New Delhi, April 5 -- Kobe Bryant was born in Philadelphia in 1978, spent part of his childhood in Italy while his father Joe Bryant played professionally, and returned to the United States to star at Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania. He skipped college, entered the 1996 NBA draft, and was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he became one of the defining athletes of his era, winning five NBA championships, the 2008 league MVP award, and two Olympic gold medals across a 20-year career. After retiring in 2016, Bryant moved into storytelling and entrepreneurship; his poem Dear Basketball became the basis for the Oscar-winning animated short of the same name in 2018.

The quote is widely attributed to Bryant and has been reproduce...