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The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality
"A compelling origin story of a time that really wasn’t so long ago but through the lens of tragedy feels like forever. Kobe-ologists will devour this book, reveling in the anecdotes about his intensity & the engaging game recaps." ― Associated Press
“Every superhero needs an origin story.” –Jeff Pearlman
The inside look at one of the most captivating and consequential figures in our culture―with never-before-heard interviews.
Kobe Bryant’s death in January 2020 did more than rattle the worlds of sports and celebrity. The tragedy of that helicopter crash, which also took the life of his daughter Gianna, unveiled the full breadth and depth of his influence on our culture, and by tracing and telling the oft-forgotten and lesser-known story of his early life, The Rise promises to provide an insight into Kobe that no other analysis has.
In The Rise , readers will travel from the neighborhood streets of Southwest Philadelphia―where Kobe’s father, Joe, became a local basketball standout―to the Bryant family’s isolation in Italy, where Kobe spent his formative years, to the leafy suburbs of Lower Merion, where Kobe’s legend was born. The story will trace his career and life at Lower Merion―he led the Aces to the 1995-96 Pennsylvania state championship, a dramatic underdog run for a team with just one star player―and the run-up to the 1996 NBA draft, where Kobe’s dream of playing pro basketball culminated in his acquisition by the Los Angeles Lakers.
In researching and writing The Rise , Mike Sielski had a terrific advantage over other writers who have attempted to chronicle Kobe’s life: access to a series of never-before-released interviews with him during his senior season and early days in the NBA. For a quarter century, these tapes and transcripts preserved Kobe’s thoughts, dreams, and goals from his teenage years, and they contained insights into and told stories about him that have never been revealed before.
This is more than a basketball book. This is an exploration of the identity and making of an icon and the effect of his development on those around him―the essence of the man before he truly became a man.
“Every superhero needs an origin story.” –Jeff Pearlman
The inside look at one of the most captivating and consequential figures in our culture―with never-before-heard interviews.
Kobe Bryant’s death in January 2020 did more than rattle the worlds of sports and celebrity. The tragedy of that helicopter crash, which also took the life of his daughter Gianna, unveiled the full breadth and depth of his influence on our culture, and by tracing and telling the oft-forgotten and lesser-known story of his early life, The Rise promises to provide an insight into Kobe that no other analysis has.
In The Rise , readers will travel from the neighborhood streets of Southwest Philadelphia―where Kobe’s father, Joe, became a local basketball standout―to the Bryant family’s isolation in Italy, where Kobe spent his formative years, to the leafy suburbs of Lower Merion, where Kobe’s legend was born. The story will trace his career and life at Lower Merion―he led the Aces to the 1995-96 Pennsylvania state championship, a dramatic underdog run for a team with just one star player―and the run-up to the 1996 NBA draft, where Kobe’s dream of playing pro basketball culminated in his acquisition by the Los Angeles Lakers.
In researching and writing The Rise , Mike Sielski had a terrific advantage over other writers who have attempted to chronicle Kobe’s life: access to a series of never-before-released interviews with him during his senior season and early days in the NBA. For a quarter century, these tapes and transcripts preserved Kobe’s thoughts, dreams, and goals from his teenage years, and they contained insights into and told stories about him that have never been revealed before.
This is more than a basketball book. This is an exploration of the identity and making of an icon and the effect of his development on those around him―the essence of the man before he truly became a man.
372 pages, Hardcover
Published January 11, 2022
194 people are currently reading
6229 people want to read
About the author
Mike Sielski
13 books33 followersMike Sielski is the author of five books, including Magic in the Air: The Myth, the Mystery, and the Soul of the Slam Dunk and The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality. A co-host on Sports Radio 94 WIP, he has been a sports columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Inquirer.com since 2013 and was formerly a reporter at The Wall Street Journal. His work has been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing and The Year’s Best Sports Writing, and over his career he has been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Association of Black Journalists. He lives in Bucks County, Pa.
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January 26, 2022Behind every sports legend is the story of what it took to achieve that greatness. For the late Kobe Bryant, one of the NBA’s most renowned players, that story took place largely in a high school outside of Philadelphia. Sports columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer Mike Sielski chronicles Bryant’s thrilling evolution from a young prodigy to a basketball star in his book, “The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality.”
Click here to read the rest of my review in the Christian Science Monitor.
Click here to read the rest of my review in the Christian Science Monitor.
March 19, 2022
The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality is an in-depth look at the making of a phenomenal athlete and global icon. Whether you are a die hard basketball fan or uninterested in sports, it’s likely if you’re about 10 or older, you knew who he was.
The Rise chronicles Kobe’s formative years and offers a detailed look at his high school basketball career at Lower Merion. In addition to being a star on the court, he was a smart student. The world was lucky to see glimpses of his creativity outside of sports once he retired, through the YA books he wrote and other media projects he began creating with his company, Granity Studios.
It took me forever to read this, at no fault of the book itself. The preface and initial chapter focus on the loss of Kobe following his death and that’s something I’d be fine not reliving again, though I certainly understand the magnitude of such a loss — Fame and reach like Kobe had does not happen overnight. The Rise document the build of his influence, from his high school basketball career to deciding who to sign his first shoe deal with, and everything in between.
”We attach so much to our athletes. We see what they have done and can do. That's their gravitational
pull, the attraction they have to us. They give us a standard to aspire to, a bar against which the rest of us can measure ourselves, and with Kobe, that pull was even stronger, because he was not limiting himself to basketball. He had been the executive producer of a short animated film, Dear Basketball, that had won an Academy Award and was based on a poem he wrote when he retired. In his post-Lakers life, he was, by all appearances, a loving husband to his wife, Vanessa, and a doting and demanding father to his four daughters … There seemed great things ahead for him, things beyond the five championships and the fifteen All-Star Games and the 33,643 points and the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player Award and the self-certainty — a belief in himself so absolute and obvious that it practically glowed and radiated from him — required to take the final shot when everyone in the arena knows you're going to take it. And now all that excellence and redemption and promise had been extinguished, and there was no sense of it to be made. It was barely worth trying. You sat there and it sank in and you gaped and shook your head.”
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Rise chronicles Kobe’s formative years and offers a detailed look at his high school basketball career at Lower Merion. In addition to being a star on the court, he was a smart student. The world was lucky to see glimpses of his creativity outside of sports once he retired, through the YA books he wrote and other media projects he began creating with his company, Granity Studios.
It took me forever to read this, at no fault of the book itself. The preface and initial chapter focus on the loss of Kobe following his death and that’s something I’d be fine not reliving again, though I certainly understand the magnitude of such a loss — Fame and reach like Kobe had does not happen overnight. The Rise document the build of his influence, from his high school basketball career to deciding who to sign his first shoe deal with, and everything in between.
