January 18, 2022 • 43 mins
Let's drill down on the physical and mental attributes that made Kobe Bryant a great basketball player--the granular stuff that basketball junkies love. We examine each stage of Kobe's life and career through the eyes of someone who knew Kobe well at each stage. We have three coaches with ties to Kobe to break everything down. First, you’ll hear from Ashley Howard, who grew up with Kobe and played against him when they were kids. He had been Jay Wright’s top assistant coach on two national-championship teams at Villanova, and now he’s the head coach at La Salle University.
In Part 2 of this episode you’ll hear from Temple University head coach Aaron McKie, who played 13 seasons in the NBA. Aaron finished his career with the Lakers; he was Kobe’s teammate there for two years. But before that, he had to guard him a couple of times each season -- and throughout the 2001 NBA Finals, when Kobe’s Lakers beat Aaron’s 76ers.
In Part 3 you’ll hear from Brett Brown. Brett has known Kobe for a long time and in a lot of ways. He game-planned against him and got to coach him in two NBA All-Star Games when Brett was an assistant under Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs. He coached against Kobe in the Olympics, when Kobe was on the U.S. team and Brett was the head coach of the Australian team. And Brett was the Sixers’ head coach when Kobe played his final game in Philadelphia, in December 2015.
Purchase Mike Sielski's related book: “The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality": TheRiseOfKobeBook.com
Join the conversation about “I Am Kobe” on social media: on Twitter and Instagram: @diversionpods
Our theme music is “Create Yourself” by Grover Braam feat. Justin Starling: Listen to Create Yourself on Spotify
Cover photo © Eileen Blass – USA TODAY NETWORK
“I Am Kobe” is a production of Diversion Podcasts in association with iHeartRadio. This season is written and hosted by Mike Sielski. Produced by Jacob Bronstein and directed by Mark Francis. Story editing by Jacob Bronstein with editorial direction from Scott Waxman. Editing, mixing, and sound design by Mark Francis. Production Assistant: Stephen Tompkins. Music Supervisor: Scott Velasquez for Frisson Sync. Executive Producers: Mark Francis and Scott Waxman.
Thanks to Oren Rosenbaum, Susan Canavan, and Jeremy Treatman.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Diversion podcasts. But I think the main thing is getting
in shape. From what I hear is a very long table,
a lot of basketball to be played, not a bump
in the ground. So I had to bring myself. I'm
getting shaped. It's my legs. When get times, I know,
I know it's liberties nowadays started tend to hit a
(00:28):
hit a wall in the middle of the season. I
think a lot of the great players in the past
and magic might but I don't think they've everged that wall.
I want to hit that wall. I work hard because
I possibly can do something. I still hit the wall,
and we to work even harder. Next shot. Looking as
a positive map, but better field. But what's going on?
(00:58):
During this series, We've dive deep into Kobe Bryant's early life.
We've talked about his family, his upbringing, his social life
when he was a teenager, his decision to skip college
and go straight from Lower Merion High School to the NBA.
We've talked a lot about him as a person, which
is a natural thing to do. Kobe was famous. Kobe
(01:21):
was a mega celebrity. Kobe's photo could appear on the
cover of People magazine, and everyone in the supermarket checkout
line would recognize him. You didn't have to know anything
about basketball to know who he was. But in this episode,
we wanted to home in on Kobe as a basketball player.
(01:42):
That's what that tape you heard at the top of
this episode is all about. It's from the summer of
and Kobe is talking about how he's preparing himself physically
for the n b A. He says he doesn't want
to hit that wall. He doesn't want to tire himself
out completely before the uler season is finished. Magic Johnson
(02:02):
didn't do that, Michael Jordan didn't do that, and Kobe
didn't want to do it either. Here's the thing, though,
he kind of did. At the end of that ninety
seven season, in an elimination game against the Utah Jazz,
Kobe had one of the worst games of his career,
maybe the worst. He shot four air balls in the
(02:24):
closing minutes. His legs were gone. He had hit that
wall holder right, John rootns great A second glass? Why
God about Ruth Wilton five second class four, Bryan God
pull up not all the way? Rob Over and Bob
gold Overdove, Doctor Hallover, High Scord TB Slet, Carl prober
(02:51):
baball porn, plafer hall, a clock colver cover believe. Of course,
we know Kobe eventually figured out how to break through
that wall. He made the All Star Game the following season,
and four years later, when the Lakers won their second
championship with him, he actually averaged more points per game
(03:13):
and shot a better percentage from the field in the
playoffs than he did during the regular season. Safe to
say his conditioning was better by then. So for this episode,
we really wanted to drill down on the physical and
mental attributes that made him great on the court, the
(03:34):
granular stuff that basketball junkies love, and we thought a
cool way to do it would be to examine each
stage of his life and career through the eyes of
someone who knew Kobe well at each stage. So we
have three coaches with ties to Kobe to break everything down. First,
you'll hear from Ashley Howard, who grew up with Kobe
(03:55):
and played against him when they were kids. He had
been Jay Wright's top assistant code on two national championship
teams at Villanova, and now he's the head coach at
Lasau University. As we have a new man in charge
overs for the first of in fourteen years. Ashley Howard
will be the new coach at LASAL that was announced today.
(04:15):
He will be the nineteenth head coach in the program's history.
For the last five seasons, Howard was one of Jay
Wright's top assistants and recruiters. In that time, Villanova won
two national championships and said an n C double, a
record for most wins in a four year span. Howard
also spent four years as an assistant at LASAL, and
he says that gives him an advantage. Then, in the
(04:35):
second part of this episode, you'll hear from Temple University
head coach Aaron McKee, who played thirteen seasons in the NBA.
Aaron finished his career with the Lakers. He was Kobe's
teammate there for two years, but before that he had
to guard him a couple of times each season and
throughout the two thousand one NBA Finals, when Kobe's Lakers
(04:57):
beat Aaron's seventy sixers, we're carrying from dog to record.
Ki Shockin's last show four games lost Whitehers Well by
today shuck up. Finally, in the last part of this episode,
(05:22):
you'll hear from Brett Brown. Brett has known Kobe for
a long time and in a lot of ways he
gained planned against it and got to coach him in
two NBA All Star Games when Brett was an assistant
under Greg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs. He coached
against Kobe in the Olympics when Kobe was on the
US team and Brett was the head coach of the
(05:43):
Australian team and Brett was the Sixers head coach when
Kobe played his final game in Philadelphia in December two
thousand fifteen. He's a showman and a showtime surprise. We
knew he was Commas and something a little extra tonight
no matter what is transpired in the first sixteen oh
and he has another connection to Kobe. Brett's son, Sam
(06:04):
is a junior at Lower Merion and one of the
top basketball players in the Philadelphia area. In this episode,
we want to give you a sense of just how
Kobe's presence and legend linger in the present day, how
fresh they still are in so many ways. There is
relevant as they've ever been, and I've ever said, Wow,
what fress up about this young little guy? And a
(06:27):
little did I know Bryant? Another crazy drains they're loving
this show. From Kobe Bryant, I'm Mike Sealsky, and from
Diversion Podcasts, this is I am Kobe le Bratley. Create
(06:55):
Myself Yourself, say nice on Create Yourself. You gotta great
minds that we gain getting time. Episode eleven, Tricks of
the Basketball Trade. If you're up on Philly basketball history
(07:24):
or have been paying close attention throughout this series, you
might have already figured out there's a deeper connection between
Ashley Howard and Kobe Bryant than what I explained in
the introduction. Just pay attention to Ashley's last name, Howard. Yep,
he's the son of Mo Howard, Joe Bryant's buddy from
high school, who we've heard from across several episodes. I'm
(07:46):
that Kobe, all right when he first moved to the
States from Italy. You know, our parents were close to
My father and Joe, his father, were childhood friends. Ashley
how where it is in his fourth season as lasal's
men's basketball coach, and I drove down to campus in
late November to sit down and talk with him about Kobe.
