Bryants

When it came to Kobe Bryant, former Lakers teammate and coach Byron Scott immediately noticed the teenager’s work ethic.Yet Scott, who won three championships with the Lakers, discovered that Bryant was unique in his approach to the game.…

Almost all N.B.A. players are endorsed by one sneaker company or another. But only a handful have lines of shoes named after them, fewer have popular lines that sell tens or hundreds of millions of dollars worth of merchandise annually and…