In a way, writing about Kobe Bryant's fantasy career feels hopelessly redundant. Here's a guy who grew up as the son of an NBA and international ballplayer, became an NBA rotation player at 18 and lasted 20 seasons at the game's highest level. He's earned five championship rings, has played in 14 All-Star games, is the NBA's third all-time leading scorer and has upwards of $300 million for his on-court efforts alone. If that's not a fantasy life, I don't know what is.
Of course for us the term 'fantasy' has a different connotation altogether. For nearly two decades, gamers have sought Bryant to anchor their teams and for good reason. Few players have been as consistently productive and before his Achilles injury a few years ago, he was also exceptionally durable. All that has changed the past couple of years, but the fact remains Bryant was one of the key fantasy basketball assets of his era.
In honor of Bryant's retirement announcement this week, the time feels right to do a little retrospective of his contributions to the alternate reality of fantasy hoops. There's been plenty of discussion of where Bryant ranks in real-world contributions, so this augments, and in many ways mirrors, that discussion.