December 28, 2021 • 45 mins
Kobe Bryant on April 29, 1996, at Lower Merion High School, in a packed gymnasium, made it official: He wasn’t going to Duke. He wasn’t going to La Salle. He wasn’t going to North Carolina or Arizona or Michigan. He wasn’t going to college at all. He was going straight to the NBA. The Charlotte Hornets took him with the 13th pick in the NBA draft, then traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers. With that announcement, Kobe Bryant launched himself into the stratosphere of stardom, and he would remain there for the rest of his life. But for many weeks before that press conference, he had already been tasting celebrity, getting close to it, seeing what it was like, and sometimes it was hard for him to handle.
There were two more major events that took place in Kobe’s life before his time at Lower Merion High School came to an end, and these events showed two things: one, that he was becoming more famous by the day, and two, that he knew he was becoming more famous by the day -- and he liked it.
Pre-order Mike Sielski's related book: “The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality" (1/11/22): 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, Test Sport or five, Test Sport five, Test
Sport five. The first thing I want to ask you
about what you think about was all we best fount
and post off your mind most it like your home.
But I wasn't. I wasn't really thinking about the whole thing. Okay,
if my father asked me when when I would like
(00:26):
that at prest count I was like, come on, it
really didn't matter to me. You know, I didn't care.
But I think my mother and father, I can't do
it really nervous, like can since that, and I'll kind
of tease them any more ever, denying that's kind of
plaining me. They're running around make sure I knew what
to say, how to say everything, and things like that.
I was just cracking up because it really wasn't that
verity with this, and so the whole week basically that's
(00:50):
where it was. Back in July two thousand ten, everyone
in America, at least everyone in America who cared about
professional basketball, was fixated on a single question, what team
with the biggest basketball star in the world, Lebron James,
(01:13):
play for next. Lebron had spent his first seven NBA
seasons with his quasi hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. He
had grown up a few miles away in Akron, But
now he was a free agent and he could play
for any team he wanted. And when he was ready
to reveal his decision, he reached a deal with ESPN
(01:34):
to televise his announcement. He hand picked an interviewer, famed
sportscaster Jim Gray, to help build up some artificial drama,
and then he said, this Um, and this fall man
very tough, Um, and this fall I'm gonna take my
talents to South Beach and Um joined the Miami Beach.
Any basketball fan who watched that interview and who had
(01:56):
a good memory heard something in those words that should
have infamiliar. Lebron James might be the greatest basketball player
of all time. But when he made that announcement, the
one thing he wasn't was original. That line, I'm going
to take my talents too, wasn't his not first. He
ripped it off from a seventeen year old high school
(02:18):
senior who made a similar announcement way back in the
spring of Kobe Bryant decided talents to uh I had
(02:39):
designed to scoop college towns in India. That was Kobe
Bryant on Monday April at Lower Merion High School in
a pack gymnasium, making it official. He wasn't going to Duke.
He wasn't going to the South. He wasn't going to
North Carolina or Arizona or Michigan. He wasn't going to
(03:03):
college at all. He was going straight to the n
b A two months later, the Charlotte Hornets took him
with the thirteenth pick in the NBA Draft, then traded
him to the Los Angeles Lakers. That press conference represents
the apex of Kobe's confidence and self assurance during his
high school years. During that little pause before he says, no,
(03:25):
I have decided to skip college, he puts his hand
to his chin like he's thinking about something. He's pretending
playing to the crowd, like he was an actor or
a talk show host. A few days before that press conference, though,
Kobe wasn't so confident. In fact, he had been questioning
himself about the wisdom of his decision. Those doubts didn't
(03:46):
last long, but they were there, and Kobe needed some
help and advice to get over them. He needed to
talk to his dad, Joe the first time I probably
really doubted myself saying, well, I'm not It was it.
It was the first time he ever died you something.
You never died something in high school. You never died you.
So okay, ye, people with doubting you're saying that you
(04:10):
can't do this, you can't do that. You pulled them
all on, said, nybody, I can do you. Never doubt yourself.
