Bravo Kobe!

　　Kobe became the youngest player to score 20,000 points in the NBA.

　　KOBE Bryant has a good reason to be happy this Christmas. He got an early present last week. He became the youngest player to score 20,000 points in the NBA.

　　It was the end of a great year for the 29-year-old. At the beginning of 2007, his team, the Los Angeles Lakers (洛杉矶湖人队), were not playing well. People said that Bryant would be traded for another player.

　　But now he is leading the Lakers on a winning streak. He says his future is with the team. He's confident now he's got the record: "It's special to do it," he said of breaking it.

　　Bryant grew up in Philadelphia (费城). He was lucky because his father Joe was a basketball player. Bryant practiced with one of his father's former teams, the 76ers (费城76人队), at the age of 13.

　　Although he was doing well at school, Bryant didn't go to college. Instead, he joined the Charlotte Hornets (夏洛特黄蜂队). At the age of 18, he became the youngest-ever player to be in an NBA game.

　　Bryant is cool, quiet and gifted. Many people compare him to Michael Jordan – the NBA's greatest-ever player.

　　"If there's a player in the NBA who has a chance to be Michael Jordan, I believe this is him. He combines talent with working really hard," says the US reporter, Neil Curtis.