Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant, Father of Late NBA Superstar Kobe Bryant, Dies at 69

Pamela Bryant (L) and Joe Bryant, parents of Kobe Bryant, accept The Heritage Award at the Advancement of Blacks in Sports (ABIS) Champions and Legends Awards at Resorts World Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nev., on May 28, 2022 (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Former NBA player Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, the father of late Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, has died at the age of 69 from a recent massive stroke, his alma mater La Salle University announced on Tuesday.

“We are saddened to announce the passing of La Salle basketball great Joe Bryant,” the school said on social media on Tuesday. “Joe played for the Explorers from 1973 to 1975 and was a member of our coaching staff from 1993 to 1996. He was a beloved member of the Explorer family and will be dearly missed.”

Bryant, who got the nickname “Jellybean” because of his love for candy, averaged 20.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per game over two seasons at La Salle. He was selected by the Golden State Warriors with the No. 14 overall pick in the 1975 NBA Draft.

The Warriors, however, sold his rights to Bryant’s hometown Philadelphia 76ers before the start of his rookie season. In the 1976–77 season, the 76ers, with NBA all-stars Julius Erving, Doug Collins, and George McGinnis, reached the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, 4 games to 2. Bryant spent four years with Philadelphia and averaged 8.7 points per game.

After his NBA career in Philadelphia ended, Bryant spent three seasons with the San Diego Clippers, averaging a career-high 11.8 points in the 1981–82 season. He played for the Houston Rockets in the 1982–83 season, averaging 10.0 points per game.

Over his NBA career, Bryant averaged 8.7 points in 606 career games.

After his NBA career, Bryant played with five different European teams: AMG Sebastiani Rieti (1983–86), Standa Reggio Calabria (1986–87), Olimpia Pistoia (1987–89), Reggiana (1989–91), and Mulhouse (1991).

From there, Bryant became a coach for the women’s basketball team at Akiba Hebrew Academy in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, from 1992 to 1993. He was then named an assistant coach at his alma mater, La Salle University, from 1993 until 1996, when his son, Kobe, was drafted into the NBA and Joe Bryant took a hiatus from basketball.

Bryant eventually returned to coaching in 2003 for Diablos, a SlamBall team, before taking the reins of the Los Angeles Sparks in the NBA. Bryant led Los Angeles to the Western Conference finals in 2006.

Bryant also coached Tokyo Apache in Japan in 2008 before taking over the Italian squad Sebastiani Rieti in 2009. He held other coaching positions with the Bangkok Cobras in the ABL, Levanga Hokkaido in the JBL, and Fukuoka Rizing in the BJ League.

His final year of coaching came in 2015 with the Rizing Zephyr Fukuoka of the Japanese professional B League.

Kobe Bryant, the third and youngest child of Joe Bryant and his wife, Pamela, was born in Philadelphia in 1978. Kobe later starred at Lower Merion in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, from 1992 to 1996. Kobe was selected by the Charlotte Hornets with the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft out of high school, and later traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he became a five-time NBA champion and was an 11-time All-NBA First Team honors.

Kobe scored 33,643 points over his storied 20-year career. He was posthumously voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020 and named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.