So last time. Now, I think that was that was
great advice because I have I've never dined a myself,
all right, because I've always worried as hard a pop,
always wanted, always will poself. You don't want to do
(04:32):
good work hard that, don't do it. Kobe had kept
this secret from most of the people in his life,
even many of those very close to him, his coaches,
his teammates. They thought he might jump to the pros,
(04:52):
but they didn't know for certain. Only a very few
people did. Jeremy treatment was one of them. I'm still
amazed by that that no one really knew that a
teenager went to such lengths to keep a secret. When
I visited Jeremy on Long Beach Island, I asked him
about it. What do you think that says about him,
that he was able to keep that secret and that
(05:13):
he was willing to kind of only tell certain people
about he was smarter than anybody we knew. Well, I
think a lot of people surmised it, but nobody, nobody
actually had heard him say it. But I mean, I
don't think people were surprised to day of that press conference.
But until you actually hear it, you know, it's like
(05:34):
their grandfather is dying and like everybody sad, he's sick,
and then but when he actually dies, it's like, oh
my god, it happened. You know, it's like, oh my god,
the press conference happened. He actually said he's going high school, NBA.
It really happened. So it was it was kind of
like that. With that announcement, Kobe Bryant launched himself into
the stratosphere of stardom, and he would remain there for
(05:54):
the rest of his life. But for many weeks before
that press conference, he had already been taste celebrity, getting
close to it, seeing what it was like, and sometimes
it was hard for him to handle. In fact, he
needed Jeremy Treatment's help with what you think would be
the easiest thing for a superstar high school athlete to
do he needed help getting a date. I'm Mike Seals
(06:22):
and from Diversion Podcasts, this is I am Kobe the
state rat state to create myself. Self, Create yourself, very nice,
create yourself? Got any great minds that we gain? Gaining time?
(06:47):
Episode eight, The Taste of Fame. We'll come back to
that faithful press conference later. First, I want to give
you a little context for all that confidence that seventeen
year old Kobe flashing there. Like I said, he may
have been completely poised on the basketball court or even
an electern in a huge room full of people, but
(07:08):
in other settings he wasn't so sure of himself, and
often those settings involved girls. Now I realized we're heading
into sensitive territory here. In two thousand three and two
thousand four, Kobe Bryant was accused of and charged with
(07:28):
sexual assault. At the least, he committed adultery, At the worst,
he was alleged to have committed a heinous crime. It
may be tempting to draw a straight line between Kobe's
social life and habits as a teenager and his alleged
actions as a grown man. It may even be natural
(07:48):
and understandable everyone brings his or her own experiences and
perspective to this topic and has his her own opinion
on that aspect of Kobe's life and story. I'm not
going to tell you how to feel or what to
think about Kobe or about what he did or did
(08:09):
not do. What I will do is present his own words,
present anecdotes I uncovered during my research for this podcast
and for my book, Present my own insight, and let
you decide for yourself. Yo. Talking about how cook Treatment cook, uh,
you know, I heard a lot about it. I just
(08:30):
want to go check out see plate and con She
was a game and she was getting busy. Cheah child
like bad. Jeremy Treatment celebrated his thirtieth birthday in February
(08:54):
by introducing Kobe to Kristen Ace Clement. She was the
female version of Kobe Bryant at the time, the top
female high school basketball player, certainly in the Philadelphia area,
perhaps in the country. Her name hadn't been in the
press as much as Kobe's, but she was something of
a local celebrity. Five ft eleven with long brown hair,
(09:15):
She had been linked romantically to Eric lynd Ross, the
star player for the Philadelphia Flyers, hockey team, she also
had serious game. She went to Cardinal O'Hara High School,
a girl's basketball powerhouse not far from Lower Merion. She
later went on to play for legendary coach Pat Summit
at the University of Tennessee. Here's how they described her.
(09:35):
During a broadcast on NBC ten of Philadelphia, dried and
Smith called her an All American. USA Today called her
the best player in Pennsylvania. But as big Almelton reports
to her friends and teammates, Kristin Clement simply called eight.
Jeremy had covered Clement for the Inquired High School Sports show,
the TV show that the paper had started just a
year or two earlier to focus on the high volume
(09:57):
of amazing young town in the Philly area. He set
up a meat cute for Kobe at one of her games.
