Kobe Bryant explains why he hasn’t spoken to his parents in 3 years

Kobe Bryant who played his last NBA game last weekend revealed on ESPN.com that he hadn't spoken to his parents in the last three years. He said the reason he stopped speaking with them and helping them out was because they auctioned off his High school memorabilia without his consent. 

He said:

“Our relationship is shit,”. “I say to them, ‘I’m going to buy you a very nice home, and the response is ‘That’s not good enough’?” “Then you’re selling my shit?”

After his parents' lawyers worked out a settlement allowing them to auction six items of Kobe's memorabilia totaling $500,000 in 2013,  his parents issued a statement which read:

Hi parents

“We regret our actions and statements related to the Kobe Bryant auction memorabilia,” the statement from Joe and Pamela Bryant read. “We apologize for any misunderstanding and unintended pain we may have caused our son and appreciate the financial support that he has provided to us over the years.”

Kobe who has two sisters said that he has also stopped supporting his sisters because they are smart college educated women who have their own careers and can support themselves.

Before the incident with his parents, Kobe financially supported his parents and sisters and his wife-Vanessa's family. Even though he has stopped supporting his family financially, he is still supporting Vanessa's parents.

Kobe also mentioned that his father's failure as an NBA player was what motivated him to be a successful NBA player. 

He said his father, Joe Bryant was a 6-foot-9 forward with the skill set of a guard that would have made him successful in today’s NBA, but in the Eastern Conference of the late 1970s, he was miscast as a defensive specialist.

According to Joe Bryant himself, his whole career would’ve been different if he’d been in a different system and had been able to play on the perimeter like Magic Johnson.

Kobe said:

“When I hear those things, I don’t really understand them.”

Why should the whims of fate, which system he played in,  determine the success of a man’s career?

And he didn't understand how his father accepted that and failed to be successful.

In Kobe’s mind, he could never accept disappointment on the court like his father did. He couldn’t. Not if he wanted to be a legend, so his father's failure drove him to be a successful NBA player, the Legend he has become today.

Source: ESPN.com