Joe 'Jellybean' Bryant, father of late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, dies

Joe Bryant, a former NBA player and WNBA coach with a colorful nickname, has died at 69, four and a half years after his son, Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, granddaughter Gianna Bryant and seven other people died in a helicopter crash.

Fran Dunphy, the 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 vast array of moves despite being 6 feet 9. “Must be jelly because jam don’t shake like that,” Bryant recalled hearing, quoting the World War II-era hit song by Glenn Miller.

The nickname stuck and Bryant became a star. He was the High School Public League Player of the Year in 1972, then remained in Philadelphia to attend La Salle, averaging 20.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per game during his two seasons.

Paul Westhead, the La Salle coach at the time, seconded all of Jellybean’s motions.

“He had a lot of moves,” Westhead said. “He’d cut you up any which way.”

Bryant was the 14th overall pick in the 1975 NBA draft, going to 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 Lakers 7-foot-2 center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Also in 1975, the 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 ahead of the 1979-80 season 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 last NBA season.

“Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant was a local basketball icon, whose 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,” the Sixers said in a statement. “Our condolences go out to the Bryant family.”

Bryant then embarked on a nomadic career overseas as a player and a coach. He played through 1992 in Italy and France, not returning to Philadelphia until Kobe was about to begin high school. Bryant served as head coach of the girls’ team at Akiba Hebrew Academy in 1992-93 before moving to La Salle as an assistant for the duration of 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 1973-75 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.”

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 co-sign his first Lakers contract, a $3.5-million deal over three years, because Kobe was too young to sign for himself.

The Lakers rookie used some of his newfound wealth to buy cars for Joe, Pam, Sharia and Shaya, all of whom lived with him in Pacific Palisades for three years until Joe and Pam purchased a house less than a mile away.

“We weren’t just going to let him come out here by himself,” Joe told Times columnist Bill Plaschke early in 2003.

“My family was always there for me,” Kobe said around that 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 and father and sisters are no longer the priority.”

His parents did not come to Kobe and Vanessa’s wedding or visit their new home. When Lower Merion High retired Bryant’s jersey in 2002, Joe and Pam sat in one section of the stands, Vanessa in another.

Why the tension? Kobe said his father — who had been younger than Kobe when he married Pam at age 20 — felt uneasy about his devotion to Vanessa and did not like that she was Latina. Joe said: “Once he decided to get married, it’s his life now.”

Bryant jumped back into coaching in 2003, spending one year each with the Las Vegas Rattlers and the Boston Frenzy of the American Basketball Assn. He moved to the WNBA and became head coach of the Sparks for two seasons, leading L.A. to a 25–9 record and a conference finals berth in 2006. A year later, he was replaced by former Lakers star Michael Cooper.

“I’m devastated to hear about the loss of my friend Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, the father of Kobe Bryant,” 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 had the power to brighten any room, and a great husband and father. Cookie and I are praying for his wife Pam, daughters Sharia and Shaya, and the rest of the Bryant family, friends, and all those who loved Joe.”

From 2007 to 2015, Bryant coached a handful of teams in Japan, Italy and Southeast Asia. As recently as 2013, Bryant was working out regularly at the full-length basketball court on the second floor of the L.A. apartment building where he and Pam lived.

His workout? He’d make 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 age 60.