(08:08):
Ashley hasn't had a winning season yet, and he's still
facing challenges similar to the ones that his storied predecessor,
Speedy Morris faced back when he was trying to coax
Kobe to become an explorer. Budget constraints, a relative lack
of resources, etcetera, etcetera. Even the men's basketball Coaches office
is just as modest as it was way back when
(08:31):
I was a student there. It looks pretty much the
same as it did when it was Speedy's office in
the early nineteen nineties. Back then, Ashley considered Kobe one
of his basketball role models. He was two years younger
than Kobe, and the two of them played in the
Sunny Hill League at the same time. The Sunny Hill
League was the training ground for adolescent basketball talent in
(08:52):
and around Philadelphia. People call Sunny the mayor of basketball
in Philly, and he founded the league in the late
nineteen sixties. The games were at Old McGonagall Hall on
Temple's campus. If you were a promising young player, that
was where you went to be seen, and it helped
you build your reputation and get into the good pickup
(09:13):
games at the city's rec centers. One of those games
still stands out to Ashley. Kobe was about thirteen at
the time, so Ashley would have been about eleven, and
they were playing against each other at Justine Lake Recreation
Center in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. I remember
(09:34):
I had a breakaway lay up. Kobe was chasing me
down and I just jumped stop and he flew over
top of me and I laid the ball in or
run down the court, and he said to me, I
gave you that one. I gave you that one. So
that was one of my first memories of Kobe. Because
the Bryant and Howard families were so close, Ashley got
(09:54):
to know Kobe pretty well when they were kids. And
because Ashley was a darn good player himself. He went
on to play Division One ball at Drexel University. He
got an up close look at Kobe's growth as a
player during his teenage years morning and that growth was unusual,
to say the least. Kobe picked up on things, especially
(10:14):
from his father and from his sisters Shariah and Shaya,
both of whom were excellent athletes themselves. When Joe played
in the NBA and internationally. For example, Kobe noticed that
he always iced his knees and joints after every practicing game,
and when his sisters played volleyball, they always wore knee pads,
(10:35):
so he did the same thing. He was so skinny
that he looked like a giraffe wearing a knight's armor.
Used to wear his kneepads, and he used to ice
his body up like after he played. And we would
look at Augustine Lake like, yo, what is this guy doing?
Like he was like fourteen years old and his body's
wrapped up in ice. But like I guess like he
(10:57):
saw that when he was a kid playing. You know
why his dad overseas and like, okay, after you play,
you like your body up. You take care of your body,
take care of your you know, you know, you protect
your knees. And that's what was different about Kobe. That's
where you saw like the experience of being around his father,
being around his uncle Chubby, guys that played the game
(11:19):
at an extremely high level, guys that were pros, and
he was just analyzing and dissecting their every move and
um and learning just from being around the game at
a high level. Just what actually saw really was the
foundation of Kobe's game, the substructure that would support all
the other skills that would make him great. Remember we
(11:41):
played together in UM like a Philadelphia and New York game.
It was like a fourteen and under game. And you know,
I was younger at the time. I was probably twelve
at this time. Kobe's fourteen. And you know we played
together in the game, and you know, I'm the point guard,
Kobe's the big in But it was like he still
(12:02):
did everything right, Like you know, we were going to him,
Like he was scoring inside, he was stepping outside, making threes,
he was going coast to coast, you know, dropping dimes.
So he was different even at that age. He was
not like everybody else. UM. And I remember that just
you know, distinctly at that size. You know, I don't
(12:22):
remember exactly how tall he was. He mad have be
like six three six four, but he was taller than
your average fourteen year old. And and he was more
skilled and more fundamentally sound than than the average player
at that age as well, Like Kobe was very polished
and mature and refined in his game at that time, UM,
(12:44):
especially playing amongst his age group, Like you could tell
that he was used to playing with older players because
he played the game with just a sense of maturity
that everybody else wasn't playing with. From my perspective, the
same person that I played with in the fourteen and
(13:04):
under New York Philadelphia game back in three is the
same person that I saw get eighty one points on
the Toronto Raptors. The same dude, you know what I mean?
Pabb Bryant twenty eight for forty six from the field.
This would be eighteen for twenty from a line and
(13:25):
at eighty one point game fifty five of the second half.
You gotta get him out of game. Somebody got all
there is a goo babbly hill back Bay said, let
me listen for this number eight. Right. He was always
that guy. He was a killer. Um, he was an assassin.
(13:49):
He rose to the occasion, the bigger competition, the bigger performance.
So that was part one. That was Ashley Howard, who
looked up to Kobe as a role model and a
kind of idol, giving us a look at Kobe as
a kid, as an up and comer, as a young
(14:12):
man hungry for big competition and big stages. Hey, this
is Mike Sealsky, host and writer of I Am Kobe.
(14:34):
This podcast project came out of my work on a
related book called The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit
of Immortality. If you want to explore other parts of
Kobe's story, check out The Rise. It's not just a
book version of the podcast. I dive deeper into some
of the topics covered in this series, and even some
that we don't cover at all. Kobe's upbringing, his family,
(14:56):
his identity, his effect on his friends and teammates, his
journey into the n b A and his earliest days
with the Lakers. The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit
of Immortality is out now. Just head over to the
Rise of Kobe book dot com and you can buy
it from any of your favorite retailers. That's the Rise
(15:17):
of Kobe Book dot com. Thanks Here. In Part two,
(15:40):
we're going to get into Kobe the pro basketball player,
Kobe the immortal, and for that, Kobe, the competition was
never bigger than it was in the seven NBA finals
he reached during his twenty year career with the Lakers.
People overlook that fact about him seven NBA finals. Michael
ord And only made six. Granted Jordan and the Bulls
(16:03):
won every time, and Kobe lost twice, but still seven
finals anyway. The second of those finals. Appearances came in
two thousand one against Kobe's hometown team, the Philadelphia seventies Sixers,
and one of the Sixers who drew the assignment of
having to guard Kobe during that series was Aaron McKee.
(16:24):
Here share fly up with It's a great offensive rebounding
on Aaron mcketh trying to go up with him Kobe
with the fresher legs. McKee played thirteen years in the NBA,
and that season was his best. He was named the
league's sixth Man of the Year. He averaged more than
eleven points a game, shot forty seven percent from the field,
(16:47):
and established himself as one of the better defensive guards around.
He and Kobe had some obvious similarities and some pretty
big differences. Both of them had Philly roots. McKee had
played for Simon Gratz High, one of the city's top programs,
and for John Cheney at Temple. Both of them were
roughly the same size. McKee was six five, Kobe was
(17:08):
six six. Both were tough as dry rawhide, and McKee
had played against Kobe in those memorable pickup games at
the St. Joseph's University field House during the summer when
I was in college, he would come up and he
was always at a high i Q. He always had
the skill set. He was more athletes then still polishing
(17:31):
his game up early on. Can do just about anything
and everything out on the court. You you clearly saw
that can defend, rebound, shoot, can go get a shot,
you know, block shots, the whole nine. He was just
electric and he was full of energy. Six five long.
He was doing all of those things. But what he
(17:53):
was missing at that time is just being polished up
and and and really truly understanding the game and not
having the strength. He was wiry, strong, but he didn't
have that man strength at that particular time. And then
once he got to the NBA, he got polished up,
(18:13):
He studied the game, he understood the game. He started
get hitting the weighting room and getting stronger, you know,
where he could take on the physicality of the NBA season.
And then you started to see the total package here
it is. You're talking about a premier offensive player who
could have easily been the m v P every year,
(18:35):
but he was also one of the premier defensive players.
So he prided himself on being a two way player.
Even when Kobe was moving from high school into the NBA.
The idea that his background as a suburban kid who
might be intimidated by older, more experienced players never held
any water with McKey. He knew better. He'd been too
(18:55):
close to Kobe's flame to think such a thing. Yeah,
that that was always a misconception, and it is basketball
is basketball, and really that's the ship that he's always
had on his shoulder. It was really the only thing
that people could say that kind of I'm not gonna
say it was a knock, but say, hey, let's let's
(19:16):
play this against him. Oh, he's not from the in
the city like most of the premier players were, you
know back then. He's from the suburbs or he grew
up in Italy. And he's different than us. He's not tougher.
