Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant, a longtime professional basketball player and coach, died Tuesday at 69.
The Philadelphia Inquirer had the news first.
Bryant, a Philadelphia native, played for the La Salle Explorers from 1973-75 before remaining in the city to play for the Philadelphia 76ers from 1975-79. During this stretch, Bryant’s wife Pamela gave birth to son Kobe, a future Hall of Famer, in 1978. After his time with the 76ers concluded, Bryant played for the then-San Diego Clippers and Houston Rockets before embarking on a decade-long career in Italy.
Bryant later transitioned to coaching, becoming an assistant with his alma mater from 1993-96 before resigning and not returning to coaching until he became an assistant with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks in 2005 under former 76ers teammate Henry Bibby. After Bibby was fired, Bryant was named head coach and took the Sparks to the 2007 Western Conference Finals, but was replaced by Michael Cooper after the season. Bryant would have one more brief stint with the Sparks in 2011, but after his first run ended, his coaching career was exclusively in Asia, making stops in Japan and Thailand before retiring in 2015.
While a cause of death was not revealed, current Explorers head coach and fellow Philadelphia basketball luminary Fran Dunphy told the Inquirer that Bryant had recently suffered a massive stroke.
