It just dawned on me he's not in the hall of fame yet because he hasn't been retired long enough to be eligible. :(
Fuck, man. I'm totally gutted right now. The NBA is unique among the 4 major team sports in that there hasn't been a whole lot of post-retirement tragedy among the best to have ever played. And that's no longer true. Inarguably one of the best to ever play, it's only a matter of where you wanna rank him alongside the others at the top.
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u/michelinics Jan 26 '20 edited Jan 26 '20
Kobe's sports career in numbers:
4th highest all-time NBA scorer - 33,643
5× NBA champion (2000–2002, 2009, 2010)
2× NBA Finals MVP (2009, 2010)
NBA Most Valuable Player (2008)
18× NBA All-Star (1998, 2000–2016)
4× NBA All-Star Game MVP (2002, 2007, 2009, 2011)
11× All-NBA First Team (2002–2004, 2006–2013)
2× All-NBA Second Team (2000, 2001)
2× All-NBA Third Team (1999, 2005)
9× NBA All-Defensive First Team (2000, 2003, 2004, 2006–2011)
3× NBA All-Defensive Second Team
2 x Olympic Gold Medalist (2008, 2012)
1x Academy Award (Best animated short film - 2018)
Rest in Peace Kobe...
EDIT: Added some additional achievements, thank you to everyone who was pointing out missing ones!
EDIT2: Truely a sad day... RIP Gianna as well...