Kobe saw himself and Clement on similar tracks, both elite
basketball players, both under the glare of the spotlight. And remember,
Kobe was so immersed in basketball, so focused on honing
his game and making it to the NBA, that he
(10:20):
could be challenging for him to make time for dating
or to find a point of connection with a member
of the opposite sex. He had a quasi girlfriend throughout
high school, a girl he met at a party, but
most of their dates consisted of her coming over to
the Bryant's house to watch basketball games and basketball videos
with Kobe. Not exactly the most romantic thing for two
(10:40):
teams to do on a Friday night, but with Kristen Clement,
he had that connection through basketball. He sat in the
bleachers and watched her play, and after the game Jeremy introduced.
From there, they chatted frequently on the phone. Sometimes Kobe
would call her from a pay phone after practice or
a game, but he insisted they were dating in the
(11:01):
traditional set. You know, we have a lot of commage
because she didn't number one player. I'm the number one player.
It's about the same thing she's going through a junior
year I went through my junior year. So you had
a lot of things in common. We're talk on the
phone about that stuff a lot. You know, a lot
of people say, well, they're they're romantic or whatever and
things like that. That's really out the kid, which is
(11:23):
very in close friends and we get along very well.
She made a big decision for to Tennessee and junior. Yeah,
I give a lot of guts for that, because album
I would never do anything like actually exactly exactly. But
when I give a lot of prayer now, I wish
you the best hope next year and next she is
gonna be very active when you've heard whatever the met
(11:46):
did you think I would start ship that relationship from her?
Whatever it is. I can expect that because we have
so much in common. You know, was just gonna be
like a high bid thing. Because you have so much
in common. I can see and I think she understands that.
So we're talking about other things, you know, songs and
movies and games and things like that. We just really
(12:06):
hang out and have fun. She's another friend. Um, you
love getting your ears right, and I love watching the play.
She she can play. This is on the show. Oh
my god. People to play. It's like it's like watching
the great player and go to work. You know. I
know when people come to watch me play, I don't.
(12:26):
That's why she comes to watch me play, because I
can put on the show. I'm come to watch the play.
He could put on the show. People some kind of
look at it, said, well, they're going out because they're
at each other's games and things like that. But I'm thinking,
I'm like, why what are you doing there? You're come
to watch the play, right, I'm saying, what you're doing,
That's what I'm doing. I just put on the show.
(12:48):
So it's been j j dropping. He's been he's been
the only one. He's been the only one people tracking
a little Joe's but a lot of people are saying
things wondering, you do you understand when it's in the spotlight,
people automatically want to say, we understand that. The Robbie
that Kobe and Jeremy mentioned there, of course, is Robbie Schwartz,
(13:10):
who I introduced you to in the last episode. Kobe's
lower marrying teammate and passenger on those rides to the
gym for Kobe's early morning workouts. But Robbie was more
than just a guy who chased down rebounds for Kobe
or sat on the bench for the aces during games.
He was his wingman. On one of Kobe's dates with
Kristin Clement, they went on a double date to a
(13:34):
restaurant in Ordinary. It was a memorable night for Robbie,
but not because of his date or the dinner conversation.
Here's Robbie talking to me about Kobe and Kristina. Of course,
we went to Ruby's one night. This was after one
of our games. I think she came to one of
our away games. So we're like getting off the bus
and he says to me, he goes, you want to
He goes, you want to come to Ruby's with me?
(13:54):
I'm like what. I was like, what are you talking about.
He's like ye. He's like, He's like, I'm supposed to
meet Ace there. She's bringing a friend. He was, you
want to come with of course? So it was so weird.
We went to Rubies, which is note which is closed
by the way in suburban Sware. But I remember sitting
in the booth and I was sitting across from this
(14:15):
this girl who I did not remember her name for
the life of me. And we were sitting there and
we were like the wing people, and I just remember
looking around and everybody was like staring at our booth.
