Kobe Bryant is Only Laker to Embody ‘American Dream’ Says Retired NBA All-Star

A former longtime NBA standout and contemporary for 18-time All-Star Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard believes that the five-time champion is the only L.A. star to have embodied the "American dream" during his playing career.

Bryant, who passed away in a tragic 2020 helicopter accident, spent all 20 of his NBA seasons with L.A. During that time, he made 15 All-NBA squads, and 12 All-Defensive Teams. He brought the Lakers to seven NBA Finals, winning the aforementioned five. One the most elite scorers in the history of the game, Bryant was named Finals MVP during the 2009 and 2010 series, and was the 2008 league MVP.

But many Lakers superstars have enjoyed similarly decorated pro tenures.

So why does Bryant, specifically, represent the "American dream?"

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To hear former three-time All-Star point guard Gilbert Arenas tell it, the 6-foot-6 swingman's journey from life abroad to the U.S. serves as a major component of the equation.

Bryant was all of 17 years old when he was selected with the No. 13 in the loaded 1996 NBA Draft as a very confident Lower Merion High School alum. After a draft night trade by legendary Lakers guard-turned-GM Jerry West, Bryant was slated to join the club's other major summer acquisition that year, eventual 15-time All-Star center Shaquille O'Neal, to form a new core for the franchise.

“You want to make him 1B, and [you] don’t even realize this man right here is the American Hero. He is what everybody wants to be,” Arenas said of Bryant's original role as being an ancillary All-Star behind O'Neal.

“When you come from another country over here trying to live the American dream, you’re ain’t LeBron James. It ain’t Magic [Johnson]. It ain’t Shaq. That’s not the idea for you. It’s Tom Brady’s right where he got drafted and who he became. It’s Kobe Bryant," Arenas contended. “Everybody else was given the keys. He [Kobe] had to earn his keys. He’s the only player to earn his keys.”

Bryant, who was born in Philadelphia, moved at age six with his family to Rieti, Italy as his NBA power forward father Joe moved overseas for his next pro hoops opportunity. The family returned to Philadelphia seven years later, with Bryant now fluent in Italian.

James, Johnson, O'Neal, and fellow Lakers Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anthony Davis, were all No. 1 picks in their respective drafts. In Arenas' mind, this makes their success somewhat preordained. Bryant was a lottery pick who likely would have been selected higher, had he and his representatives not dissuaded other teams from doing so. Still, he was a raw high schooler who had spent much of his youth abroad, and to Arenas he was no sure thing when he landed in the league.

Brady was infamously the No. 199 pick out of Michigan in the 1999 NFL Draft, before eventually becoming handily the greatest quarterback in the history of the game — so far, at least.

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