And he was one of the toughest guys that I knew.
Mentally tough, because basketball is mentally tough. It's not physically tough.
He was physically tough. He was mentally tough. You couldn't
(19:37):
really talk to him because he was focused on what
he you know, what he was doing, and and so
you couldn't really rattle his cage with with words or
anything else. You try to do push him or hit
him or fil him hard, and that only made him stronger.
And a stronger Kobe was a problem for the Sixers.
He and McKy were roughly the same size, but Kobe
was more athletic, was a better shooter, had a wider
(20:00):
ray of offensive skills and moves. So entering the series,
the plan for the Sixers just wasn't to have McKee
try to guard Kobe one on one. The plan was
to use every available small forward and big guard. The
team has to throw everything and everyone they could at Kobe.
(20:20):
So I always just tried to touch him and and
and makeing shots difficult. I wasn't gonna play undisciplined and
try to run for steels and open it up for
him and give them the easy shots. I just wanted
to try to make it as tough as possible for him,
guard them, keep him in front of him, and putting
them on the free throw line. Because all great scorers
understand how to not only score the ball, but they
(20:42):
understand when they when they're not making shots, they try
to find ways to get layups. They try to find
ways to get to the free throw line, and that
helps those guys get going, we try to rotate guys
on them. If it was myself, if it was Eric Snow,
if it was you know whoever, Jamaine Jones, Roger Bell,
we just wanted the ruttin uh fresh bodies on them. Again,
(21:02):
those guys, those sort of players, see that night in
and night out. Who are you getting all these defensive
coverages and double teams and those sort of things. So
you know they're prepared for that. And so he's, you know,
one at the all time great For reason, the Sixers
(21:25):
shocked the Lakers and the basketball world by winning Game
one of the Finals in overtime. You might remember that game.
It featured the unforgettable site of Alan Iverson swishing a
baseline jump shot over Lakers guard Tyron Loop, then stepping
over Loop who had fallen to the floor. One A
three left and overdive one on one night a dive.
(21:47):
Here's iver a little bit offender stays what Helen wants
to go? Wants the baseline sait away. Yeah to god,
they stuffed the round Loop. The Sixers up in a
room something straight courts either to look at he was.
Kobe would have liked to forget that entire game. It
(22:08):
was his worst of that entire postseason. He took twenty
two shots, missed fifteen of them, and scored just fifteen points.
McKee didn't expect them to repeat such a subpar performance
in Game two. You know, when you're talking about one
at the top three players in the league playing out
in l A and you know, especially after US win
(22:30):
that first game, I knew he was gonna come back
with different mindset. And it was his mindset was always
killed or be killed. And I knew he was gonna
come out firing away. And again my my I thought
process was, Ay, we just gotta make it difficult for them.
We're gonna come out firing and and and and trying
to carry the load, and you know, just trying to
(22:51):
find different ways to distract him. And you couldn't do
those things. And so you know, once he got into
his rhythm, it was, you know, he became really difficult
to guard. By fire the riot to set up a
short dropper six points point. So those first quarter for
Coby Rods settled up setting there the shot of Coby
(23:16):
well Let's staple. Kobe was back in his rhythm for
most of the rest of the series. He scored thirty
one points in Game two and thirty two points in
Game three, and the Lakers didn't lose again, rolling to
(23:39):
a five game victory and the championship. After the last
game of the finals, a photographer snapped the shot of
Kobe sitting alone, hugging the Larry O'Brien Trophy, a melancholy
look on his face. He and his parents were not
on speaking terms at the time. They're falling out over
(23:59):
the direct and of his life was recent and fresh.
It was one of the most bittersweet moments of his career,
and it happened in his hometown, But it was not
his first memorable moment in Philadelphia against the Sixers, and
it was his last. In the first part of this episode,
(24:53):
you heard Ashley Howard describe what Kobe was like when
his basketball career was just starting. In the second part,
Aaron McKee talked about what it was like to compete
against Kobe in his prime, Kobe on basketball's biggest stage,
Kobe winning a championship in the city of brotherly loved.
In the third and final part, now, I thought it
(25:13):
would be appropriate to focus on Kobe's debut in his
hometown and his farewell in his hometown. On November, Kobe
played in Philadelphia for the first time as a member
of the Lakers. His family, his friends from Lower Marian,
people who knew him from the Philly basketball scene, all
(25:34):
of them were there to see him play. Then he
went out there against a terrible Sixers team and took
all of three shots in the first half. He missed
them all. He didn't score a single point in the
game's first twenty four minutes. If you thought Kobe, even
as an eighteen year old rookie, would be deterred by
(25:54):
that poor performance, you haven't been paying attention over the
previous ten episodes of this series. He took more than
twice as many shots in the second half seven this time,
he made four of them. He finished with twelve points,
the Lakers precise margin of victory that night. Four months
(26:15):
after that game, in March, Kobe described the entire scene
to Jeremy treat Well, there's half. I went out there
within the most, within the most another offense. That's when
I did on the ball a couple of times for
the game. Uh, But when I went to to the
(26:40):
locker hall, and I don't think I scored a point
in the first half I knew any time I could
go out there and do my I just had that
confidence about me during the game. So I came up
to the second half and then we struggle a little bit.
We need somebody step up and put some points on
the bull said, well, go ahead and go from my
I do my thing and put some pointy from the bulls.
(27:02):
So that's what I did in the second half. I'm
crazy like high school, just highchool all over again. The
whole fat being there at Man, people doing their them
media dollars, same same play are. The difference is at
(27:23):
at at at provlic Google MH. I want to thank
a basic Uh felt there Man so good because I
knew a lot of people were feeling who requested about
the senor and saying that I couldn't make it or whatever.
But I guess what kind of please. I was in
(27:44):
there there handed myself and handed myself in that game.
So I was happy say us for nearly twenty years.
On December one, two thousand fifteen, Kobe played in Philadelphia
(28:06):
for the final time when the Sixers toasted the Lakers.
But the game was interesting for reasons beyond the fact
that it would be Kobe's last one in his hometown.
For one thing, the Sixers had played eighteen games that
season before facing Kobe and the Lakers, and they had
lost all eighteen. They were in the midst of the
(28:28):
process their controversial plan to tank for a few years,
get some high draft picks and presumably some great players,
and try to rebuild for another Their head coach, Brett Brown,
had spent as much time as anyone in the NBA
studying Kobe or preparing to stop Kobe, or at least
slow him down, or at least try. Brown knew that
(28:51):
Kobe would want to put on a show in Philly,
that he would be shooting the ball every chance he got.
When Brown was working under Gregg Popovitch with the Antonio Spurs,
he and the other coaches would ask themselves the same
question every time they had to face Kobe, and they
answer it the same way every time. Here's Brown, you
(29:12):
know what sort of you prepared to die on? It
was always the three point shot, you know, So if
you was gonna be you with threes, you know, there
wasn't much you could do about that. If you you
did what you just said. What what fluor spots did
you worry most about? He was incredibly efficient, proficient, pickle
(29:34):
word whatever words you want at elbows in in wings
like that. We called it the calm Alone line. That
was pops fur bitch. And if you just took sort
of a line from the elbow of a found line
to the corner that die, you know that flaw spot
he was incredible at. You remember Karl Malone, right, he
(29:57):
was the Hall of Fame power forward for the utah As.
One of his bread and butter moves was a little
half fadeaway half jumper that he loved to shoot from
a few feet inside three point part. He'd usually be
open to take that shot off a pick and pop
with point guard John Stock. That's what Brown means when
(30:17):
he talks about the Karl Malone line draw trapezoid on
a basketball court from the corners of the court to
the upper corners of the lane. And Malone lived on
the lines of that trapezoid. So did Kobe. And when
he came to getting a shot off, he might have
had the best footwork of any wing player in basketball history.
