Getty Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers looks back in the first half while taking on the Utah Jazz.
Kobe Bryant is the NBA’s fourth-highest scorer behind LeBron James, who has 33,643 points.
A five-time NBA Finals MVP award winner, Bryant was the NBA’s regular-season MVP in 2008, a four-time NBA All-Star MVP, two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist, an NBA Slam Dunk Champion, 11-time All-NBA First Team recipient and two-time NBA scoring champion. He wore numbers 8 and 24, both of which were retired by the Los Angeles Lakers organization.
Bryant died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, on Sunday, January 26, 2020, while en route with his daughter and seven other passengers to a basketball game at Bryant’s Mamba Academy in Thousand Oaks, California.
Bryant has respect from many including those who photographed him during his career.
Throughout the week people have been paying tribute to NBA legend Kobe Bryant. Photos of the 41-year-old flooded social media. @DanaJacobson spoke with a photographer who had the privilege of taking thousands of those photos over his 20 year career.
Legendary NBA photographer, Andrew D. Bernstein captured many of Bryant’s moments during his career. On a recent episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast, we discussed those experiences.
Check out our Q&A below:
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: You co-authored a book with Phil Jackson. The book chronize the Lakers and particular you’ll looked at the championship season. It was called “Journey to the ring” correct?
Andrew D. Bernstein: Yeah that’s correct.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: What was it like being around Shaq and Kobe. What friendships was it with Kobe then that varied from maybe the Shaq and Kobe years.
Andrew D. Bernstein: What’s interesting about that project was Phil after that championship in 2009 Laker won the championship against Orlando. Phil announced that the following season would be his last year so Phil and I had forged a great working relationship a lot of mutual respect there. So I worked there during the summer and I made a suggestion I said so coach this is going to be your last year I loved to document your last year and then you walk off into the sunset. He looked at me with that Phil Jackson skeptical look. Then he said I think you’re going to be disappointed because I don’t do a lot. I have a pretty easy life. Just let me know where you wanna be I’ll make it happen. Everything was starting to look the same. I said can I sort of change things and do it about the team. I already had brought it up to the publisher and if Phil’s okay with it, I’d like to change gears. The publisher went out on a limb, we didn’t know how the season is going to end. They could get bounced in the first round or lose in the finals. The publisher said yes we’ll do the book. We did it in black & white. Old school documentary something Phil made very clear. I know Kobe’s the star but I don’t want it to be about Kobe. Kobe was represented in the book but the book is not about Kobe Bryant. This was about Andy. We needed a Josh Powell picture. That shows you how Phil was intimately involved he wanted it to be a true collaboration. The book ends with the parade. Pau Gasol on the championship parade float. That setup for me and Kobe to make a book. He knew how good Phil and I did with our book. I’ve been fortunate to work with both of these guys on these one-on-one projects. I can’t even imagine doing it again. It was such a labor of luck.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: What was more quirky were you getting more texts messages from Phil or Kobe?
Andrew D. Bernstein: Kobe was more hands on he knew exactly what he wanted to get across in this book he wanted people to see what really made the mamba tick what made him the black mamba. It was such a mythical persona that he adopted and I was the only one who could see that. I was there for his private workouts and him recovering from injuries certain things he did off the court. Even his teammates didn’t see there was so many materials that people needed to see. It was a great marriage and the two of us. He wasn’t quirky he was very specific we’d have meetings and we’d talk about for example guys who played him the toughest of defense. Tony Allen, Raja Bell, Bruce Bowen who was one of his biggest nemesis’. Kobe would describe a moment in the game like remember that time in the third quarter of the western conference finals playing the Spurs and I made that move against Bruce on the baseline. I’m just like sure okay I remember. You have a picture of that right? Maybe I do most of the time I would be able to find a picture of the moment spoke to what he wanted to get across. That was the challenge for me to keep in mind that half of Kobe’s era happened before the pre-digital era. So we’re dealing with a film that has been cataloged that people like myself had to go back into the archives and find film not letting going and getting images Kobe Bryant and Bruce Bowen 75 images you actually have to go and find these pictures. There’s a handful of things that was like backwards but we found a way to get it done. He was very happy with the book and the way it came out.