”We attach so much to our athletes. We see what they have done and can do. That's their gravitational
pull, the attraction they have to us. They give us a standard to aspire to, a bar against which the rest of us can measure ourselves, and with Kobe, that pull was even stronger, because he was not limiting himself to basketball. He had been the executive producer of a short animated film, Dear Basketball, that had won an Academy Award and was based on a poem he wrote when he retired. In his post-Lakers life, he was, by all appearances, a loving husband to his wife, Vanessa, and a doting and demanding father to his four daughters … There seemed great things ahead for him, things beyond the five championships and the fifteen All-Star Games and the 33,643 points and the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player Award and the self-certainty — a belief in himself so absolute and obvious that it practically glowed and radiated from him — required to take the final shot when everyone in the arena knows you're going to take it. And now all that excellence and redemption and promise had been extinguished, and there was no sense of it to be made. It was barely worth trying. You sat there and it sank in and you gaped and shook your head.”
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 28, 2022
At a low point I turned to Kobe Bryant, a source of inspiration to me: one of the greatest basketball players of all time, writer of poetry and then YA books, Academy Award winner, rapper, loving and devoted husband, Girl Dad, Coach, mentor to many women and men in basketball, close to some awesome people in and out of basketball -- and gone too soon.
This book is full of information that will be new to some as it was to me, because it's mostly about his high school years written from contemporaneous notes, articles and other publicity, stats and game scores and with interviews. There's background from the time the family moved from Italy to the relatively upscale suburb of Philadelphia in which Kobe spent eighth grade through high school and went pro, only the second player to do that at the time.
For those who care and may not know, his father was an NBA player who destroyed a promising career with drugs and lack of discipline. He was traded, cut, ended up in Italy where Kobe spent a significant amount of time through seventh grade. His culture and manners were not those of greater Philadelphia area basketball nor of his schools. But Kobe didn't care. He was supremely confident. And knew when it was time to leave Italy for the sake of his game.
There are many tasty morsels in here I hadn't heard and want to share some, enough to hopefully whet the appetite of those with great or moderate interest in Kobe or for the sake of them.
Look at him pick up his mini basketball with his mini-mini hands...For now, he merely holds the mini basketball in his hands, and he can see, at the other end of the hallway, a tiny trampoline in front of a miniature basketball hoop, and he does something that brings him joy and that always will. He runs down the hallway and hops onto the trampoline, and the trampoline catapults him into the air, and he slams the ball down through the hoop.
His mother warns him, Don’t dunk, sweetheart. You’ll break the basket.
He picks up the ball again. He dunks again. He is three. !
Most of his childhood before eighth grade was spent in Italy where he father was able to play for various teams. His focus was on basketball and his manners and culture were that of the various parts of Italy where they moved as his father moved from team to team.
in permanent black marker and capital letters, had scribbled “2ND FLOOR KOBE’S ROOM” on a heating pipe, and when Joe and Pam sold the house in 2008, the couple who purchased it from them, Richard and Kate Bayer, thought that detail so endearing that, when they had a few repairs and upgrades done to the house, they asked the workers to cut out a piece of insulation large enough that the words would remain exposed.
For as long as they lived there, and it's not clear whether they still do, many people would go to that home as if on a pilgrimage, and Kate Bayer would (and maybe still does) invite them in.
His locker was robbed. In Italy he never had a locker and he never heard of being robbed. He didn't know the songs popular in the U.S. (but he'd end up putting out rap for four years), he didn't know the slang, he wasn't interested in hanging out.
I never took my studies lightly.… I’m interested in writing, especially poetry, and am active in music, as you may have heard. —KOBE BRYANT
His favorite class was literature, favorite teacher his Public Speaking and also tenth-grade Honors Lit teacher. Everyone else called her Mastriano but with his polished manners it was always Mrs. Mastriano. He pronounced her name as it is in Italian.
“She was so good and so passionate about what she was teaching,” he once said. “She firmly believed that storytelling could change the world.”
...drawing on Greek mythology and the writings of Joseph Campbell, particularly his seminal work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It was obvious to Mastriano that Kobe, even at fifteen, saw himself on that trajectory...He read the Iliad and asked himself: Do I identify with the rage-driven Achilles or the honor-bound Hector?
He was drawn to the story of Odysseus and the Cyclops.
What else were those whispers and complaints from Kobe’s teammates—their anger over his refusal to share the basketball, their assertion that his egotism threatened to hurt the team more than help it—if not a parallel to that parable? “That swagger that alienated the Greek gods,” Mastriano said, “also caused some of Kobe’s peers to dislike and reject him.”
Everything he wrote for Mastriano’s class was about basketball, which annoyed her no end. Didn’t he realize there was more to life than the bouncing ball? She despaired that he would be consumed by the sport, that his authentic self would be devoured or swept away. “I really didn’t get the big picture,” she said.
She didn't foresee he'd write the poem Dear Basketball which would be made into a film and net (pun intended) him an Academy Award. She didn't foresee he'd co-write the first two books in what was to be the Wizenard series, YA combining fantasy with basketball.
Perhaps to make the transition to high school easier, perhaps to hold on to a piece of his time in Italy, Kobe decided early in his freshman year to try out for the varsity soccer team, which at the time was more popular, prestigious, and successful at Lower Merion than boys’ Downer went directly to athletic director Tom McGovern and told him, You can’t do this. You have to pull him off the team. Like baseball had been in middle school, soccer was a hobby for Kobe, not the focus of his future. He could stand giving it up.
First year of high school Kobe already had received his first basketball recruiting letter—from the United States Military Academy at West Point—and he told Hartwell that he was going to play in the NBA.
Basketball all year. AAU. Various camps. Myrtle Beach Classic. It seems like every game he's ever played is in here. Can't be, but a lot. So many games, plays, practices they run together. Maybe if you're from the area or played at his level at the same time or are interested in all of it...It became too much for me, it began to run together. Yes, he was selfish with the ball. He was Kobe Bryant.
But there's so much else in here.
Every year before that, and increasingly every day from eighth to senior year was about basketball, was about local and state championships, was about the NBA. Was all about the NBA.
He never had a girlfriend or even a real date in high school. Someone arranged for him to see a girl who had dated one of the Philadelphia Flyers. He spent the time watching television with her. He only went to one party, his senior year because he knew he was getting close to the NBA and so he went to a high-school party like...anyone else. And he didn't party and he didn't stay long.
And because he knew he was headed for the NBA, he wanted to experience senior prom. He'd still never had a date let alone a girlfriend. But at this point he's Kobe Bryant, famous, photographers crowding the glass windows in the cafeteria to get his picture. When asked he said he wanted to take either Brandy or Tatiana Ali to the prom. It's possible he was being facetious. He was Kobe Bryant. Weeks later Boyz II Men asked him to play in a charity game, someone introduced him to Brandy.
he made small talk with her at halftime, finding her sweet, the kind of girl he could hang out with and talk to as if she were one of his female friends at school.
He took her to his high school prom.