(30:39):
And you know he without getting too technical on the
specifics of his footwork, he could he whether it was
a forward pivot, whether it was an inside pivot whether
he really wanted his dominant pivot foot, which was his
left foot in his right foot was free where he
could play a little bit of a rocker step type game.
You know, those two elbows, those two Malone lines on
(31:02):
the right side and the left side. He just was
incredibly efficient and dangerous, especially from those spots. Kobe's footwork
was impeccable. He was prideful at drilling it. He was
adamant on on dictating like this is how I'm gonna
play in and a lot of times, Mike, when you
(31:23):
as I said, to start six seconds left, you can
book it like he's gonna be on one of the
elbows or one of those Malone lines that I spoke of,
and you know he's gonna stick his dominant pivot foot
and then at that point you've got your hands full.
So Brown and the Sixers picked their poison. They would
(31:44):
let Kobe shoot threes, and well this happened. He's also
one of their best three one guys. Probably loses off
time starting to a game between the two words records
on the move, he didn't go they three. The Sixers
(32:12):
weren't just a bad team that season. They were a young,
inexperienced team, star struck by Kobe and the charged atmosphere
inside the Wells Spargo Center. One of their best bench players,
for example, was t J McConnell. McConnell has since established
himself as one of the best backup point guards in
the NBA, but at the time, he was just a
(32:33):
rookie and he and his teammates weren't carrying out the
defensive strategy that Brown wanted them to play. If we
wanted to blitz Kobe, to go double team moment, and
I remember calling a time out. Now it's going to
teach a you know, are you gonna blitz him or
you're gonna kiss him? T J was. T J was starstruck.
He Mike, he was starstruck. Like all my guys you
(32:56):
don't want his autograph more than they want to defend
him well, and he came out and hit like four
out of his first five shots. He came out and
I think with ten minutes and like forty seconds he
was three ft four from threes. It's true and uh
and they were all threes, which is what I said.
You know, ten minutes ago, if you had what sod
(33:18):
you gonna die and it's gonna be the three and
h It's true. He came into Philadelphia and just lit
up the building. At the start, the building was electric.
Bryant another thraity, drained it. Kobe Bryant is fourth three
of the game, his first points of the quarter, but
he's high man in the game. With sixteen. Kobe couldn't
(33:42):
keep up his hot shooting. He finished seven of twenty
six from the field and scored twenty points, and the
Lakers actually lost. It was the six Ers first victory
of the season. I was in the building that night
to write a column about Kobe for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Philly fans had shown Kobe their love and appreciation
(34:03):
for him in a way they never had before, but
it was clear he wasn't really the same player anymore.
He was thirty seven. He moved a little slower, jumped
a little lower. His footwork and fundamentals weren't enough to
overcome the limitations that age had imposed on him. Plus,
the sport was changing, centering itself around offensive efficiency and
(34:27):
the three point shot. The Golden State Warriors, with Steph
Curry and Clay Thompson, the best shooting backcourt the NBA
has ever seen, had won the championship a few months earlier,
and they were in the midst of a season in
which they'd win a league record seventy three games and
reached the finals. Again, the idea that a team should
build itself around a player like Kobe, a player who
(34:50):
took long two point jumpers, a player who could score
from anywhere on the floor and would shoot from even
the places where the stats said he shouldn't, was totally
passet if you can kind of put Kobe in context
in that regard, like Wold, with modern coaches allowed him
(35:13):
to play the way that he played. As silly as
that sounds, no, I mean, it's it's a good question.
And I I've seen a lot over two decades with
trends and things in the NBA. You know, the NBA
has changed in so so so many ways over that
twenty year period that I'm that I'm speaking of, and
(35:34):
you know, with the exception of what two years I
was in the NBA, every one of Kobe's years and
you know, you look at it in the analytics topic
that we're speaking of. Um, it's one of the most
profound things that have crept into our league. And I
think at times, if you're not careful, it really it
(35:57):
crushes I think a spirit of a player. It can
influence coaches. Uh if if you're not careful, and it
did me, you know in in in ways that you
look back and it's it's just negative. It doesn't let's
score a score. Now. I think that that blanket um
(36:19):
comment that I have just made. He can creep into
other people, role players. You know, you don't want role
players taken long too. Is that are contested, like we
all get that. But you know Kobe Bryant's ability to
just get buckets and school points and kind of do
it when he put his mind to it, he was
(36:40):
just off the charts. And after that game, Brown was
in his office at the arena, still decompressing, when he
heard a knock on his door. It was Alan Lumpkin,
who has been the Sixers travel director and team liaison
for years. He said, coaching, you have a guest wants
to say hello, and and Kobe knocked on the door
and came in and I, as I said, you know,
(37:04):
I've known him because of the London Olympic Games, coaching
against him. Uh, overseas a few all Star Games and
this and that. So there was a you know, a
brief history that I had hit with him. And he
came in and he knew my son was going to
Long Mari in high school and and obviously he he
had wished the six as well, and knew well trying
(37:25):
to you know, get the program back on track. But
I sat with him for forty five minutes and they
had to knock on my door and you know, get
him out and tell him any of the bus was leaving,
they're going back to the hotel. But and so the
conversation was all about now what for him? And he
just blew me away with his vision of what he
(37:49):
wanted his life to be after basketball. He just he
was just in the game. He was engaged. It was
just a glow and energy about what was going to
be for Kobe. And uh, it was a heck of
a night. It was a great night. Brett Brown was right,
(38:11):
It was a heck of a night. I was there,
and the love that Sixers fans and that Philadelphia in
general showed to Kobe was something to see. He'd always
had a love hate relationship with the city, with a
lot more emphasis on the hate, but I'd argue that's
only because they were so alike and had so much
in common. Kobe wanted to win more than anything. Philly
(38:34):
fans want to win more than anything. Yeah. Yeah, he
wasn't really from the city. He was from the Bourbs.
He was a Laker blah blah blah. As you can
see from this episode, from his early life to the
prime of his career to the end of his two
decades with the Lakers, Kobe was as tough, as driven,
(38:54):
as determined to achieve greatness as anyone who ever played
in the NBA. That's exactly the sort of athlete that
a city like Philadelphia or Los Angeles or New York
or any city in the world would have appreciated and adored. No,
Kobe technically wasn't from philip but if he had played
(39:16):
in Philly, it would have been time NBA Champions of
Six six card from Harvar in high school where he
won the title, and not Cofee Well, it would have
(39:38):
been just about perfect. I Am Kobe is a production
of the Version podcasts in association with I Heart Radio.
This season is written and hosted by me Mike Sealsky.
(39:59):
It's produced by Jacob Bronstein and directed by Mark Francis.
Story editing by Jacob Bronstein, with editorial direction from Scott Waxman, Editing,
mixing and sound design by Mark Francis. Stephen Thompkins is
our production assistant. Our theme music is Create Yourself by
Grover Brown featuring Justin Starling. Find Create Yourself wherever you
(40:21):
stream music. Music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freesans Sinking,
Executive producers are Mark Francis and Scott Waxman. Join the
conversation about I Am Kobe on social media on Twitter
and Instagram. It's at diversion Pods thanks to Orin Rosenbaum,
Susan Cannavan and Jeremy Treatment the Iris before the Son.
(40:46):
They don't want to stand. When I said to Brian,
is fun. Never clack you out, even when my work
is done. If they're trying to black me, I might heart.
Someone throw the blood sweat and says, we part sever
stay tending in, let it keep us in. If they
don't believe in themselves, table vert to fit that the
champion's head. So I'm telling them, ask my am, this
the reason why my work so damn different to the negatives.
(41:07):
I can't listen see me at the tip, you can't
listen for where I'm gonna vote to play like cash
is see I pay my dudes because of taxes. Gotta work,
I think and grind ahead of his time. So I'm
saying that they made you. Don't tell them you create
yourself the best you finn or watch us by this
by that time you gotta steak clock, then break clock,
(41:30):
break we create yourself. Watch me question, watch me to
create myself. Exac client times up and create yourself. Say nice,
ain't go hard create yourself. You gotta learn from the
great minds. But we ain't lying. Tell them that this anytime,
(41:51):
This time wasn't given, it was made the future any
time I can change better, tell them that I made
it back home. As I walked through the hearts of
the fame, I came from the valley of the Shadow,
with death waiting for us. Some spoons don't hold your breath,
sat Town, sat trains. But I did it with less.
