He was from the suburbs, lived on the upscale Main Line, the son of a 76er named Joe “Jellybean” Bryant. Kobe was worldly in a town that was notably parochial. He grew up in Italy as his father completed his professional career, and became fluent in Italian and Spanish. And he had no patience for the “Rocky,” blue-collar, underdog mind-set of Philadelphia’s sports teams and their fans.

He professed to have grown up as a Lakers fan. Famously, during the 2001 N.B.A. finals against the Sixers, Bryant promised he would return and “cut their hearts out” after the Lakers lost Game 1. He did, winning his second of five titles.

Eventually, time seemed to polish the sharp edges of local sporting antipathy toward Bryant, and he is now acknowledged as one of the two greatest basketball players from Philadelphia, along with Wilt Chamberlain

To Lower Merion, Bryant remains what Downer called the heartbeat of the school. He gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to his alma mater, and Lower Merion’s gym bears his name. Former high school teammates helped coach at Bryant’s summer basketball camps, where he would insist they teach 10-year-olds the intricacies of the Lakers’ triangle offense. He remained close to his former coach and to his English teacher, Jeanne Mastriano, whom he once called his muse.