Myrtle Beach Ball Classic:
Kobe asked Downer if he could share a suite for the trip’s five nights with Jeremy Treatman, which both flattered Treatman and put him on notice. “He wanted to feel completely independent,” Treatman recalled, “and he knew he had a friend in me. I was the only one of the five coaches who would not say boo to him. Once they checked in and got their keys, Treatman dropped his bags in the bigger room. Then Kobe Bean Bryant came through the door. he gestured for Treatman to move himself and his suitcases back into the smaller room.
The swag. The confidence. The talent. One of the best ever and he knew it. And the intellectual side, the humility in some ways. He cried when he heard Magic Johnson had AIDS. The book takes you right there as he met his idol, Michael Jordan. Twice. Very different meetings.
I enjoyed reading details of college coaches trying to recruit him. Some made me laugh, some of their delusional, clumsy or foolish attempts. Some were wise, like Dean Smith, who looked at him and said, I know you're not going to college. He was already a celebrity, they knew he'd be one of the best players of all time, this guy who kicked one of his coaches out of the bigger room at the hotel and the coach moved his bags out at once.
Why three stars:
The book is full of, at times for whole chapters, details of games, plays, tournaments, dunks, practices, workouts, other teams' games -- much as I love basketball, for me it got tedious and began to run together. It's not like watching him, that would be awesome. People who are more fanatical than I, who can visualize so much game described, people who played the game, definitely high school 🐐s, will be glad of all those moves, stats and scores. But I wasn't.
The other reason is because he makes it clear he disapproves of Vanessa not mentioning Kobe's parents in the memorial she put together for him and Gianna, let alone having one or both speak. They'd been estranged a long time. They didn't approve of Vanessa. They didn't come to the wedding. They disrespected her and the union which produced a 17-year-old, the late tween Gianna, a toddler and an infant. There's more and he mentions it, in defense of the Bryants. I don't care that he knew Joe and Pam for so many years, his opinion didn't belong in the book.
This book is full of information that will be new to some as it was to me, because it's mostly about his high school years written from contemporaneous notes, articles and other publicity, stats and game scores and with interviews. There's background from the time the family moved from Italy to the relatively upscale suburb of Philadelphia in which Kobe spent eighth grade through high school and went pro, only the second player to do that at the time.
For those who care and may not know, his father was an NBA player who destroyed a promising career with drugs and lack of discipline. He was traded, cut, ended up in Italy where Kobe spent a significant amount of time through seventh grade. His culture and manners were not those of greater Philadelphia area basketball nor of his schools. But Kobe didn't care. He was supremely confident. And knew when it was time to leave Italy for the sake of his game.
There are many tasty morsels in here I hadn't heard and want to share some, enough to hopefully whet the appetite of those with great or moderate interest in Kobe or for the sake of them.
Look at him pick up his mini basketball with his mini-mini hands...For now, he merely holds the mini basketball in his hands, and he can see, at the other end of the hallway, a tiny trampoline in front of a miniature basketball hoop, and he does something that brings him joy and that always will. He runs down the hallway and hops onto the trampoline, and the trampoline catapults him into the air, and he slams the ball down through the hoop.
His mother warns him, Don’t dunk, sweetheart. You’ll break the basket.
He picks up the ball again. He dunks again. He is three. !
Most of his childhood before eighth grade was spent in Italy where he father was able to play for various teams. His focus was on basketball and his manners and culture were that of the various parts of Italy where they moved as his father moved from team to team.
in permanent black marker and capital letters, had scribbled “2ND FLOOR KOBE’S ROOM” on a heating pipe, and when Joe and Pam sold the house in 2008, the couple who purchased it from them, Richard and Kate Bayer, thought that detail so endearing that, when they had a few repairs and upgrades done to the house, they asked the workers to cut out a piece of insulation large enough that the words would remain exposed.
For as long as they lived there, and it's not clear whether they still do, many people would go to that home as if on a pilgrimage, and Kate Bayer would (and maybe still does) invite them in.
His locker was robbed. In Italy he never had a locker and he never heard of being robbed. He didn't know the songs popular in the U.S. (but he'd end up putting out rap for four years), he didn't know the slang, he wasn't interested in hanging out.
I never took my studies lightly.… I’m interested in writing, especially poetry, and am active in music, as you may have heard. —KOBE BRYANT
His favorite class was literature, favorite teacher his Public Speaking and also tenth-grade Honors Lit teacher. Everyone else called her Mastriano but with his polished manners it was always Mrs. Mastriano. He pronounced her name as it is in Italian.
“She was so good and so passionate about what she was teaching,” he once said. “She firmly believed that storytelling could change the world.”
...drawing on Greek mythology and the writings of Joseph Campbell, particularly his seminal work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It was obvious to Mastriano that Kobe, even at fifteen, saw himself on that trajectory...He read the Iliad and asked himself: Do I identify with the rage-driven Achilles or the honor-bound Hector?
He was drawn to the story of Odysseus and the Cyclops.
What else were those whispers and complaints from Kobe’s teammates—their anger over his refusal to share the basketball, their assertion that his egotism threatened to hurt the team more than help it—if not a parallel to that parable? “That swagger that alienated the Greek gods,” Mastriano said, “also caused some of Kobe’s peers to dislike and reject him.”
Everything he wrote for Mastriano’s class was about basketball, which annoyed her no end. Didn’t he realize there was more to life than the bouncing ball? She despaired that he would be consumed by the sport, that his authentic self would be devoured or swept away. “I really didn’t get the big picture,” she said.
She didn't foresee he'd write the poem Dear Basketball which would be made into a film and net (pun intended) him an Academy Award. She didn't foresee he'd co-write the first two books in what was to be the Wizenard series, YA combining fantasy with basketball.
Perhaps to make the transition to high school easier, perhaps to hold on to a piece of his time in Italy, Kobe decided early in his freshman year to try out for the varsity soccer team, which at the time was more popular, prestigious, and successful at Lower Merion than boys’ Downer went directly to athletic director Tom McGovern and told him, You can’t do this. You have to pull him off the team. Like baseball had been in middle school, soccer was a hobby for Kobe, not the focus of his future. He could stand giving it up.
First year of high school Kobe already had received his first basketball recruiting letter—from the United States Military Academy at West Point—and he told Hartwell that he was going to play in the NBA.
Basketball all year. AAU. Various camps. Myrtle Beach Classic. It seems like every game he's ever played is in here. Can't be, but a lot. So many games, plays, practices they run together. Maybe if you're from the area or played at his level at the same time or are interested in all of it...It became too much for me, it began to run together. Yes, he was selfish with the ball. He was Kobe Bryant.
But there's so much else in here.
Every year before that, and increasingly every day from eighth to senior year was about basketball, was about local and state championships, was about the NBA. Was all about the NBA.
He never had a girlfriend or even a real date in high school. Someone arranged for him to see a girl who had dated one of the Philadelphia Flyers. He spent the time watching television with her. He only went to one party, his senior year because he knew he was getting close to the NBA and so he went to a high-school party like...anyone else. And he didn't party and he didn't stay long.