I know one that the being. So there's nothing to guess. Yeah,
there's nothing to guess. It's our times. Something we up next.
(42:14):
We don't got any regrests. I did it with my
soul hands and we never forgets my air. This the
reason why my work so damn different to the negatives.
I can't listen to see me at the time, you
can't listen for where, rebuild, rechape, give me your eye.
You got to risk take do it now. When I'm
saying why waits, I was saying that they may you
(42:35):
will tell them you create yourself the best you Finn
watch us by. It's bad that time. You gotta sneak clock,
then break clock. Break we create ourselves. Watch me, watch
me create myself. Exac climb signs up. Create yourself. Say
(42:58):
nice and ain't so hard? Create yourself. You gotta lie
for the great minds, but we ain't lying. Tell them
that's any time, ye. Diversion Podcasts
Diversion podcasts. But I think the main thing is getting
in shape. From what I hear is a very long table,
a lot of basketball to be played, not a bump
in the ground. So I had to bring myself. I'm
getting shaped. It's my legs. When get times, I know,
I know it's liberties nowadays started tend to hit a
(00:28):
hit a wall in the middle of the season. I
think a lot of the great players in the past
and magic might but I don't think they've everged that wall.
I want to hit that wall. I work hard because
I possibly can do something. I still hit the wall,
and we to work even harder. Next shot. Looking as
a positive map, but better field. But what's going on?
(00:58):
During this series, We've dive deep into Kobe Bryant's early life.
We've talked about his family, his upbringing, his social life
when he was a teenager, his decision to skip college
and go straight from Lower Merion High School to the NBA.
We've talked a lot about him as a person, which
is a natural thing to do. Kobe was famous. Kobe
(01:21):
was a mega celebrity. Kobe's photo could appear on the
cover of People magazine, and everyone in the supermarket checkout
line would recognize him. You didn't have to know anything
about basketball to know who he was. But in this episode,
we wanted to home in on Kobe as a basketball player.
(01:42):
That's what that tape you heard at the top of
this episode is all about. It's from the summer of
and Kobe is talking about how he's preparing himself physically
for the n b A. He says he doesn't want
to hit that wall. He doesn't want to tire himself
out completely before the uler season is finished. Magic Johnson
(02:02):
didn't do that, Michael Jordan didn't do that, and Kobe
didn't want to do it either. Here's the thing, though,
he kind of did. At the end of that ninety
seven season, in an elimination game against the Utah Jazz,
Kobe had one of the worst games of his career,
maybe the worst. He shot four air balls in the
(02:24):
closing minutes. His legs were gone. He had hit that
wall holder right, John rootns great A second glass? Why
God about Ruth Wilton five second class four, Bryan God
pull up not all the way? Rob Over and Bob
gold Overdove, Doctor Hallover, High Scord TB Slet, Carl prober
(02:51):
baball porn, plafer hall, a clock colver cover believe. Of course,
we know Kobe eventually figured out how to break through
that wall. He made the All Star Game the following season,
and four years later, when the Lakers won their second
championship with him, he actually averaged more points per game
(03:13):
and shot a better percentage from the field in the
playoffs than he did during the regular season. Safe to
say his conditioning was better by then. So for this episode,
we really wanted to drill down on the physical and
mental attributes that made him great on the court, the
(03:34):
granular stuff that basketball junkies love, and we thought a
cool way to do it would be to examine each
stage of his life and career through the eyes of
someone who knew Kobe well at each stage. So we
have three coaches with ties to Kobe to break everything down. First,
you'll hear from Ashley Howard, who grew up with Kobe
(03:55):
and played against him when they were kids. He had
been Jay Wright's top assistant code on two national championship
teams at Villanova, and now he's the head coach at
Lasau University. As we have a new man in charge
overs for the first of in fourteen years. Ashley Howard
will be the new coach at LASAL that was announced today.
(04:15):
He will be the nineteenth head coach in the program's history.
For the last five seasons, Howard was one of Jay
Wright's top assistants and recruiters. In that time, Villanova won
two national championships and said an n C double, a
record for most wins in a four year span. Howard
also spent four years as an assistant at LASAL, and
he says that gives him an advantage. Then, in the
(04:35):
second part of this episode, you'll hear from Temple University
head coach Aaron McKee, who played thirteen seasons in the NBA.
Aaron finished his career with the Lakers. He was Kobe's
teammate there for two years, but before that he had
to guard him a couple of times each season and
throughout the two thousand one NBA Finals, when Kobe's Lakers
(04:57):
beat Aaron's seventy sixers, we're carrying from dog to record.
Ki Shockin's last show four games lost Whitehers Well by
today shuck up. Finally, in the last part of this episode,
(05:22):
you'll hear from Brett Brown. Brett has known Kobe for
a long time and in a lot of ways he
gained planned against it and got to coach him in
two NBA All Star Games when Brett was an assistant
under Greg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs. He coached
against Kobe in the Olympics when Kobe was on the
US team and Brett was the head coach of the
(05:43):
Australian team and Brett was the Sixers head coach when
Kobe played his final game in Philadelphia in December two
thousand fifteen. He's a showman and a showtime surprise. We
knew he was Commas and something a little extra tonight
no matter what is transpired in the first sixteen oh
and he has another connection to Kobe. Brett's son, Sam
(06:04):
is a junior at Lower Merion and one of the
top basketball players in the Philadelphia area. In this episode,
we want to give you a sense of just how
Kobe's presence and legend linger in the present day, how
fresh they still are in so many ways. There is
relevant as they've ever been, and I've ever said, Wow,
what fress up about this young little guy? And a
(06:27):
little did I know Bryant? Another crazy drains they're loving
this show. From Kobe Bryant, I'm Mike Sealsky, and from
Diversion Podcasts, this is I am Kobe le Bratley. Create
(06:55):
Myself Yourself, say nice on Create Yourself. You gotta great
minds that we gain getting time. Episode eleven, Tricks of
the Basketball Trade. If you're up on Philly basketball history
(07:24):
or have been paying close attention throughout this series, you
might have already figured out there's a deeper connection between
Ashley Howard and Kobe Bryant than what I explained in
the introduction. Just pay attention to Ashley's last name, Howard. Yep,
he's the son of Mo Howard, Joe Bryant's buddy from
high school, who we've heard from across several episodes. I'm
(07:46):
that Kobe, all right when he first moved to the
States from Italy. You know, our parents were close to
My father and Joe, his father, were childhood friends. Ashley
how where it is in his fourth season as lasal's
men's basketball coach, and I drove down to campus in
late November to sit down and talk with him about Kobe.
(08:08):
Ashley hasn't had a winning season yet, and he's still
facing challenges similar to the ones that his storied predecessor,
Speedy Morris faced back when he was trying to coax
Kobe to become an explorer. Budget constraints, a relative lack
of resources, etcetera, etcetera. Even the men's basketball Coaches office
is just as modest as it was way back when
(08:31):
I was a student there. It looks pretty much the
same as it did when it was Speedy's office in
the early nineteen nineties. Back then, Ashley considered Kobe one
of his basketball role models. He was two years younger
than Kobe, and the two of them played in the
Sunny Hill League at the same time. The Sunny Hill
League was the training ground for adolescent basketball talent in
(08:52):
and around Philadelphia. People call Sunny the mayor of basketball
in Philly, and he founded the league in the late
nineteen sixties. The games were at Old McGonagall Hall on
Temple's campus. If you were a promising young player, that
was where you went to be seen, and it helped
you build your reputation and get into the good pickup
(09:13):
games at the city's rec centers. One of those games
still stands out to Ashley. Kobe was about thirteen at
the time, so Ashley would have been about eleven, and
they were playing against each other at Justine Lake Recreation
Center in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. I remember
(09:34):
I had a breakaway lay up. Kobe was chasing me
down and I just jumped stop and he flew over
top of me and I laid the ball in or
run down the court, and he said to me, I
gave you that one. I gave you that one. So
that was one of my first memories of Kobe. Because
the Bryant and Howard families were so close, Ashley got
(09:54):
to know Kobe pretty well when they were kids. And
because Ashley was a darn good player himself. He went
on to play Division One ball at Drexel University. He
got an up close look at Kobe's growth as a
player during his teenage years morning and that growth was unusual,
to say the least. Kobe picked up on things, especially
(10:14):
from his father and from his sisters Shariah and Shaya,
both of whom were excellent athletes themselves. When Joe played
in the NBA and internationally. For example, Kobe noticed that
he always iced his knees and joints after every practicing game,
and when his sisters played volleyball, they always wore knee pads,
(10:35):
so he did the same thing. He was so skinny
that he looked like a giraffe wearing a knight's armor.
