LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, the father of Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Kobe Bryant and a coach for the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, has died, according to media reports today. He was 69.
La Salle University head basketball coach Fran Dunphy told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Joe Bryant had a massive stroke on Tuesday. The Philadelphia Inquirer was the first to report his death.
The former Philadelphia 76er died four years after his son and granddaughter, Gianna, were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas.
Joe Bryant was a first-round draft pick of the Golden State Warriors in the 1975 NBA Draft. His rights were sold to the Philadelphia 76ers months later. He spent four seasons with the Sixers before playing for the San Diego Clippers and Houston Rockets.
He played professionally in Europe with teams in Italy and France before retiring in 1992.
He was a coach with the Los Angeles Sparks from 2005 to 2007.
Joe Bryant is survived by his wife Pam, his daughters Sharia and Shaya, and his grandchildren.
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