Basketball great Kobe Bryant’s dad Joe Bryant has died, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer and La Salle Men’s Basketball. He was 69 years old, the newspaper reported.
ESPN reported that Joe Bryant’s official cause of death was not released. However, he “recently suffered a massive stroke,” La Salle head coach Fran Dunphy told the Inquirer.
Joe Bryant’s death comes four and a half years after his son and granddaughter died in a helicopter crash in 2020. Seven people also died with them in that crash, TMZ reported. After his son’s death, Joe Bryant rarely appeared in public anymore, according to ESPN.
La Salle Men’s Basketball Remembered Joe Bryant as a ‘Basketball Great’
La Salle Men’s basketball also confirmed Joe Bryant’s death, calling him a “basketball great” in his own right.
“We are saddened to announce the passing of La Salle basketball great Joe Bryant,” the team wrote on X on July 16.
“Joe played for the Explorers from 1973-75 and was a member of our coaching staff from 1993-96. He was a beloved member of the Explorer family and will be dearly missed,” the team added.
La Salle University also remembered Joe Bryant, writing on its X page, “Our deepest condolences to the Bryant family and our La Salle community. May we remember Joe, always.”
GettyKobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers.
According to TMZ, Joe Bryant married Kobe’s mom Pam Cox in 1975, and they had Kobe three years later. According to the Bleacher Report, Joe and Pam Bryant also had two daughters together named Sharia and Shaya, as well as many grandchildren.
Joe Bryant Played in the NBA & Then Built a Coaching Career
The Philadelphia 76ers called Joe Bryant “a local basketball icon” on their X page, writing that his “legacy on the court transcended his journey across Bartram High School, La Salle University, and his first four NBA seasons with the 76ers from 1975-79. Our condolences go out to the Bryant family ❤️💙”
According to ESPN, Joe Bryant “played eight seasons in the NBA for Philadelphia, San Diego, and Houston, and seven more as a professional in Italy.”
After his time playing professional basketball concluded, he coached basketball for a girls’ high school team, for La Salle University, for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks team, and then in Japan and Italy, ESPN reported.
He was known as “Jellybean,” ESPN reported. In 2010, ESPN quoted Kobe Bryant as saying, “I might be a little biased, but he’s a great basketball mind.”
“He taught me from an early age how to view the game, how to prepare for the game, and how to execute and things like that. I know firsthand what a great teacher he is and I think players that played for him, with the Sparks and things like that, can attest to it as well,” Kobe Bryant told ESPN of his dad.
According to People Magazine, Joe Bryant was a first-round draft pick by the Golden State Warriors in 1975, but he never ended up playing for that team, which “sold his rights to his hometown Philadelphia 76ers four months after the draft.”
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