Used to wear his kneepads, and he used to ice
his body up like after he played. And we would
look at Augustine Lake like, yo, what is this guy doing?
Like he was like fourteen years old and his body's
wrapped up in ice. But like I guess like he
(10:57):
saw that when he was a kid playing. You know
why his dad overseas and like, okay, after you play,
you like your body up. You take care of your body,
take care of your you know, you know, you protect
your knees. And that's what was different about Kobe. That's
where you saw like the experience of being around his father,
being around his uncle Chubby, guys that played the game
(11:19):
at an extremely high level, guys that were pros, and
he was just analyzing and dissecting their every move and
um and learning just from being around the game at
a high level. Just what actually saw really was the
foundation of Kobe's game, the substructure that would support all
the other skills that would make him great. Remember we
(11:41):
played together in UM like a Philadelphia and New York game.
It was like a fourteen and under game. And you know,
I was younger at the time. I was probably twelve
at this time. Kobe's fourteen. And you know we played
together in the game, and you know, I'm the point guard,
Kobe's the big in But it was like he still
(12:02):
did everything right, Like you know, we were going to him,
Like he was scoring inside, he was stepping outside, making threes,
he was going coast to coast, you know, dropping dimes.
So he was different even at that age. He was
not like everybody else. UM. And I remember that just
you know, distinctly at that size. You know, I don't
(12:22):
remember exactly how tall he was. He mad have be
like six three six four, but he was taller than
your average fourteen year old. And and he was more
skilled and more fundamentally sound than than the average player
at that age as well, Like Kobe was very polished
and mature and refined in his game at that time, UM,
(12:44):
especially playing amongst his age group, Like you could tell
that he was used to playing with older players because
he played the game with just a sense of maturity
that everybody else wasn't playing with. From my perspective, the
same person that I played with in the fourteen and
(13:04):
under New York Philadelphia game back in three is the
same person that I saw get eighty one points on
the Toronto Raptors. The same dude, you know what I mean?
Pabb Bryant twenty eight for forty six from the field.
This would be eighteen for twenty from a line and
(13:25):
at eighty one point game fifty five of the second half.
You gotta get him out of game. Somebody got all
there is a goo babbly hill back Bay said, let
me listen for this number eight. Right. He was always
that guy. He was a killer. Um, he was an assassin.
(13:49):
He rose to the occasion, the bigger competition, the bigger performance.
So that was part one. That was Ashley Howard, who
looked up to Kobe as a role model and a
kind of idol, giving us a look at Kobe as
a kid, as an up and comer, as a young
(14:12):
man hungry for big competition and big stages. Hey, this
is Mike Sealsky, host and writer of I Am Kobe.
(14:34):
This podcast project came out of my work on a
related book called The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit
of Immortality. If you want to explore other parts of
Kobe's story, check out The Rise. It's not just a
book version of the podcast. I dive deeper into some
of the topics covered in this series, and even some
that we don't cover at all. Kobe's upbringing, his family,
(14:56):
his identity, his effect on his friends and teammates, his
journey into the n b A and his earliest days
with the Lakers. The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit
of Immortality is out now. Just head over to the
Rise of Kobe book dot com and you can buy
it from any of your favorite retailers. That's the Rise
(15:17):
of Kobe Book dot com. Thanks Here. In Part two,
(15:40):
we're going to get into Kobe the pro basketball player,
Kobe the immortal, and for that, Kobe, the competition was
never bigger than it was in the seven NBA finals
he reached during his twenty year career with the Lakers.
People overlook that fact about him seven NBA finals. Michael
ord And only made six. Granted Jordan and the Bulls
(16:03):
won every time, and Kobe lost twice, but still seven
finals anyway. The second of those finals. Appearances came in
two thousand one against Kobe's hometown team, the Philadelphia seventies Sixers,
and one of the Sixers who drew the assignment of
having to guard Kobe during that series was Aaron McKee.
(16:24):
Here share fly up with It's a great offensive rebounding
on Aaron mcketh trying to go up with him Kobe
with the fresher legs. McKee played thirteen years in the NBA,
and that season was his best. He was named the
league's sixth Man of the Year. He averaged more than
eleven points a game, shot forty seven percent from the field,
(16:47):
and established himself as one of the better defensive guards around.
He and Kobe had some obvious similarities and some pretty
big differences. Both of them had Philly roots. McKee had
played for Simon Gratz High, one of the city's top programs,
and for John Cheney at Temple. Both of them were
roughly the same size. McKee was six five, Kobe was
(17:08):
six six. Both were tough as dry rawhide, and McKee
had played against Kobe in those memorable pickup games at
the St. Joseph's University field House during the summer when
I was in college, he would come up and he
was always at a high i Q. He always had
the skill set. He was more athletes then still polishing
(17:31):
his game up early on. Can do just about anything
and everything out on the court. You you clearly saw
that can defend, rebound, shoot, can go get a shot,
you know, block shots, the whole nine. He was just
electric and he was full of energy. Six five long.
He was doing all of those things. But what he
(17:53):
was missing at that time is just being polished up
and and and really truly understanding the game and not
having the strength. He was wiry, strong, but he didn't
have that man strength at that particular time. And then
once he got to the NBA, he got polished up,
(18:13):
He studied the game, he understood the game. He started
get hitting the weighting room and getting stronger, you know,
where he could take on the physicality of the NBA season.
And then you started to see the total package here
it is. You're talking about a premier offensive player who
could have easily been the m v P every year,
(18:35):
but he was also one of the premier defensive players.
So he prided himself on being a two way player.
Even when Kobe was moving from high school into the NBA.
The idea that his background as a suburban kid who
might be intimidated by older, more experienced players never held
any water with McKey. He knew better. He'd been too
(18:55):
close to Kobe's flame to think such a thing. Yeah,
that that was always a misconception, and it is basketball
is basketball, and really that's the ship that he's always
had on his shoulder. It was really the only thing
that people could say that kind of I'm not gonna
say it was a knock, but say, hey, let's let's
(19:16):
play this against him. Oh, he's not from the in
the city like most of the premier players were, you
know back then. He's from the suburbs or he grew
up in Italy. And he's different than us. He's not tougher.
And he was one of the toughest guys that I knew.
Mentally tough, because basketball is mentally tough. It's not physically tough.
He was physically tough. He was mentally tough. You couldn't
(19:37):
really talk to him because he was focused on what
he you know, what he was doing, and and so
you couldn't really rattle his cage with with words or
anything else. You try to do push him or hit
him or fil him hard, and that only made him stronger.
And a stronger Kobe was a problem for the Sixers.
He and McKy were roughly the same size, but Kobe
was more athletic, was a better shooter, had a wider
(20:00):
ray of offensive skills and moves. So entering the series,
the plan for the Sixers just wasn't to have McKee
try to guard Kobe one on one. The plan was
to use every available small forward and big guard. The
team has to throw everything and everyone they could at Kobe.
