The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Kobe Bryant's death in January 2020 did more than rattle the worlds of sports and celebrity. It took the tragedy of that helicopter crash to reveal the full breadth and depth of Kobe's influence, and by tracing and telling the oft-forgotten and lesser-known story of his early life, The Rise promises to provide an unparalleled insight into Kobe.
In The Rise, readers will travel from the cracked concrete basketball courts of Philadelphia in the 1960s and '70s-where Kobe's father, Joe, became a playground, college, and professional standout-to the majesty and isolation of Europe, where Kobe spent his formative years, to the leafy suburbs of Lower Merion, where Kobe's legend was born. The story will culminate with his leading Lower Merion to the 1995-96 Pennsylvania state championship-a true underdog run for a team with just one star player, Kobe-and with the 1996 NBA draft, where Kobe's dream of playing pro basketball culminated with 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 him and told stories about him that have never been revealed before.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Sielski (Fading Echoes) presents a riveting chronicle of the life of basketball superstar Kobe Bryant (1978–2020) from his youth up to when "great things" were just beginning to happen. Using previously unpublished interviews between Bryant and Jeremy Treatman—a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer who went from covering Bryant's promising high school basketball career to becoming one of his "most trusted confidants"—Sielski tracks "the tail of Kobe's comet" from the 1980s, when he played under the tutelage of his father, former Philadelphia 76ers star Joe Bryant, to leading his Pennsylvania high school basketball team to a championship, up to the pivotal moment when he was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of a passionate athlete with an oversize ego and ambition matched by generational talent, accompanied by shyness, and a regular-kid persona off the court. In highlighting others who've influenced Bryant—among them his 10th grade English teacher, Jeanne Mastriano, who taught him and his classmates to "develop flexibility and confidence" through storytelling—and not neglecting his occasional bad behavior, such as yelling at one coach as a kid, Sielski lends pathos to a celebrity player known for stoicism in the face of pain. Fans will relish this nuanced take on an oft-overlooked part of the legend's remarkable story.
