Kobe Bryant's NBA career highlights: Late LA Lakers legend's stats

The world of sport has been rocked by the tragic and sudden death of basketball legend Kobe Byrant, who was killed in a helicopter crash at just 41-years-old on Sunday.

Regarded as one of the greatest basketball players to have ever played the game, Bryant was a true titan of the sport and is heralded as an inspiration to an entire generation of younger players.

Having made his NBA debut in 1996, Bryant went on to spend his entire 20-season career with the LA Lakers, with whom he won five championships and racked up innumerable personal accolades, including four All-Star MVP Awards.

Here are the superstar's NBA career highlights.

One-club man

Bryant spent 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, playing for the club from 1996-2016.

Only one man had a longer one-club career than Bryant - Dirk Nowitzki, who spent 21 seasons with the Dallas Mavericks.

Personal and team success

Bryant won five NBA championships during his career, in 2000, 2002, 2009 and 2010, and bagged four All-Star MVP Awards, winning these in 2002, 2007, 2009 and 2011.

Point scorer

Bryant amassed a huge amount of regular-points across his 20 seasons - 33,643 in fact, which puts him fourth in the all time list behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (36,928) and LeBron James (33,655).

Forth-highest of all time

Bryant also scored huge a number of points in the NBA play-offs, with his 5,640 total points putting fourth-highest ever behind James (6,911), Michael Jordan (5,987) and Abdul-Jabbar (5,762).

Record-breaker

On January 22, 2006, Bryant scored a career high 81 points in a single game as the Lakers beat the Toronto Raptors 122-104.

The total still stands as a modern-day record in a single game.

50-point scorer

Throughout his long career, Bryant scored 50 points or more a whopping 25 times, a record which has only ever been beaten by two people - Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan.

Prodigy

Bryant entered the NBA as a 17-year-old directly from high school, after being recognised as one of the country's brightest basketball talents.

He was only the sixth NBA player in history to do so, and the second in the past 20 years after Kevin Garnett the year before.

Relentless points scorer

The superstar scored an incredible 60 points in his last ever game for the Lakers before his retirement at 37-years-old, ending his 20-year career on a high.

It was the third time he had scored 60 points in his career - a record only beaten by Wilt Chamberlain

Olympic gold medallist

To add to his success as a pro basketball NBA player, Bryan also won two gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics as part of the US national team.

Academy Award winner

And his success doesn't just extend to basketball - in 2018, he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for the film Dear Basketball.

Written and narrated by Bryant, it is basted on a letter he wrote to The Players' Tribune announcing his retirement in 2015 and is often thought of as a love letter to the sport that gave him so much.