Kobe Bryant, pictured in 2007, spent his entire 20-year NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images

Kobe Bryant's life in pictures

Updated 11:21 PM ET, Sun January 26, 2020

Kobe Bryant, pictured in 2007, spent his entire 20-year NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images

Basketball legend Kobe Bryant died Sunday, January 26, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. His 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, was also killed. He was 41.

Born in Philadelphia, Bryant started playing basketball when he was 3 and went on to become one of the NBA's greatest champions. He was drafted to the NBA straight out of Lower Merion High School near Philadelphia in 1996. He was the youngest player in NBA history at that time, at 18 years, 2 months and 11 days.

Bryant played his entire professional career with the Los Angeles Lakers and won five NBA championships.

He also has two Olympic gold medals for men's basketball.

Bryant retired in April 2016. He said "his body knew it was time to say goodbye."

Bryant's youth basketball team poses for a picture in the early 1990s in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Courtesy Davide Giudici
Bryant dunks the ball in his high school gym in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, during a practice in 1996.
Rusty Kennedy/AP
Bryant jokes with the media as he holds his Los Angeles Lakers jersey at a news conference in Inglewood, California, in 1996.
Susan Sterner/AP
Bryant eyes the basket during the 1997 NBA Slam Dunk contest in Cleveland. Bryant was the youngest player to win the contest.
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty images
Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls eyes the basket as he is guarded by Bryant during a 1998 game in Los Angeles.
Vince Bucci/AFP/Getty Images
Bryant sits on the sidelines during the Euro ABC camp in Berlin in 1999.
Marcus Brandt/Bongarts/Getty Images/file
Shaquille O'Neal and Byrant sit on the bench before a game in 1999 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images
Bryant hugs his fiancee, Vanessa Laine, in the locker room in Los Angeles after the Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers in Game 6 of the 2000 NBA Finals to win the series 4-2. Bryant later married Laine, and they had four children.
Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images/File
Bryant goes in for a slam dunk against the New Jersey Nets in January 2001.
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images
Bryant appears on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" at NBC Studios in 2001.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Bryant stands for the National Anthem at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images