Joe Bryant, the former NBA player and WNBA coach with a colorful nickname, has died at age 69, four and a half years after his son, Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, his granddaughter Gianna Bryant and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash.
Fran Dunphy, coach at Joe Bryant's alma mater, La Salle, told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday that Bryant recently suffered a debilitating stroke.
A teammate at John Bartram High School in Philadelphia nicknamed Bryant “Jellybean” because he had a wide range of motion despite being 6'5″. “He must be jelly because jelly doesn't move like that,” Bryant recalled hearing, quoting Glenn Miller's hit World War II song.
The nickname stuck (Bryant also liked to eat jelly beans) and he became a star. He was the Public High School League Player of the Year in 1972, then stayed in Philadelphia to attend La Salle, averaging 20.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per game during his two seasons.
Paul Westhead, La Salle's coach at the time, supported all of Jellybean's motions.
“He had a lot of moves,” Westhead said. “He would cut you in every direction.”
Bryant was the 14th overall pick in the 1975 NBA draft, and was selected by the Golden State Warriors, who sold his rights to his hometown Philadelphia 76ers shortly before the 1975–76 season began. Perhaps Bryant's most memorable moment as a player came in his first game with the Clippers, when he dunked over the Lakers' 7-foot-1 center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Also in 1975, a 20-year-old Bryant married Pam Cox, sister of former NBA player Chubby Cox, and they had two daughters, Sharia and Shaya, in addition to their son, Kobe.
Bryant was a key contributor off the bench for four years in Philadelphia, playing behind future Hall of Famers and fellow forwards George McGinnis and Julius Erving. The 76ers made the playoffs in each of Bryant's seasons, losing in the NBA Finals to the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977.
The 76ers traded Bryant to the San Diego Clippers before the 1979-80 season in exchange for a future first-round draft pick, and his playing time nearly doubled. He averaged 11 points and 5.5 rebounds in three seasons with the Clippers before averaging 10 points with the Houston Rockets in his final NBA season.
“Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant was a local basketball icon whose legacy on the court transcended his time at Bartram High School, La Salle University and his first four NBA seasons with the 76ers from 1975-79,” the Sixers said in a statement. “Our condolences go out to the Bryant family.”
Bryant then embarked on a nomadic overseas career as a player and coach, with his family in tow. He played through 1992 in Italy and France, and did not return to Philadelphia until Kobe was about to start high school. Bryant served as the head coach of the girls’ team at Akiba Hebrew Academy in 1992-93 before moving to La Salle as an assistant during Kobe’s career at Lower Merion High.
“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 1973-1975 and was a member of our coaching staff from 1993-1996. He was a beloved member of the Explorer family and will be deeply missed.”
Shortly after finishing high school, Kobe was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets and immediately traded to the Lakers in 1996.
Joe and Pam Bryant moved to Los Angeles with their 17-year-old son and had to sign his first contract with the Lakers, a three-year, $3.5 million deal, because Kobe was too young to sign himself.
The Lakers rookie used some of his newfound wealth to buy cars for Joe, Pam, Sharia and Shaya, who lived with him in Pacific Palisades for three years until Joe and Pam bought a house less than a mile away.
“We weren't going to let him come here alone,” Joe told Times columnist Bill Plaschke in early 2003.
“My family was always there for me,” Kobe said at the time. “I love them for that.”
Their relationship remained strong until Kobe courted and eventually married Orange County teenager Vanessa Laine in 2001.
“It’s right there in the Bible,” Kobe said. “When you get married, your mother, your father and your sisters are no longer the priority.”
Their parents did not attend Kobe and Vanessa's wedding or visit their new home. When Lower Merion High School retired Bryant's jersey in 2002, Joe and Pam sat in one section of the bleachers and Vanessa in another.
Why the tension? Kobe said his father — who was younger than Kobe when he married Pam at 20 — was uncomfortable with his devotion to Vanessa and didn’t like that she was Latina. Joe said, “Once she decided to get married, it’s her life now.”
Vanessa Bryant posted a message on Instagram on Tuesday: “Sending my condolences upon hearing the news of my father-in-law’s passing. We had hoped things would have been different. Even though the times we spent together were few, he was always sweet and nice. Kobe loved him very much. Our prayers go out to the family.”
Bryant returned to coaching in 2003, spending a year with the Las Vegas Rattlers and another with the Boston Frenzy of the American Basketball Association. He moved to the WNBA and became head coach of the Sparks for two seasons, leading LA to a 25-9 record and a berth in the conference finals in 2006. A year later, he was replaced by former Lakers star Michael Cooper.
“I'm devastated to hear of the loss of my friend Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, Kobe Bryant's father,” Magic Johnson wrote on X. “Joe was not only a talented basketball player; he was also a great coach.
“Joe was an exceptional human being, with a radiant smile that could light up any room, and a great husband and father. Cookie and I are praying for his wife Pam, his daughters Sharia and Shaya, and the rest of the Bryant family, his friends and all those who loved Joe.”
From 2007 to 2015, Bryant coached several teams in Japan, Italy, and Southeast Asia. By 2013, Bryant was regularly training on the full-size basketball court on the second floor of the Los Angeles apartment building where he and Pam lived.
His training? He would take 120 shots, 60 on each end (20 from the left side, 20 from the right, 20 down the middle), proving to himself that “Jellybean” still had the moves at 60 years old.
