Joe Bryant, the father of the basketball star Kobe Bryant and an N.B.A. player for eight seasons, died on Tuesday. He was 69.
His death was confirmed by the athletic department at La Salle University in Philadelphia, where he played college basketball. It did not provide information on where or how he died.
Bryant, who spent eight seasons in the NBA with three different franchises, was 69. The Philadelphia Inquirer, citing La Salle coach Fran Dunphy, reported that Joe Bryant recently had a massive stroke.
“We are saddened to announce the passing of La Salle basketball great Joe Bryant,” the school said in a news release. “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.”
Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna and seven others died in a helicopter crash in January 2020 in Calabasas, California, as the group was making its way to a basketball tournament.
Joseph Washington Bryant was born on Oct. 19, 1954, in Philadelphia. He attended Bartram High School and then La Salle, where he averaged 19 and 22 points a game in two seasons.
Known as Jellybean because he enjoyed that candy, Bryant was drafted 14th overall in the 1975 N.B.A. draft by the Golden State Warriors. But he and the Warriors could not agree on a salary, so before his career began the Warriors traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Warriors wound up selling his rights to Philadelphia before the start of his rookie season. He played four years for the 76ers, three for the San Diego Clippers and one for the Houston Rockets, averaging 8.7 points in 606 games.
From there, he embarked on an international career, with stops in France and Italy. The years in Italy shaped Kobe Bryant; it was there that he started to truly develop a love for basketball as well as becoming fluent in Italian. The family moved back to the Philadelphia area around the time that Kobe Bryant was 13, he became a high school star and was drafted four years later.
Joe Bryant had a number of coaching stints, including for teams in Italy, Japan and Thailand, as well as stints with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks — meaning he was coaching in the same city as his son was playing for a number of years.
His path was not the smooth ride of a superstar. He struggled for a starting spot and failed to match the kind of point totals he had in college. In his rookie season, he was charged with possession of cocaine after a high-speed chase with the police. But he was acquitted after a judge ruled that the police had searched his car illegally.
Bryant, a 6-foot-9 forward, spent four seasons as a backup in Philadelphia before stretches with the San Diego Clippers and the Houston Rockets. After the 1983 season, he left the league and found greater success playing overseas in Italy, where his son, Kobe, spent part of his childhood.
Peoplesmind