I don't think I said more than like ken words
the whole night, but it was definitely it was definitely
like a come with us. So it's so we're not alone,
(14:36):
you know what I mean? He was like, yeah, I
don't know what they had, who they helped him. She
was a big fan of his. She was he was
very nice and we had a very fun night. But
I remember I don't I think we said anything. Robbie
told me he understood why Kobe asked him to accompany
him and Kristen Clement on their day. I mean basketball
was of his life, but like he was as normal
(14:57):
as the best player in the in country could be,
because I think people acting different around him, Like if
you were introduced to someone, like if you met me, like, hey,
there's a guy who plays lower Marian basketball over there,
you would come up to me and say hi, and
and be normal. But people never acting normal. They would
just say dumb ship or just like act they like
(15:19):
they like forgot how to act around him. Around this time,
in Kobe's senior year of high school, his fame was growing,
sometimes incrementally, sometimes in great leaps. Coverage of his basketball
exploits was increasing, which meant more people were reading his
name in local and national newspapers, were seeing him on TV,
which meant more people were recognizing his face and his name,
(15:42):
even basketball's biggest stars, even the biggest sports star in
the world, Hey, this is Mike Sealsky, host and writer
(16:03):
of I Am Kobe. 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,
(16:26):
his family, 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
(16:47):
Rise of Kobe book dot com. Thanks. On the night
(17:10):
of Monday, March eighteenth, the same day that Kobe broke
his nose in practice ahead of the state semi finals,
he and his father, Joe, went to the Spectrum to
see the Sixers play the Chicago Bulls and to get
an audience with Michael Jordan's Kobe had met Jordan briefly
in eighth grade when Joe had taken him to a game,
(17:31):
but this was different. John Lucas, the Sixers coach at
the time, invited Kobe into the team's locker room to
say hello to his old pickup game friends from the summer,
Jerry Stackhouse and Vernon Maxwell. Then Lucas escorted Kobe down
to the visiting WAC to meet Michael. Michael had a
media people around me. Didn't know what I was. I
(17:53):
didn't know. He had it too, want to say, Kobe
without right right, right, yeah, trying to another code. I know.
The rest out like a hand out and stick his
hand so small. The main advice that Michael gave me
(18:17):
enjoy it again, I get because a lot of pressure
that's going on. I hype that going on was very easy.
He can become easily distracted. Therefore, and said, don't let
people leave after still yourself and go out there and
half fight out there on the court. Everything would be fined.
(18:39):
Jordan had no idea, of course, that Kobe had pretty
much already made up his mind to go to the NBA,
so he did what any loyal North Carolina alumnus would
have done. He lobbied for Kobe to go to Chapel Hill.
I knew he was gonna say go to Caroline. That's
a slap. Said that s about three or four times. Man,
(19:00):
it was up to me, I may you go to
North Carolina? You know it was cool? Uh But again,
like I didn't know he knew anything about me because
I'm just saying up during the war and he came
up to me, was like, hey, you know, nice being
young man. All this thing. It's like that. I'm like,
he's like you can about paying the world. You're looking
(19:21):
at him and he's just a human being, just like
everybody else. Was that like my nervous I was nervous
at all. Basketball man to prayer with basketball man, and
I knew you can achieve that, go to b but
work hard as everybody else. I wasn't nervous at all.
I was very hyped up Michael. But I think definitely
(19:43):
one that said, n talk to him and hopefully give
me some advice. But I can try to pring us
right here now. But it would be nice, would be
nice to down see he's going through Chiles because things
like that, Well, he had done get to wherever. So
(20:06):
to me, here's the funny part of that. Now, legendary
encounter between the greatest basketball player in the world and
young Kobe Bryant. At the time, nobody made a big
deal about it. The Philadelphia Inquire barely cared about it
(20:29):
or mentioned it. There was a throwaway line and a
story about Kobe a few days later. And if you
think about it, why would anybody make a big deal
of it? There have been lots of quote unquote best
high school players in America, and not all of them,
not even most of them, turn out to be all
time greats. Who thought Kobe was going to be the
next Michael Jordan's except maybe his family, Jeremy Treatment and
(20:52):
Greg Downer and Kobe himself. I mean, Jordan was thirty
three at the time, in his prime and Kobe was
just seven. Team But think about this. Michael Jordan's won
his last championship with the Bulls in Kobe won his
first with the Lakers in two thousand. That's just two
(21:13):
years of separation from the king to his heir. When
you look at it that way, those few minutes in
the locker room before that six years Bulls game back
in weren't just a random interaction between an immortal and
a kid who admired and emulated him. They were a
prelude to a torch passing. There were two more major
(21:37):
events that took place in Kobe's life before his time
at Lower Marian came to an end. And these events
showed two things. One that he was becoming more famous
by the day, and two that he knew he was
becoming more famous by the day and he liked it.