(20:20):
So I always just tried to touch him and and
and makeing shots difficult. I wasn't gonna play undisciplined and
try to run for steels and open it up for
him and give them the easy shots. I just wanted
to try to make it as tough as possible for him,
guard them, keep him in front of him, and putting
them on the free throw line. Because all great scorers
understand how to not only score the ball, but they
(20:42):
understand when they when they're not making shots, they try
to find ways to get layups. They try to find
ways to get to the free throw line, and that
helps those guys get going, we try to rotate guys
on them. If it was myself, if it was Eric Snow,
if it was you know whoever, Jamaine Jones, Roger Bell,
we just wanted the ruttin uh fresh bodies on them. Again,
(21:02):
those guys, those sort of players, see that night in
and night out. Who are you getting all these defensive
coverages and double teams and those sort of things. So
you know they're prepared for that. And so he's, you know,
one at the all time great For reason, the Sixers
(21:25):
shocked the Lakers and the basketball world by winning Game
one of the Finals in overtime. You might remember that game.
It featured the unforgettable site of Alan Iverson swishing a
baseline jump shot over Lakers guard Tyron Loop, then stepping
over Loop who had fallen to the floor. One A
three left and overdive one on one night a dive.
(21:47):
Here's iver a little bit offender stays what Helen wants
to go? Wants the baseline sait away. Yeah to god,
they stuffed the round Loop. The Sixers up in a
room something straight courts either to look at he was.
Kobe would have liked to forget that entire game. It
(22:08):
was his worst of that entire postseason. He took twenty
two shots, missed fifteen of them, and scored just fifteen points.
McKee didn't expect them to repeat such a subpar performance
in Game two. You know, when you're talking about one
at the top three players in the league playing out
in l A and you know, especially after US win
(22:30):
that first game, I knew he was gonna come back
with different mindset. And it was his mindset was always
killed or be killed. And I knew he was gonna
come out firing away. And again my my I thought
process was, Ay, we just gotta make it difficult for them.
We're gonna come out firing and and and and trying
to carry the load, and you know, just trying to
(22:51):
find different ways to distract him. And you couldn't do
those things. And so you know, once he got into
his rhythm, it was, you know, he became really difficult
to guard. By fire the riot to set up a
short dropper six points point. So those first quarter for
Coby Rods settled up setting there the shot of Coby
(23:16):
well Let's staple. Kobe was back in his rhythm for
most of the rest of the series. He scored thirty
one points in Game two and thirty two points in
Game three, and the Lakers didn't lose again, rolling to
(23:39):
a five game victory and the championship. After the last
game of the finals, a photographer snapped the shot of
Kobe sitting alone, hugging the Larry O'Brien Trophy, a melancholy
look on his face. He and his parents were not
on speaking terms at the time. They're falling out over
(23:59):
the direct and of his life was recent and fresh.
It was one of the most bittersweet moments of his career,
and it happened in his hometown, But it was not
his first memorable moment in Philadelphia against the Sixers, and
it was his last. In the first part of this episode,
(24:53):
you heard Ashley Howard describe what Kobe was like when
his basketball career was just starting. In the second part,
Aaron McKee talked about what it was like to compete
against Kobe in his prime, Kobe on basketball's biggest stage,
Kobe winning a championship in the city of brotherly loved.
In the third and final part, now, I thought it
(25:13):
would be appropriate to focus on Kobe's debut in his
hometown and his farewell in his hometown. On November, Kobe
played in Philadelphia for the first time as a member
of the Lakers. His family, his friends from Lower Marian,
people who knew him from the Philly basketball scene, all
(25:34):
of them were there to see him play. Then he
went out there against a terrible Sixers team and took
all of three shots in the first half. He missed
them all. He didn't score a single point in the
game's first twenty four minutes. If you thought Kobe, even
as an eighteen year old rookie, would be deterred by
(25:54):
that poor performance, you haven't been paying attention over the
previous ten episodes of this series. He took more than
twice as many shots in the second half seven this time,
he made four of them. He finished with twelve points,
the Lakers precise margin of victory that night. Four months
(26:15):
after that game, in March, Kobe described the entire scene
to Jeremy treat Well, there's half. I went out there
within the most, within the most another offense. That's when
I did on the ball a couple of times for
the game. Uh, But when I went to to the
(26:40):
locker hall, and I don't think I scored a point
in the first half I knew any time I could
go out there and do my I just had that
confidence about me during the game. So I came up
to the second half and then we struggle a little bit.
We need somebody step up and put some points on
the bull said, well, go ahead and go from my
I do my thing and put some pointy from the bulls.
(27:02):
So that's what I did in the second half. I'm
crazy like high school, just highchool all over again. The
whole fat being there at Man, people doing their them
media dollars, same same play are. The difference is at
(27:23):
at at at provlic Google MH. I want to thank
a basic Uh felt there Man so good because I
knew a lot of people were feeling who requested about
the senor and saying that I couldn't make it or whatever.
But I guess what kind of please. I was in
(27:44):
there there handed myself and handed myself in that game.
So I was happy say us for nearly twenty years.
On December one, two thousand fifteen, Kobe played in Philadelphia
(28:06):
for the final time when the Sixers toasted the Lakers.
But the game was interesting for reasons beyond the fact
that it would be Kobe's last one in his hometown.
For one thing, the Sixers had played eighteen games that
season before facing Kobe and the Lakers, and they had
lost all eighteen. They were in the midst of the
(28:28):
process their controversial plan to tank for a few years,
get some high draft picks and presumably some great players,
and try to rebuild for another Their head coach, Brett Brown,
had spent as much time as anyone in the NBA
studying Kobe or preparing to stop Kobe, or at least
slow him down, or at least try. Brown knew that
(28:51):
Kobe would want to put on a show in Philly,
that he would be shooting the ball every chance he got.
When Brown was working under Gregg Popovitch with the Antonio Spurs,
he and the other coaches would ask themselves the same
question every time they had to face Kobe, and they
answer it the same way every time. Here's Brown, you
(29:12):
know what sort of you prepared to die on? It
was always the three point shot, you know, So if
you was gonna be you with threes, you know, there
wasn't much you could do about that. If you you
did what you just said. What what fluor spots did
you worry most about? He was incredibly efficient, proficient, pickle
(29:34):
word whatever words you want at elbows in in wings
like that. We called it the calm Alone line. That
was pops fur bitch. And if you just took sort
of a line from the elbow of a found line
to the corner that die, you know that flaw spot
he was incredible at. You remember Karl Malone, right, he
(29:57):
was the Hall of Fame power forward for the utah As.
One of his bread and butter moves was a little
half fadeaway half jumper that he loved to shoot from
a few feet inside three point part. He'd usually be
open to take that shot off a pick and pop
with point guard John Stock. That's what Brown means when
(30:17):
he talks about the Karl Malone line draw trapezoid on
a basketball court from the corners of the court to
the upper corners of the lane. And Malone lived on
the lines of that trapezoid. So did Kobe. And when
he came to getting a shot off, he might have
had the best footwork of any wing player in basketball history.
(30:39):
And you know he without getting too technical on the
specifics of his footwork, he could he whether it was
a forward pivot, whether it was an inside pivot whether
he really wanted his dominant pivot foot, which was his
left foot in his right foot was free where he
could play a little bit of a rocker step type game.
You know, those two elbows, those two Malone lines on
(31:02):
the right side and the left side. He just was
incredibly efficient and dangerous, especially from those spots. Kobe's footwork
was impeccable. He was prideful at drilling it. He was
adamant on on dictating like this is how I'm gonna
play in and a lot of times, Mike, when you
(31:23):
as I said, to start six seconds left, you can
book it like he's gonna be on one of the
elbows or one of those Malone lines that I spoke of,
and you know he's gonna stick his dominant pivot foot
and then at that point you've got your hands full.
So Brown and the Sixers picked their poison. They would
(31:44):
let Kobe shoot threes, and well this happened. He's also
one of their best three one guys. Probably loses off
time starting to a game between the two words records
on the move, he didn't go they three. The Sixers
(32:12):
weren't just a bad team that season. They were a young,
inexperienced team, star struck by Kobe and the charged atmosphere
inside the Wells Spargo Center. One of their best bench players,
for example, was t J McConnell. McConnell has since established
himself as one of the best backup point guards in
the NBA, but at the time, he was just a
(32:33):
rookie and he and his teammates weren't carrying out the
defensive strategy that Brown wanted them to play. If we
wanted to blitz Kobe, to go double team moment, and
I remember calling a time out. Now it's going to
teach a you know, are you gonna blitz him or
you're gonna kiss him? T J was. T J was starstruck.