And because he knew he was headed for the NBA, he wanted to experience senior prom. He'd still never had a date let alone a girlfriend. But at this point he's Kobe Bryant, famous, photographers crowding the glass windows in the cafeteria to get his picture. When asked he said he wanted to take either Brandy or Tatiana Ali to the prom. It's possible he was being facetious. He was Kobe Bryant. Weeks later Boyz II Men asked him to play in a charity game, someone introduced him to Brandy.
he made small talk with her at halftime, finding her sweet, the kind of girl he could hang out with and talk to as if she were one of his female friends at school.
He took her to his high school prom.
Myrtle Beach Ball Classic:
Kobe asked Downer if he could share a suite for the trip’s five nights with Jeremy Treatman, which both flattered Treatman and put him on notice. “He wanted to feel completely independent,” Treatman recalled, “and he knew he had a friend in me. I was the only one of the five coaches who would not say boo to him. Once they checked in and got their keys, Treatman dropped his bags in the bigger room. Then Kobe Bean Bryant came through the door. he gestured for Treatman to move himself and his suitcases back into the smaller room.
The swag. The confidence. The talent. One of the best ever and he knew it. And the intellectual side, the humility in some ways. He cried when he heard Magic Johnson had AIDS. The book takes you right there as he met his idol, Michael Jordan. Twice. Very different meetings.
I enjoyed reading details of college coaches trying to recruit him. Some made me laugh, some of their delusional, clumsy or foolish attempts. Some were wise, like Dean Smith, who looked at him and said, I know you're not going to college. He was already a celebrity, they knew he'd be one of the best players of all time, this guy who kicked one of his coaches out of the bigger room at the hotel and the coach moved his bags out at once.
Why three stars:
The book is full of, at times for whole chapters, details of games, plays, tournaments, dunks, practices, workouts, other teams' games -- much as I love basketball, for me it got tedious and began to run together. It's not like watching him, that would be awesome. People who are more fanatical than I, who can visualize so much game described, people who played the game, definitely high school 🐐s, will be glad of all those moves, stats and scores. But I wasn't.
The other reason is because he makes it clear he disapproves of Vanessa not mentioning Kobe's parents in the memorial she put together for him and Gianna, let alone having one or both speak. They'd been estranged a long time. They didn't approve of Vanessa. They didn't come to the wedding. They disrespected her and the union which produced a 17-year-old, the late tween Gianna, a toddler and an infant. There's more and he mentions it, in defense of the Bryants. I don't care that he knew Joe and Pam for so many years, his opinion didn't belong in the book.
April 10, 2022
This book bored me. I found the premise intriguing, wanting to know Kobe's origin story, but Sielski spends too much time discussing side characters that didn't interest me that much. More frustratingly, he never really delves into Kobe's psyche. We read again and again that Kobe practiced obsessively, wanted nothing more than to be the world's best basketball player, believed in himself, but we're never given much more than that. Kobe was surely a complicated, contradictory, fascinating human being, but in this book, he comes across as pretty one-dimensional.
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January 13, 2022I received a free e-copy of The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality by Mike Sielski from NetGalley for my honest review.
A tragic, compelling and beautiful tribute to Kobe Bryant! A story about the life of Kobe Bryant. A detailed look into his past. Who he was, where he came from and how he came to be before we so tragically lost this gifted and talented sports icon.
A tragic, compelling and beautiful tribute to Kobe Bryant! A story about the life of Kobe Bryant. A detailed look into his past. Who he was, where he came from and how he came to be before we so tragically lost this gifted and talented sports icon.
February 28, 2022
I think we all know who Kobe Bryant is, and are aware of the horrific tragedy that took his life in January 2020. What you may not know is his origin story and how he got to be the amazing NBA player and superstar that he was. I knew a little bit but not to this extent, and therefore this book was fascinating and so informative to read. It delves into Kobe’s early life and how his upbringing and early start framed who he was and how he made it to the NBA. This was very well written, I loved the focus not only on Kobe but also on the people around him and how they influenced him early on. He was truly a gifted and remarkable individual that was definitely taken way too soon.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC to review.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC to review.
May 17, 2022
Man this book wasn’t exactly what I thought I was getting into but it was perfect. I learned a BOAT load about kobe’s childhood, his history, lower merions history, and high school basketball life for the committed player in the mid 90s. kobe’s origin story is so unique, and honestly they could make a movie about his senior year high school basketball season. i felt like i was reading a movie script at times fr! mike sielski is one hell of a writer and researcher- this book truly pulled a curtain back on an almost mystical sports great. i liked this book even more for not superficially talking about the “mamba mentality”- it was all first hand accounts, direct interviews, and day in the life narration of a high schooler who was both the most normal and most special kid in the room. why was he the way that he was and when were the first sprouts of greatness? read and find out 😁
I was teetering between 4 and 5 stars but opted for 5. 4.5 with a half star left out for it being hard to follow all the names at times, but hey, that’s just good reporting!
also i loved the lower merion coaches 😭 really felt connected to them as mentors to the players
I was teetering between 4 and 5 stars but opted for 5. 4.5 with a half star left out for it being hard to follow all the names at times, but hey, that’s just good reporting!
also i loved the lower merion coaches 😭 really felt connected to them as mentors to the players
March 23, 2023
Book only really got good with about 100 pages to go, making it roughly 200 pages too long. Not well written. Author uses too long of paragraphs, introduces too many inconsequential characters, doesn’t organize material well, doesn’t transition well, random quotations peppered throughout. I could say more, but that’s enough to conclude that I don’t recommend this book.
January 16, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙜𝙤𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙚𝙩𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙡. 𝙄’𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙖𝙢𝙚. 𝙄 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙢𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙬𝙤𝙤𝙙, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙩. 𝙄 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙖𝙢𝙚. 𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢. 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚.”-𝗞𝗼𝗯𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝘆𝗮𝗻𝘁
When I received this ARC (thank you) from @stmartinspress I was thrilled. But a bit hesitant too. You see, I have been a Kobe fan since I was kid and grew up playing basketball myself. If I’m being honest, I had a teeny tiny (ok, huge) crush as well. So his tragic death shook me (like it did us all). And like I expected, the beginning of this book takes you to where certain people from his life, were on that day. And it was emotional.
Beyond that though, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗲: 𝗞𝗼𝗯𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝘆𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 by @mike.sielski takes us further back to Kobe’s life on the court prior to entering the NBA. And saying he was dedicated to play ball was an understatement. That ‘mamba mentality’ started at a young age. And I really enjoyed learning more about how Kobe came to be the player we all admired in purple and gold.
This book focuses primarily on ‘on court’ stories. Mostly his time in Philadelphia at Lower Merion High. Some names in this book you’ll recognize, and maybe some you won’t. But there are also a few sprinkles of other personal details here and there. And while I would have loved more of those personal details off the court, I appreciated that this was not that, and enjoyed what I did learn. A well put together biography that I would definitely recommend to not only Kobe fans, but sports fans as well.
*I received an ARC for my honest review. All opinions are my own and given freely.
