Search Kobe Bryant’s vertical and 38 inches comes up again and again. I cannot trace it to a test. The putback against Chicago in 2000, shown in the source video, makes me think his best jump was higher. I would put him around 40 to 42 inches, with some room because that camera angle is tough.
What 38 inches would look like
The NBA lists Kobe at six-foot-six. If you use that height with a ten-foot rim, it takes about 42 inches for the top of his head to get level with the basket. A 38-inch jump would leave him about four inches short. That is a useful check whenever somebody repeats the 38 as an exact career maximum.
In the 2000 putback, Kobe comes in for the rebound and gets his head near the rim as he finishes. If the head is only a little below rim level, 38 looks low under the six-foot-six height assumption. But the view is oblique. The rim and his head do not sit on the same camera plane, so I would not turn one paused frame into a claimed 41.2-inch measurement.
Why I leave room in the estimate
A putback is also a useful kind of attempt for a different reason: the player can run in and jump before he has the ball. He still has to read the rebound and finish, but he is not carrying it throughout the approach. That makes this one worth looking at when estimating a maximum. It does not prove this was his highest jump ever; it gives us a visible example that challenges the repeated 38.
A head near, and perhaps just below, rim level points to somewhere around 40 to 42 inches here. A clear side-on image or a documented test could narrow that. Until then, I would rather give the range and the jump I used than trade an unsupported 38 for a different exact number.
The same video estimates Blake Griffin near 40 and revisits Michael Jordan's much-repeated 48-inch claim. The NBA vertical table keeps those comparisons and their source clips together.