs, 2ast, 2stls, 1blk & Lakers beat the Mavs by 19
- Scoring 33 Against Michael Jordan, 1997 – MJ scored 36 & Bulls won
- Slam Dunk Champion, 1997
- Dunking on Ben Wallace
- 2000 Western Conference Finals, Game 7
- 2000 NBA Finals, Game 4
- All-Star Game MVP, 2002
- Kobe over Todd MacCulloch, 2002
- Hitting 12 3-Pointers, 2003
- Scoring Explosion in February of 2003: 9 straight 4o+ point games
- The Passing of the Torch, 2003 – Kobe scores 55 points against MJ
- Poor Vincent Yarbrough, 2003
- Before They Were Teammates, 2004 – Dunks on Dwight Howard
- Kobe Wins the Division, 2004
- Kobe Goes Reverse Against KG, 2004
- Shaquille O’Neal Traded in 2004
- Outscoring Dallas Mavericks Through Three Quarters, 2006 – 62pts in 3 quarters
- Dropping 81, 2006
- 30 in a Quarter vs Jazz, 2006
- Before They Were Teammates, 2006 -Dunks on Steve Nash
- Kobe over Yao, 2006
- 2006 Western Conference First Round, Game 4
- 50 Is a Nice Number, 2007 – 50+pts in 4 straight games
- The Self-Pass
- 2008 MVP
- 61 at Madison Square Garden, 2009
- 2009 NBA Finals, Game 1
- Becoming the Lakers’ All-Time Leading Scorer, 2010
- 2010 Western Conference Finals, Game 6 – 37pts
- Kobe Isn’t Human – vs Matt Barnes
- Kobe Posterizes Okafor, 2011
- So many Buzzer Beaters
- All the Championships
If that wasn’t a cornucopia of Kobeness for you then feel free to spend the remaining part of your day watching these bonus vids.
- 1995 High School Dunk Contest – beats Lester Earl
- Kobe wins High School Championship
- Shaq & Kobe Co-MVPs at AllStar Game
- Kobe dunks on Shaq (in practice)
- Kobe’s first commercial
- Kobe’s first Nike commercial
- 1st rap verse – Brian McKnight – Hold Me
- Kobe wins his first Gold Medal in 2008
- Scores 36 in Summer League Game – 1996
- Kobe’s first NBA fight – with Chris Childs
Also be sure to enter our Sprite Uncontainable contest and let us know who you think is more Uncontainable out of Kobe or LeBron. The winner wins this briefcase with an HD camera, Dre Beats, jerseys, etc.