When I received this ARC (thank you) from @stmartinspress I was thrilled. But a bit hesitant too. You see, I have been a Kobe fan since I was kid and grew up playing basketball myself. If I’m being honest, I had a teeny tiny (ok, huge) crush as well. So his tragic death shook me (like it did us all). And like I expected, the beginning of this book takes you to where certain people from his life, were on that day. And it was emotional.
Beyond that though, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗲: 𝗞𝗼𝗯𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝘆𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 by @mike.sielski takes us further back to Kobe’s life on the court prior to entering the NBA. And saying he was dedicated to play ball was an understatement. That ‘mamba mentality’ started at a young age. And I really enjoyed learning more about how Kobe came to be the player we all admired in purple and gold.
This book focuses primarily on ‘on court’ stories. Mostly his time in Philadelphia at Lower Merion High. Some names in this book you’ll recognize, and maybe some you won’t. But there are also a few sprinkles of other personal details here and there. And while I would have loved more of those personal details off the court, I appreciated that this was not that, and enjoyed what I did learn. A well put together biography that I would definitely recommend to not only Kobe fans, but sports fans as well.
*I received an ARC for my honest review. All opinions are my own and given freely.
February 24, 2022
The testimonial on the book cover is accurate - this is an origin story for Kobe Bryant’s superstardom. The author works for a Philadelphia-based newspaper and goes deep into Kobe’s pre-NBA life, with a lot of insight from key figures in Kobe’s childhood. Really enjoyed this book.
September 27, 2021
The Rise is an insightful biography about one of the world's most known sports legends. Mike Sielski gives fans of Kobe Bryant a look at the basketball stars' early life as a young boy working hard and dreaming of making his NBA dreams a reality.
I am a huge basketball fan and grew up watching the ''Black Mamba' aka Kobe Bryant. I still remember where I was when I learned of the news of his passing. That day reminded me how much of an impact a single person can truly have on you. I have never known too much about his life leading up to his legendary career so this is a good book to understand where he developed the dream and how he got there.
Mike Sielski shares some new information about his early life including many parts about him trying to prove doubters wrong on the court, moments with his family, and even his academics. I am sure most of us have heard about his 'Mamba Mentality' and it is so fulfilling to see his attitude be just that even from a young age.
Surprisingly, Kobe had doubters in his life. When he claimed that he wanted to go straight to the NBA after college, many people thought it couldn't be done. The times Kobe heard that only added fuel to the fire and the will to prove them wrong. It is so awesome to see his competitive spirit during his high school days. Yes, some may have called it trash-talking but he always backed up his claims.
Kobe was a gifted and talented player but he also put in the work. As you read interviews from friends and teammates, you understand how much he had to sacrifice. He passed up socializing for gym time. He knew he had the skill so he made sure he put in the work to always give himself the best chance at being the best.
I have never known much about his parents because of their rocky relationship. But you can't deny that they supported their son. They put him with the right coaches and school. And they always made sure to stand up for their son. For example, when a reporter said that insinuated that the only way Kobe would ever get into college would be for athletics and not academics. His mother stepped in and checked the reporter because if he had done his research he would have noticed that Kobe succeeded in school.
I give The Rise 5 stars. Overall, I think that fans of the legend will love an insight into his early life. It's a great biography and tribute to Kobe and leaves his inspirational mark on the world.
I am a huge basketball fan and grew up watching the ''Black Mamba' aka Kobe Bryant. I still remember where I was when I learned of the news of his passing. That day reminded me how much of an impact a single person can truly have on you. I have never known too much about his life leading up to his legendary career so this is a good book to understand where he developed the dream and how he got there.
Mike Sielski shares some new information about his early life including many parts about him trying to prove doubters wrong on the court, moments with his family, and even his academics. I am sure most of us have heard about his 'Mamba Mentality' and it is so fulfilling to see his attitude be just that even from a young age.
Surprisingly, Kobe had doubters in his life. When he claimed that he wanted to go straight to the NBA after college, many people thought it couldn't be done. The times Kobe heard that only added fuel to the fire and the will to prove them wrong. It is so awesome to see his competitive spirit during his high school days. Yes, some may have called it trash-talking but he always backed up his claims.
Kobe was a gifted and talented player but he also put in the work. As you read interviews from friends and teammates, you understand how much he had to sacrifice. He passed up socializing for gym time. He knew he had the skill so he made sure he put in the work to always give himself the best chance at being the best.
I have never known much about his parents because of their rocky relationship. But you can't deny that they supported their son. They put him with the right coaches and school. And they always made sure to stand up for their son. For example, when a reporter said that insinuated that the only way Kobe would ever get into college would be for athletics and not academics. His mother stepped in and checked the reporter because if he had done his research he would have noticed that Kobe succeeded in school.
I give The Rise 5 stars. Overall, I think that fans of the legend will love an insight into his early life. It's a great biography and tribute to Kobe and leaves his inspirational mark on the world.
November 24, 2025
I’ll admit I learned more about Kobe Bryant after his death than I did when he was on the basketball court. This book dives deep into who he was before he became the talented basketball player we all remember him as. He possessed great talent for sure but really leaves an impression is his unwavering work ethic and love of the game.
The author ends the book when he is drafted into the NBA from high school and I found myself wishing for the story to continue from that point to his tragic death, I wanted to read more. If you are looking for an inspirational read with plenty of details of his early years this book is for you.
The author ends the book when he is drafted into the NBA from high school and I found myself wishing for the story to continue from that point to his tragic death, I wanted to read more. If you are looking for an inspirational read with plenty of details of his early years this book is for you.
May 12, 2022
Celebrity deaths usually don’t affect me much, but Kobe’s death left me a wreck for days and still even feels weird to think about. I’m not even a Lakers fan, but Kobe’s rise was so synonymous with my childhood and beginning of my NBA fandom that it made me so emotional when he passed. But this book was about the kid before he was a legend, and it told a bunch of stories I hadn’t heard previously. It primarily outlined his junior and senior years of high school, but also his childhood and early high school years. I loved the stories of Kobe as a young adult and his domination of the Philadelphia basketball scene, I just wish the author would’ve gotten his family to contribute.
January 8, 2024
10,000/10
November 6, 2023
It was disappointing and for most of the time just boring.
I was a big Kobe fan. He was a guy who was able to truly inspire me. I could watching his basketball highlights or interviews basically every day. I think I could translate this huge dose of motivation not only into sport area but also into other levels of life. "If Kobe could wake up at 4 am and train more than other players then maybe I also can do a bit more than others - learn something new, read a book etc." - that was my reasoning those days.
The book's title ends up with a phrase "the Pursuit of Immortality". Paradoxically, I believe that what I admired the most in Kobe Bean Bryant was actually his mortality.
He wasn't the best player that has ever played basketball. His game was for most of the time inefficient and selfish. He is the guy who missed the largest number of shots in the NBA history. He cheated of his wife. He essentially killed the possibility to win more titles with Shaq by being immature and undisciplined...
BUT
... there was always something in his eyes that was inspiring millions of people. The desire to be the best despite many flaws and weaknesses. Training more than others just to be better than them. The ability to overcome failures. Being a true champion in the end.