Let's cover the second event. First, in late May, Lower
(21:58):
Marian held its Senior Pram, and the gossip at the
school came down the one question, who was Kobe going
to take? There had been rumors for months. A reporter
from the Lower Marian student newspaper actually asked Kobe if
he was taking Tatiana Ali, an actress who was starring
on the show The Fresh Prince of bel Air Great.
(22:20):
I love Champagne, I mean I love the look of it,
the color and the and the bubbles. For his part,
Kobe was happy to let the scuttlebuts swirm. Here he
is talking to Jeremy treatment about it. It would say,
first of all, I was joking around at the beginning
(22:41):
of the year. I joked around with his girl name
Renee Williams was just joking around, right, that's what I'd like,
I'll take and I no, no, no, no, I'm okay, okay,
that's which I'm taking to the first place. You're like, no, no, no, no,
(23:06):
I'm taking. No. I just kind of switching up, playing
with him. But the rumors weren't all that far from
the truth. And you heard Kobe there mentioned the name
of his true eventual prompting the actress and singer Brandy. Now,
if that name doesn't ring a bell to you, then
you probably weren't alive in the mid nineteen nineties, because
(23:28):
in that era, Brandy was everywhere. She had hit songs
in her debut album was released and went on to
sell more than six million copies. In she began starring
in a hit TV show in which she played the
title character, a sitcom called Moitia that Kobe and his
sisters and seemingly half of young America watched all the time.
(23:52):
You can think of her as sort of a younger
version of Beyonce in the mid nineteen nineties, with a
more wholesome image. Kobe wanted to meet in and he
got his chance through another stable of nineties pop culture,
the R and B group Boys Two Men. Here's a
short version of how it all went down. Kobe's sister Shia,
took part in a fashion show. There she met Mike Harris,
(24:15):
known as Big Mikey, a marketer and promoter who worked
with Boys Two Men. Now, just in case you've somehow
missed one of the most successful R and B groups
of the last thirty years, a group that has sold
more than sixty million records and continues to sell out
tours to this day, let me just say that at
this time in Boys Two Men was a huge pop
(24:37):
music phenomenon that dominated the charts, dominated MTV video airplay,
and dominated young women's hearts, especially in Philadelphia. Philadelphia was
the group's hometown. Mike Harris was interested in bringing on
Kobe as a client too. That's an important detail because
it's not like Big Mike was going any lengths for
(24:58):
Kobe solely out of the goodness of his heart. So
Kobe and Big Mike meet up. Kobe happens to mention
that he has a little crush on Brandy. Before you
know it, Kobe is in New York City a few
weeks later for the Essence Awards, and he's on his
way to the four Seasons hotel in a limousine with
Big Mike and two members of Boys Too Men, Mike
(25:22):
McCrary and one Yea Morris. One Yea Morris has a
room in the hotel and everyone heads up there, going
out to his room, and Mike walks in Rome He
started giggling, Right, what the hell's going on? I'll walk in.
I turned the left A month's job, man, I started laughed, Right,
(25:42):
I did the first I've ever been nerved. This cracking up?
What else? And all of this was arranged. Big Mike
had a plan, a scheme to right to coax Kobe
into hiring him to have the kid make a big
(26:03):
splash on the national scene with the publicity stuff. What
nobody in the public knew was Jan Yae Morris and
Brandy had been romantically involved. Nevertheless, Big Mike got Morris's
permission to have Kobe asked Brandy to lower Marian's prompt.
