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.

WIMBLEDON — This wasn’t a torch-passing. It was more like a torch-grabbing, followed by a sprint around the bend and then another mile or two down the road.

Last year, Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic by a whisker in the Wimbledon men’s final, taking advantage of a few rare errors from the now 24-time Grand Slam champion to win an up-and-down five-set saga that lasted nearly five hours.

He snuck away with that title. On Sunday, he hammered and danced and drop-shotted his way to a second consecutive Wimbledon men’s singles title. This was a 6-2, 6-2 7-6(7-4) drubbing of Djokovic and his surgically-repaired right knee, on a court the Serb has mostly owned for more than a decade.

When something happens twice, it ceases to be an accident, ailing knee or not.  

A deteriorating joint is the sort of thing that a 37-year-old champion who has played professional tennis for 20 years has to deal with.

It’s bad luck. It’s also life in the tennis twilight, as so many others who have gone through it can attest. It’s the sort of slow dying of the light that gives a player such as 21-year-old Alcaraz — a generational talent who plays with a joy so many other players yearn for — the chance to grab a torch and run away with it, lighting up the sport.  

For the better part of a decade, Djokovic has been the dominant player. Even last year, when Alcaraz nicked him on Centre Court, it was the lone stumble in one of his greatest seasons. He won Grand Slam titles at the Australian, French, and U.S. Opens; he won the season-ending Tour Finals; he had a No 1 next to his name in the rankings at the end of the year for a record eighth time.

All at 36 years old.

But he is 37 now.

And in seven magical weeks, beginning in Paris in late May and ending Sunday on the most famous court in the sport, Alcaraz made all that look like the last great chapter in the most decorated and accomplished career in the modern era of tennis, which began in 1968. 

Djokovic may yet rise again. He did plenty of rising at the All England Club over the past two weeks, when few would have even tried. He should be as good as a a 37-year-old fighting to keep his body in tune can be, by the time he defends his U.S. Open title in New York at the end of August. 

Forget all that for a minute, though. With this win, Alcaraz joined one of the most exclusive clubs in men’s tennis. He became the rare player who can win on the slow red clay of Roland Garros in June, then repeat the trick on the slick grass of SW19 in July.

Rod Laver. Bjorn Borg. Rafael Nadal. Roger Federer. Djokovic. And now Alcaraz. That’s it in the Open Era. With an extra chair on the end, they can fit in a booth at one of the pubs in Wimbledon Village.

Alcaraz holds the Wimbledon title for the second consecutive year (Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images)

 “A huge honor to me,” the Spaniard said, as he clutched the winner’s trophy in the late-afternoon sun. “Huge champions.”

Then, he said he isn’t one of them yet. He still has a lot of work to do.

He is off to a very good start.

Djokovic called Alcaraz’s win “inevitable”, after 12 days in which the Serbian had made his surgeon, and the physical therapist who guided his rehabilitation from a meniscus operation on June 5, look like true masters of the trade. By the time he dispatched Lorenzo Musetti on Friday to cruise into his 10th Wimbledon final, and 37th Grand Slam final, he appeared to be floating across and up and down the court, as though the surgery had happened in the distant past. 

In recent years, he had won Grand Slam titles with tears in an abdominal muscle and a hamstring. At Wimbledon today, he was on the verge of doing it less than six weeks after a knee operation. 

Then, however, Alcaraz appeared on the other side of the net.

This was not the nervous, first-time Wimbledon finalist who 12 months ago lost the first five games of the final before somehow recovering from that early blitz. Alcaraz is no longer some boy wonder, and on Sunday he was a man with a championship to defend and a chance to put the sport in a headlock.

Alcaraz slid this shot over the net for a winner (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

 “He was better than me in every aspect of the game,” Djokovic said. This final may have an asterisk, one that may grow larger if Djokovic returns to being the player he was before knee surgery, or even a figment of that player. For now, it is an assessment without blemish. “Movement. He was striking the ball beautifully. From the very beginning, he was better.”  

Djokovic served first. A dozen minutes later, he was still serving, fighting with everything he had to win what is so often the meaningless first game of a match. Back and forth they went, through seven deuces and five chances for Alcaraz to break. 

Alcaraz unleashed his first outrageous shot of the day midway through those 12 minutes, a scorching forehand down the line with Djokovic rushing the net. Djokovic didn’t even bother turning his head. It’s the shot that Alcaraz lands when he is feeling his magic. 

Djokovic’s chest was rising and falling between points, his panting audible from 250 feet away. No wonder he was a half-step late to catch up with a volley, the ball dipping below the net before a furtive backhand swish of his racket sent it into the mesh. Then he sent an easy forehand sailing wide. He put himself in a hole — a hole he would spend the next 135 minutes trying to dig himself out of.

Alcaraz dragged Djokovic all over a court he has made his living room (John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)

Afterwards, he thought back to last year’s epic five-set loss.

“We went toe-to-toe,” Djokovic said, with a mix of pride for having gotten so far so soon after his surgery, and resignation about how dramatically the dynamic had shifted in 12 months. “This year, it was nothing like that. It was all about him. He was the dominant force.”