This book was just too documentary for me. I'm not a type of a guy who needs to know the details from the life of other people. I think that I have never truly admired "real" Kobe Bryant but just his picture I had in my mind. I just don't need all of those bio information included in the book.
However, all of the above does not detract from the content itself. The idea of providing history of Kobe's four year episode in Lower Merion high school is fresh and interesting (I have even once bought my brother Kobe's Lower Merion jersey for his 18 birthday!). It might be very curious for many people.
Nevertheless, I'll put my complaining aside. I'm going to play basketball today first time in three or four years. I somewhat suspect it has something to do with this book :)
I was a big Kobe fan. He was a guy who was able to truly inspire me. I could watching his basketball highlights or interviews basically every day. I think I could translate this huge dose of motivation not only into sport area but also into other levels of life. "If Kobe could wake up at 4 am and train more than other players then maybe I also can do a bit more than others - learn something new, read a book etc." - that was my reasoning those days.
The book's title ends up with a phrase "the Pursuit of Immortality". Paradoxically, I believe that what I admired the most in Kobe Bean Bryant was actually his mortality.
He wasn't the best player that has ever played basketball. His game was for most of the time inefficient and selfish. He is the guy who missed the largest number of shots in the NBA history. He cheated of his wife. He essentially killed the possibility to win more titles with Shaq by being immature and undisciplined...
BUT
... there was always something in his eyes that was inspiring millions of people. The desire to be the best despite many flaws and weaknesses. Training more than others just to be better than them. The ability to overcome failures. Being a true champion in the end.
This book was just too documentary for me. I'm not a type of a guy who needs to know the details from the life of other people. I think that I have never truly admired "real" Kobe Bryant but just his picture I had in my mind. I just don't need all of those bio information included in the book.
However, all of the above does not detract from the content itself. The idea of providing history of Kobe's four year episode in Lower Merion high school is fresh and interesting (I have even once bought my brother Kobe's Lower Merion jersey for his 18 birthday!). It might be very curious for many people.
Nevertheless, I'll put my complaining aside. I'm going to play basketball today first time in three or four years. I somewhat suspect it has something to do with this book :)
July 10, 2023
Another well researched and well written nonfiction piece from Mike Sielski. As I mentioned in my review of his exceptional Fading Echoes, Sielski is a master of his craft, and I had the pleasure of meeting him at Independent Bookstore Day in April, when I purchased both The Rise and Fading Echoes. The challenge of The Rise is that Kobe Bryant was so famous that it is daunting to present something new. Pun intended, Sielski rises to the occasion by focusing on how Kobe became Kobe, including sections about Joe Bryant's development, Bartram high school & LaSalle college career, NBA career, and career & time in Italy (there are a LOT of similarities between Joe's attitude & Kobe's attitude). Though my high school alma mater was one of Lower Merion's Central League opponents and though I have a dark picture of Kobe being mobbed with autograph requests in the parking lot after a Sixers' game his senior year, Sielski provides a TON of information and insights not previously discussed about this singular talent.
September 16, 2023
Book was very interesting to read.
A solid biography on a specific phase of Kobe’s life.
Personally I just expected or wanted a bit more, not to say that makes the book bad, I just enjoyed it a little less.
But I loved constantly learning about how Kobe was always Kobe, and always will be Kobe.
I’ve started to take that idea and applying it to my own life. A constant egotism and confidence backed up by definitive results.
A solid biography on a specific phase of Kobe’s life.
Personally I just expected or wanted a bit more, not to say that makes the book bad, I just enjoyed it a little less.
But I loved constantly learning about how Kobe was always Kobe, and always will be Kobe.
I’ve started to take that idea and applying it to my own life. A constant egotism and confidence backed up by definitive results.
September 1, 2024
Rest in Peace Bean
This book is unlike other Kobe books. With so much already written and known about Kobe this is an interesting concept. The book is the origin story of Kobe, focusing on his early years growing up and with tons of old interviews done with Kobe and his family during Kobe’s high school years. A lot that had been saved by a high school media member on tape all these years. The book also is filled with old stories from old high school teammates, coaches, friends, and teachers.
Kobe is a fascinating person. I am forever a fan.
8.24
This book is unlike other Kobe books. With so much already written and known about Kobe this is an interesting concept. The book is the origin story of Kobe, focusing on his early years growing up and with tons of old interviews done with Kobe and his family during Kobe’s high school years. A lot that had been saved by a high school media member on tape all these years. The book also is filled with old stories from old high school teammates, coaches, friends, and teachers.
Kobe is a fascinating person. I am forever a fan.
8.24
September 25, 2024
This book mostly focuses on Kobe’s upbringing during his high school days in Philly. He had the Mamba mentality at such a young age and was a unique and dominant force at the high school level. It’s also interesting to see how his time living in Italy helped shape him as well. Good read. RIP Mamba.
May 23, 2025
This guy was more put together at 15 than I am at 26
February 4, 2026
Never let a man join your book club. He will choose the most boring book ever. Kobe, (RIP) I’m sorry someone wrote such a dumb book about you.
February 14, 2024
It’s interesting learning about Kobe’s life growing up and through some of his first season in the NBA, but I wish it had gone more into his career. It was very well researched and well written.
January 18, 2022
A good not great insight into Kobe’s rise. The passion and drive that drove Kobe to become a superstar comes through very clearly, but the lack of input from those truely close to him, his family, make it feel like it is 2 or 3 steps removed from uncovering anything brilliant or insightful. 5/10.
November 10, 2025
It’s a great origin story , I enjoyed reading about his time in Italy (always heard about that but never new much about it)
There’s a lot of insight into his mindset and he had that even in high school
There’s a lot of insight into his mindset and he had that even in high school
February 1, 2022
So I was a huge Lakers fan when Kobe played for the team (work and other responsibilities and a dislike of LeBron James have prevented my fandom from continuing). As such, I was intrigued about reading a book about how Kobe became Kobe....but I didn't fully appreciate that this book would focus entirely on his pre-NBA days and largely on his high school years at Lower Merion in Philadelphia. If I knew that going in, I don't know if I would have purchased and read this book as soon as it was released. Also, full disclosure, I have never played basketball on any team or anything other than something extremely sporadic and casual. As such, while I know what a dunk is and what certain other plays are called, the nuances of strategy and play-calling are not my forte.
This book contains a ton of specifics about different high schools and communities in the Philadelphia suburbs. It also has a ton of details about high school basketball coaching, play calling, etcetera. I completely glossed over almost all of these parts. But if any of this sounds appealing to you, you'd probably really like this book.
If you're just a casual Kobe fan or basketball fan, however, while there are nuggets of information in here about his youth - i.e., he never liked to pass the ball - this may not be the best use of your time.
This book contains a ton of specifics about different high schools and communities in the Philadelphia suburbs. It also has a ton of details about high school basketball coaching, play calling, etcetera. I completely glossed over almost all of these parts. But if any of this sounds appealing to you, you'd probably really like this book.