He Mike, he was starstruck. Like all my guys you
(32:56):
don't want his autograph more than they want to defend
him well, and he came out and hit like four
out of his first five shots. He came out and
I think with ten minutes and like forty seconds he
was three ft four from threes. It's true and uh
and they were all threes, which is what I said.
You know, ten minutes ago, if you had what sod
(33:18):
you gonna die and it's gonna be the three and
h It's true. He came into Philadelphia and just lit
up the building. At the start, the building was electric.
Bryant another thraity, drained it. Kobe Bryant is fourth three
of the game, his first points of the quarter, but
he's high man in the game. With sixteen. Kobe couldn't
(33:42):
keep up his hot shooting. He finished seven of twenty
six from the field and scored twenty points, and the
Lakers actually lost. It was the six Ers first victory
of the season. I was in the building that night
to write a column about Kobe for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Philly fans had shown Kobe their love and appreciation
(34:03):
for him in a way they never had before, but
it was clear he wasn't really the same player anymore.
He was thirty seven. He moved a little slower, jumped
a little lower. His footwork and fundamentals weren't enough to
overcome the limitations that age had imposed on him. Plus,
the sport was changing, centering itself around offensive efficiency and
(34:27):
the three point shot. The Golden State Warriors, with Steph
Curry and Clay Thompson, the best shooting backcourt the NBA
has ever seen, had won the championship a few months earlier,
and they were in the midst of a season in
which they'd win a league record seventy three games and
reached the finals. Again, the idea that a team should
build itself around a player like Kobe, a player who
(34:50):
took long two point jumpers, a player who could score
from anywhere on the floor and would shoot from even
the places where the stats said he shouldn't, was totally
passet if you can kind of put Kobe in context
in that regard, like Wold, with modern coaches allowed him
(35:13):
to play the way that he played. As silly as
that sounds, no, I mean, it's it's a good question.
And I I've seen a lot over two decades with
trends and things in the NBA. You know, the NBA
has changed in so so so many ways over that
twenty year period that I'm that I'm speaking of, and
(35:34):
you know, with the exception of what two years I
was in the NBA, every one of Kobe's years and
you know, you look at it in the analytics topic
that we're speaking of. Um, it's one of the most
profound things that have crept into our league. And I
think at times, if you're not careful, it really it
(35:57):
crushes I think a spirit of a player. It can
influence coaches. Uh if if you're not careful, and it
did me, you know in in in ways that you
look back and it's it's just negative. It doesn't let's
score a score. Now. I think that that blanket um
(36:19):
comment that I have just made. He can creep into
other people, role players. You know, you don't want role
players taken long too. Is that are contested, like we
all get that. But you know Kobe Bryant's ability to
just get buckets and school points and kind of do
it when he put his mind to it, he was
(36:40):
just off the charts. And after that game, Brown was
in his office at the arena, still decompressing, when he
heard a knock on his door. It was Alan Lumpkin,
who has been the Sixers travel director and team liaison
for years. He said, coaching, you have a guest wants
to say hello, and and Kobe knocked on the door
and came in and I, as I said, you know,
(37:04):
I've known him because of the London Olympic Games, coaching
against him. Uh, overseas a few all Star Games and
this and that. So there was a you know, a
brief history that I had hit with him. And he
came in and he knew my son was going to
Long Mari in high school and and obviously he he
had wished the six as well, and knew well trying
(37:25):
to you know, get the program back on track. But
I sat with him for forty five minutes and they
had to knock on my door and you know, get
him out and tell him any of the bus was leaving,
they're going back to the hotel. But and so the
conversation was all about now what for him? And he
just blew me away with his vision of what he
(37:49):
wanted his life to be after basketball. He just he
was just in the game. He was engaged. It was
just a glow and energy about what was going to
be for Kobe. And uh, it was a heck of
a night. It was a great night. Brett Brown was right,
(38:11):
It was a heck of a night. I was there,
and the love that Sixers fans and that Philadelphia in
general showed to Kobe was something to see. He'd always
had a love hate relationship with the city, with a
lot more emphasis on the hate, but I'd argue that's
only because they were so alike and had so much
in common. Kobe wanted to win more than anything. Philly
(38:34):
fans want to win more than anything. Yeah. Yeah, he
wasn't really from the city. He was from the Bourbs.
He was a Laker blah blah blah. As you can
see from this episode, from his early life to the
prime of his career to the end of his two
decades with the Lakers, Kobe was as tough, as driven,
(38:54):
as determined to achieve greatness as anyone who ever played
in the NBA. That's exactly the sort of athlete that
a city like Philadelphia or Los Angeles or New York
or any city in the world would have appreciated and adored. No,
Kobe technically wasn't from philip but if he had played
(39:16):
in Philly, it would have been time NBA Champions of
Six six card from Harvar in high school where he
won the title, and not Cofee Well, it would have
(39:38):
been just about perfect. I Am Kobe is a production
of the Version podcasts in association with I Heart Radio.
This season is written and hosted by me Mike Sealsky.
(39:59):
It's produced by Jacob Bronstein and directed by Mark Francis.
Story editing by Jacob Bronstein, with editorial direction from Scott Waxman, Editing,
mixing and sound design by Mark Francis. Stephen Thompkins is
our production assistant. Our theme music is Create Yourself by
Grover Brown featuring Justin Starling. Find Create Yourself wherever you
(40:21):
stream music. Music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freesans Sinking,
Executive producers are Mark Francis and Scott Waxman. Join the
conversation about I Am Kobe on social media on Twitter
and Instagram. It's at diversion Pods thanks to Orin Rosenbaum,
Susan Cannavan and Jeremy Treatment the Iris before the Son.
(40:46):
They don't want to stand. When I said to Brian,
is fun. Never clack you out, even when my work
is done. If they're trying to black me, I might heart.
Someone throw the blood sweat and says, we part sever
stay tending in, let it keep us in. If they
don't believe in themselves, table vert to fit that the
champion's head. So I'm telling them, ask my am, this
the reason why my work so damn different to the negatives.
(41:07):
I can't listen see me at the tip, you can't
listen for where I'm gonna vote to play like cash
is see I pay my dudes because of taxes. Gotta work,
I think and grind ahead of his time. So I'm
saying that they made you. Don't tell them you create
yourself the best you finn or watch us by this
by that time you gotta steak clock, then break clock,
(41:30):
break we create yourself. Watch me question, watch me to
create myself. Exac client times up and create yourself. Say nice,
ain't go hard create yourself. You gotta learn from the
great minds. But we ain't lying. Tell them that this anytime,
(41:51):
This time wasn't given, it was made the future any
time I can change better, tell them that I made
it back home. As I walked through the hearts of
the fame, I came from the valley of the Shadow,
with death waiting for us. Some spoons don't hold your breath,
sat Town, sat trains. But I did it with less.
I know one that the being. So there's nothing to guess. Yeah,
there's nothing to guess. It's our times. Something we up next.
(42:14):
We don't got any regrests. I did it with my
soul hands and we never forgets my air. This the
reason why my work so damn different to the negatives.
I can't listen to see me at the time, you
can't listen for where, rebuild, rechape, give me your eye.
You got to risk take do it now. When I'm
saying why waits, I was saying that they may you
(42:35):
will tell them you create yourself the best you Finn
watch us by. It's bad that time. You gotta sneak clock,
then break clock. Break we create ourselves. Watch me, watch
me create myself. Exac climb signs up. Create yourself. Say
(42:58):
nice and ain't so hard? Create yourself. You gotta lie
for the great minds, but we ain't lying. Tell them
that's any time, ye. Diversion Podcasts
Host
Mike Sielski
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