Kobe Impresses Magic With His Italian

Kobe Bryant impresses Magic Johnson with his Italian in 1998. Kobe was just 19 years old at the time he came onto Magic’s show.

Excerpt from ‘Kobe Bryant: 7 Obscure Facts About the LA Lakers Star’ article by Ethan Norof:

Bryant spent some of his childhood in Italy, and he began learning Italian at age six in grade school.

To this day, the shooting guard still speaks the language fluently, and he has used it to communicate with some of his teammates on the court.

There was more of an interest in soccer than basketball after school in Italy among his peers, so Bryant began to pick up the language rather quickly in an effort to play with the others.

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[nba_fan]

"I do [speak] a little bit." Kobe being modest dude was fluent as hell in Italian

[blueintheface]

Ci manchi tanto, Kobe.
We really miss you, Kobe.

[eduardorossi]

The nice fact is that his Italian pronunciation sounded like a guy from Tuscany. Love it ❤

[Maco-]

As an italian i can say that he's really good at speaking our language

[punpompur]

With the hand gestures as well. A true italian

[corvoyami]

He was very loved in Italy, and you can tell he loved Italy. I remember he did something in Italy at a school for basketball, it was great.

[mike_tkgchs]

grande Kobe - sarebbe stato fantastico vedere un uno contro uno con Magic.
Italy definitely lost one compaesano there . RIP Kobe

[federicovultaggio]

I'm Italian, so I'm able to translate every word for you guys: "I change direction, holding the ball with my right hand, and I'll smash it in your face".

[danilobonomo]

Kobe nei nostri cuori .
L'Italia ti Amerà per sempre.

[frankpfau]

great italian and truly the most beloved…
this tragedy was atrocious…😔

[saeba]

Non vi dimenticheremo MAI Kobe e Gianna. Vi ameremo per sempre ❤️

[danilobonomo]

L'Italia Ti amerá Per Sempre Kobe ❤

[fustigato]

we loved him so much in Italy, so much...

[iinerd]

"Cambio di direzione, con la palla nella mano destra e vado a canestro... e ti schiaccio sulla tua faccia!" ( he should say "e ti schiaccio IN faccia" but of course these slight differences in languages expecially in details like those crappy preposition... is normal you lose it! Kobe 100% Italian! ❤)

[kobefactory]

Kobe idolized Magic so much. You could see how much he enjoyed being around him. 🐍

[sail.to.the.MN]

He’s way more italian than any american-italian in new jersey.

[ReaperOfSouls]

Amava veramente tanto l'italia, mi è sempre piaciuto Kobe. Davvero una grande perdita

[giovannispinotti]

What really strikes me is that as soon as he goes "eeeh", when he's switching to Italian, you definitely hear his whole tone and voice change. You can tell he's grown up in Italy and his Italian is basically native good. Also because I don't know how often later in life he'd practice it - you can rust a bit with time.

[carlobellinaso]

His italian is truly fluent . Congratulations !

[joederocco]

im italian he speaks amazing italian. kobe brother