If you're just a casual Kobe fan or basketball fan, however, while there are nuggets of information in here about his youth - i.e., he never liked to pass the ball - this may not be the best use of your time.
February 7, 2022
It gave a lot of insight. I didn't know anything about him before I read the book.
Read
July 3, 2022Kobe’s career was cut short, but he achieved what he’d been yearning for since he was a young kid. Although he was born into basketball royalty, he forged his own path. Through steely discipline and determination combined with raw talent, he achieved greatness, transformed a community, and left a legacy that will live on long after his death.
The way he lived and breathed basketball his whole life turned him into an immortal icon, one that keeps on inspiring people around the world to dream big.
---
Kobe Bryant lived and breathed basketball from a young age – and made it his own.
Picture the scene: a toddler cups a ball in his tiny hand and dashes forward, cheerfully slamming the ball into a miniature basketball hoop. He does it again and again, and each time, his face breaks into a huge grin.
That grinning child – you guessed it – was Kobe Bryant. The Kobe Bryant, who would grow up to be one of the best basketball players of all time.
So how does someone grow up to be a champion or, better yet, a basketball icon? Pure, raw talent is part of it, yes. But while icons are born, they’re also made.
Now, each icon has their own unique story. In Kobe’s case, it was his talent coupled with the favorable circumstances of his birth. Kobe Bryant was steeped in the world of basketball from the time he was a baby; his father made sure of that.
You see, Kobe wasn’t the first professional basketball player in the family. He actually followed in the footsteps of his father, Joe Bryant, who was a pretty talented player himself. Kobe grew up watching every home game his father played as part of their local NBA team, the Philadelphia 76ers – known to fans as the Sixers. Baby Kobe was as comfortable in the basketball arena as he was in his own home.
By carefully watching how his father played and lived the life of a professional basketball player, Kobe learned what to do. But more importantly, he learned what not to do. Because Joe’s basketball career was … rocky.
Although in college he was celebrated as one of the best players in the city, Joe’s career fizzled out once he hit the NBA. He started out playing with the Sixers, but was traded after a public scandal stained his name.
One night, police attempted to pull Joe over while he was driving. But instead of stopping, he sped away, resulting in a high-speed chase. When they finally caught up with him, they discovered two vials of cocaine in the car – along with a woman who was not his wife.
Along with his unpredictable performance on the court – mainly due to his whimsical play and lack of discipline – this scandal proved that Joe was too much of a burden for the Sixers. He was traded to a team in California, where he played for a short time before moving to a different team in Texas. But both were mediocre teams, and he wasn’t given a chance to shine. Finally, Joe’s contract ran out, and no NBA team wanted to sign him. At that stage, Joe had two choices: give up professional basketball altogether or move overseas, where his talents would be valued. And so he decided to move his family to Italy.
---
In high school, Kobe became a champion and transformed his team.
Kobe’s family didn’t choose to send him to Lower Merion High School because of the strength of its basketball program. In fact, in Kobe’s first year playing on the team, the Aces, they suffered a season of crushing losses. As they lost eight games in a row, Kobe could barely contain his frustration.
His teammates just didn’t seem to take the game as seriously as he did. On tour, they’d be messing around while he would stay in his room, rehearsing his moves and brooding over everything that went wrong. It was a lonely first season with the Aces.
But the team did have one thing going for it: a young, ambitious coach, Gregg Downer, who immediately recognized Kobe’s talent. As soon as he saw Kobe playing, Downer knew that a change was coming for the Aces. And he was determined to do everything he could to help Kobe succeed.
So in spite of the grumbles of the rest of the team, Downer put Kobe in the starting lineup. He took every opportunity he could to put the ball in Kobe’s hands and give him opportunity to score. And he even hired Kobe’s father, Joe, to be part of the school’s coaching team, having the hunch that Joe might be able to coach Kobe where others couldn’t.
So to sum it up up until this point: the summer league had gone badly. Kobe’s first year of high school … also went badly.
To Kobe’s credit, he never let the frustration of that awful season discourage him. He kept training, kept practicing. He had an unyielding discipline that extended to every part of his life. He was a straight-A student. He excelled in his literature class. And he treated his body with unusual care for a teenager, especially a teenage boy. His teammates noticed that he never ate junk food and that he drank a gallon of milk with every meal. He was already eating like the NBA player he would become.
So even though that first season was frustrating, it gave Bryant many opportunities to improve his technique. Through every game, he was gaining valuable experience. But he couldn’t carry the team to a victory alone.
Luckily, he wouldn’t have to. The dynamic within the team was transformed by the arrival of another talented player: Jermaine Griffin. Griffin had grown up in Queens, in a poor community with few opportunities for a young athlete. His teacher had signed him up for a scholarship program for promising students that paid for him to attend Lower Merion. Griffin was six foot three, and just as serious about basketball as Kobe was. Unlike Kobe, he wasn’t a basketball prodigy. But he was a solid rebounder and played the tough game Kobe had gotten used to on the Philadelphia courts. He also provided the companionship that Kobe had been craving on the team. The two of them could spend hours practicing, and shared a love of rap music as well as basketball.
Once Griffin was on the team, Kobe’s strengths could really come to the fore. His second season with the Aces was very different than the first. For one, the team started winning, starting the season off with a four-game winning streak. They then lost to another high school, Williamsport, before rebounding with a seven-game winning streak. This was an unbelievable turnaround for a team that had lost almost every single game the year before.
In one game, Kobe scored 34 points in just 32 minutes of play, with five three-point shots. This was unheard of in high school basketball. His coach, Gregg Downer, couldn’t contain his excitement. For the first time, the Aces were becoming a force to be reckoned with.
But Gregg Downer knew that the real test of their strength would be to play other powerful teams in the state. And so he decided to schedule as many extra games as he could.
One Saturday, the Aces prepared themselves for a game in Coatesville against an especially intimidating team called the Red Raiders.
What made the game so daunting was that they’d be playing against Rip Hamilton, a young, cunning basketball player with a reputation for unpredictable, lightning-fast plays. And it was tough. But even Hamilton couldn’t get in the way of an Aces victory. In the last minute of the game, Kobe scored the shot that helped them win 78–77. The game proved that the team could stand up to even tough competition.
The Aces had transformed from being an obscure suburban team to one that schools across the state were watching closely.
The streak of wins had ignited a sense of pride within the team and in the broader community – it was infectuous.
For the first time in decades, teachers and students were coming to watch the games. Community members started bringing their kids to attend practices. And the team members were absorbing some of Kobe’s confidence, as if by osmosis. They were no longer fearful of playing in the big leagues.
The way he lived and breathed basketball his whole life turned him into an immortal icon, one that keeps on inspiring people around the world to dream big.
---
Kobe Bryant lived and breathed basketball from a young age – and made it his own.
Picture the scene: a toddler cups a ball in his tiny hand and dashes forward, cheerfully slamming the ball into a miniature basketball hoop. He does it again and again, and each time, his face breaks into a huge grin.