It’s something everyone is probably going to have to get used to, if they haven’t already.

Jannik Sinner of Italy, the 23-year-old Australian Open champion, remains the world No. 1, because of the complicated formula the sport uses for its rankings. Alcaraz is likely to be back there before too long. Plus, no matter what the rankings say, the Spaniard is now the sport’s alpha dog, a four-time Grand Slam champion with a game that is still developing. He is capable of tennis acrobatics that he relishes almost as much as does winning – and sometimes more. He does plenty of both.

“Shotmaker” doesn’t do the flair of his game justice. Alcaraz is a shot creator, a player who has to always be innovating and improvising, pushing the limits of what he can do with a racket and ball.

After muffing three championship points on his own serve, Alcaraz had to reset to push the final set to a tiebreak and ward off Djokovic one last time.

As he rushed the net, Djokovic fired a ball at his shoelaces. Alcaraz skipped up and dipped the top of his racket to the grass. Somehow, he made the ball spin just over the net. He tried to fight off a grin as he walked back to start the next point, shaking his finger at the crowd.

Alcaraz’s finesse in the front of the court made a huge difference (Frey/TPN via Getty Images)

Then he cracked a 120mph second serve like those three match points had never happened, and then it was the tiebreak and then it was deja vu from Paris. Alcaraz climbed into the stands once more, joining a clump with his team, a three-way embrace with his parents, and then the longest hug of all with Juan Carlos Ferrero, the former world No 1, his coach and tennis father since he was 14.

He knew what he had pulled off, as he rose into the rarefied air of the French Open-Wimbledon double club, ready to sink into another year as the champion of the most important tournament in the sport.  

He’s on the road to where he wants to go, still emerging while already a star.

“It’s good for tennis to have new faces,” he said.

Especially him, the brightest new face of all.

(Photos: Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)

Pittsburgh Pirates phenom pitcher Paul Skenes has wowed everyone in baseball with what he has done since being called up in May, and Tuesday night will notch another milestone under his belt as he is set to start the All-Star Game for the National League. 

Skenes, who has a 1.90 ERA over 11 starts this season, has earned the start, and one of the hitters who could be facing him at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, sung high praise for a pitcher he believes will not be one-and-done at these types of games. 

“Gotten a chance to watch a couple of his games the past couple weeks since he got called up, and it’s special stuff, man. Electric stuff,” New York Yankees reigning American League MVP Aaron Judge said during an All-Star Game media availability on Monday. 

All the talk surrounding Skenes is his electric arm that can dial up a fastball to triple digits on the radar gun. However, when Judge watches him on the mound, he sees much more than a power arm, which is why he has had early success. 

“You can talk about the velocity of his pitches and what he does, but the guy’s a pitcher, man,” Judge explained. “He can work all three, four, five of his pitches. Throw it to every part of the zone any count. He’s a complete pitcher.

“It’s going to be fun. I think we’re all excited to see him on the mound, see him do his thing, especially in his first All-Star Game. Getting the nod to be a starter, it’s impressive, man. Definitely looking forward to facing him.”

There is a chance Judge will not face Skenes despite batting fourth in the American League All-Star lineup on Tuesday. Pitchers usually do not go more than one inning in All-Star Games, not only to conserve arms for the second half of the regular season, but also to get every All-Star a chance to pitch in the game. 

If Skenes goes 1-2-3 in the first inning and is taken out after that, Judge will be facing someone else in the bottom of the second inning. 

However, Judge’s Yankees teammate Juan Soto will be hitting third in the AL order. 

“I’ll make sure he faces him,” Soto said on MLB Network’s broadcast alongside Judge before the MLB Home Run Derby on Monday night. 

PIRATES ROOKIE PHENOM PAUL SKENES MAKES MLB HISTORY WITH ANOTHER DOMINATING OUTING

Aaron Judge, #99 of the New York Yankees, takes batting practice during the 2024 Gatorade All-Star Workout Day at Globe Life Field on Monday, July 15, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. (Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Soto also praised Skenes. 

“He’s incredible. It’s incredible to see a guy like that put in the performances he’s been doing. He’s a young guy just coming in, coming up, showing his stuff and everything. It’s pretty electric stuff, so we’ll see how it goes,” he said.

Judge was asked what he would be thinking about in the batter’s box if he does face Skenes.

“The approach? Don’t blink,” he said, laughing. “That ball is coming in pretty fast.”

Skenes is just getting started for his career, and he is already notching franchise and league rookie records while proving he is one of the best in the game right now with the ball in his hand. 

If health is on his side, Skenes should be featured at the All-Star Games many times as he continues to play in MLB, and Judge wants to see it. 

Aaron Judge, #99 of the New York Yankees, speaks to the media during Gatorade All-Star Workout Day at Globe Life Field on July 15, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. (Gene Wang/Getty Images)

“He’s going to be one of the top pitchers in this game for a long time, so it’s going to be exciting to get a chance to face him in this first one, and I know he’s going to have multiple All-Star Game starts for years to come. This is pretty cool,” he said. 

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