That grinning child – you guessed it – was Kobe Bryant. The Kobe Bryant, who would grow up to be one of the best basketball players of all time.
So how does someone grow up to be a champion or, better yet, a basketball icon? Pure, raw talent is part of it, yes. But while icons are born, they’re also made.
Now, each icon has their own unique story. In Kobe’s case, it was his talent coupled with the favorable circumstances of his birth. Kobe Bryant was steeped in the world of basketball from the time he was a baby; his father made sure of that.
You see, Kobe wasn’t the first professional basketball player in the family. He actually followed in the footsteps of his father, Joe Bryant, who was a pretty talented player himself. Kobe grew up watching every home game his father played as part of their local NBA team, the Philadelphia 76ers – known to fans as the Sixers. Baby Kobe was as comfortable in the basketball arena as he was in his own home.
By carefully watching how his father played and lived the life of a professional basketball player, Kobe learned what to do. But more importantly, he learned what not to do. Because Joe’s basketball career was … rocky.
Although in college he was celebrated as one of the best players in the city, Joe’s career fizzled out once he hit the NBA. He started out playing with the Sixers, but was traded after a public scandal stained his name.
One night, police attempted to pull Joe over while he was driving. But instead of stopping, he sped away, resulting in a high-speed chase. When they finally caught up with him, they discovered two vials of cocaine in the car – along with a woman who was not his wife.
Along with his unpredictable performance on the court – mainly due to his whimsical play and lack of discipline – this scandal proved that Joe was too much of a burden for the Sixers. He was traded to a team in California, where he played for a short time before moving to a different team in Texas. But both were mediocre teams, and he wasn’t given a chance to shine. Finally, Joe’s contract ran out, and no NBA team wanted to sign him. At that stage, Joe had two choices: give up professional basketball altogether or move overseas, where his talents would be valued. And so he decided to move his family to Italy.
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In high school, Kobe became a champion and transformed his team.
Kobe’s family didn’t choose to send him to Lower Merion High School because of the strength of its basketball program. In fact, in Kobe’s first year playing on the team, the Aces, they suffered a season of crushing losses. As they lost eight games in a row, Kobe could barely contain his frustration.
His teammates just didn’t seem to take the game as seriously as he did. On tour, they’d be messing around while he would stay in his room, rehearsing his moves and brooding over everything that went wrong. It was a lonely first season with the Aces.
But the team did have one thing going for it: a young, ambitious coach, Gregg Downer, who immediately recognized Kobe’s talent. As soon as he saw Kobe playing, Downer knew that a change was coming for the Aces. And he was determined to do everything he could to help Kobe succeed.
So in spite of the grumbles of the rest of the team, Downer put Kobe in the starting lineup. He took every opportunity he could to put the ball in Kobe’s hands and give him opportunity to score. And he even hired Kobe’s father, Joe, to be part of the school’s coaching team, having the hunch that Joe might be able to coach Kobe where others couldn’t.
So to sum it up up until this point: the summer league had gone badly. Kobe’s first year of high school … also went badly.
To Kobe’s credit, he never let the frustration of that awful season discourage him. He kept training, kept practicing. He had an unyielding discipline that extended to every part of his life. He was a straight-A student. He excelled in his literature class. And he treated his body with unusual care for a teenager, especially a teenage boy. His teammates noticed that he never ate junk food and that he drank a gallon of milk with every meal. He was already eating like the NBA player he would become.
So even though that first season was frustrating, it gave Bryant many opportunities to improve his technique. Through every game, he was gaining valuable experience. But he couldn’t carry the team to a victory alone.
Luckily, he wouldn’t have to. The dynamic within the team was transformed by the arrival of another talented player: Jermaine Griffin. Griffin had grown up in Queens, in a poor community with few opportunities for a young athlete. His teacher had signed him up for a scholarship program for promising students that paid for him to attend Lower Merion. Griffin was six foot three, and just as serious about basketball as Kobe was. Unlike Kobe, he wasn’t a basketball prodigy. But he was a solid rebounder and played the tough game Kobe had gotten used to on the Philadelphia courts. He also provided the companionship that Kobe had been craving on the team. The two of them could spend hours practicing, and shared a love of rap music as well as basketball.
Once Griffin was on the team, Kobe’s strengths could really come to the fore. His second season with the Aces was very different than the first. For one, the team started winning, starting the season off with a four-game winning streak. They then lost to another high school, Williamsport, before rebounding with a seven-game winning streak. This was an unbelievable turnaround for a team that had lost almost every single game the year before.
In one game, Kobe scored 34 points in just 32 minutes of play, with five three-point shots. This was unheard of in high school basketball. His coach, Gregg Downer, couldn’t contain his excitement. For the first time, the Aces were becoming a force to be reckoned with.
But Gregg Downer knew that the real test of their strength would be to play other powerful teams in the state. And so he decided to schedule as many extra games as he could.
One Saturday, the Aces prepared themselves for a game in Coatesville against an especially intimidating team called the Red Raiders.
What made the game so daunting was that they’d be playing against Rip Hamilton, a young, cunning basketball player with a reputation for unpredictable, lightning-fast plays. And it was tough. But even Hamilton couldn’t get in the way of an Aces victory. In the last minute of the game, Kobe scored the shot that helped them win 78–77. The game proved that the team could stand up to even tough competition.
The Aces had transformed from being an obscure suburban team to one that schools across the state were watching closely.
The streak of wins had ignited a sense of pride within the team and in the broader community – it was infectuous.
For the first time in decades, teachers and students were coming to watch the games. Community members started bringing their kids to attend practices. And the team members were absorbing some of Kobe’s confidence, as if by osmosis. They were no longer fearful of playing in the big leagues.
February 9, 2022
Well researched and well written. Very much enjoyed reading this story about one of the greatest athletes of all time.
January 22, 2022
Really enjoyed this deep dive into Kobe’s early years that led to his time with the Lakers. This book was really well done and the research that went into writing this was clearly a lot of work. This is not a tell all of any of the juicy stuff in Kobe’s life. If you are looking for that, this is not your book.
March 1, 2022
I liked it, but I like sports.
I found it insightful and I learned a lot about Kobe. At the beginning, where it starts with his death, I learned that he had a falling out with his family. However, it never addressed or even hinted at why. I'm not saying everyone needs to know, but it was weird to hear about the falling out and getting no clue for why except maybe b/c of money.
Though, I think it's a bio for a Kobe fan or a basketball/sports fan. I love sports, so I got his passion. However, it might drag for someone that wasn't really into sports, at least in high school.
I found it insightful and I learned a lot about Kobe. At the beginning, where it starts with his death, I learned that he had a falling out with his family. However, it never addressed or even hinted at why. I'm not saying everyone needs to know, but it was weird to hear about the falling out and getting no clue for why except maybe b/c of money.
Though, I think it's a bio for a Kobe fan or a basketball/sports fan. I love sports, so I got his passion. However, it might drag for someone that wasn't really into sports, at least in high school.
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