It was all a set up and h So then
(26:29):
in there Big Mike, not Kobe, called Brandy and asked
her to the prom The man called whatever I mean,
the worlds whom I would They're just like that? Okay,
back from so when you're nervous. H yes, I mean
(26:52):
it was like expected what and I just like um
said she said she had. I was just like it
more more shot, more than anything, like, hey, how are
you doing? How you doing whatever? I'm saying dying? Yeah,
(27:19):
you can play some ball. The whole thing was an
odd combination of a cynical hunt for publicity and an
old fashioned formal courtship. Yes, Brandy did ask her mother
for permission to accompany Kobe to the prom. She had
to her mother was her management, and Kobe, the big
man on campus, the most recognizable person at Lower Merion
(27:41):
High School, never worked up the nerve to ask Brandy
to the dance himself. The two of them hung out
a little and chatted on the phone a few times
before finally prom night arrived. Kobe spent the afternoon with
his friend Jermaine Griffin watching a Chicago Bulls playoff game.
Like everybody knows about the house now, Me and Jamaine
(28:02):
watching basketball videos the Buller player players watched the game.
We're related to, Uh go pick Brandy up at the Marriott.
H go pick it up by myself first of all,
because I like stopped that target's house. Toby Luca's house,
drop Jermaine off. They're taking pictures or whatever, and not
with myself to pick Brandy up at the Marriott and man,
(28:25):
she liked she coldress. Everything was just so perfect. When
they got to the Bellevue Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, the
media we're waiting for me. Here's a clip from NBC
ten Philadelphia that catches them arriving at the prow. Little
after limo arrived, bringing couple after couple. Everyone was supporting
(28:45):
all sorts of fashions and hairdoes. Three hours after it started,
Kobe Bryant and his date, pop star Brandy Norwood finally
arrived in a white limo. We pulled around the corner
of the Bellevue, all these cameras, all these lights and whatever.
I'm like, the big deal, ya to seventy ye old
kids going we get out cameras and everybody's asking questions
(29:09):
when people were asked the real through question. But he
looked at me like what the well when you get
to sing like like mad, She's like the sweetest deal.
But she's like no, I'm sure don't have a good time.
And all the class meets who they're bad mouthing the
whole thing. We get in there, They're like, oh, can
(29:31):
we have a picture with y'all? You know, can we
get close? Can we talk to you all? And I'm like,
get up bottom my face? Man, it was mouthful. I
don't know, I don't know, jealous, I guess we walked.
The people still were like, Brandy, are you serious? I
thought you said you won't take it. I was like, oh,
A lot, we do. I'm standing there, told my my back,
(29:54):
you know, I mean, I didn't say that. But they're like,
I don't said you want to take it, you know,
I like, don't madly care about it. I don't care
about it. Not my friends anyway, you know what I mean.
My friends people were close to me, have been close
to me the basketball time. Fake friends, that's there. I
(30:18):
have my close close people to me of course, you know,
guys are a basketball team like my brothers. Interesting, Kobe
was seeing the other side of fame, the whispers, the resentment,
the curiosity with his every move, and he didn't like it.
He was just a seventeen year old kid, of course,
but he was a pretty smart seventeen year old kid,
(30:38):
and one might think that it was hypocritical of him.
That it showed his immaturity at the stage of his
life to complain about people talking behind his back. You
can completely understand that a teenager wouldn't want all the
ins and outs of his life revealed to the world.
But remember, Kobe had courted all the attention he was getting.
It was unrealistic of him to think that nobody was
(31:00):
going to resent him, or be jealous of him, or
think he was entitled and spoiled and full of himself.
(31:27):
All of that brings us back to where we began
this episode in the Lower Merion High School gymnasium in
late April. Kobe at that lectern for that fateful press
conference telling the world that he was off to play
pro basketball. Kobe Bryant, I decided to see my talent
to uh no, I have designed to skip Collins in
(31:58):
towns in NBA. He didn't seem to mind the attention
he got that dead throughout the morning and into the afternoon,
he welcomed every question from his classmates and teachers. He
liked having a secret, knowing something that everyone else wanted
to know but didn't. I picture him walking around all
day with a sly little grin on his face. He
(32:19):
had this piece of information about himself that everyone wanted
him to share, and he wouldn't not until he was ready.
He was in control of his story. He had to
love it. And the day at the press conference, right,
my classmates coming to you and say, Colby, you know
I to the Crows game. Don't you tell me what
what's you gonna do? I said, uh no, They help
(32:41):
people ask me I I don't know yet. He's gonna
make it up at the sport a moment, but uh,
I'm glad I to turn out. A lot of people
came in and you know, supported or whatever. But the
whole week before I was really nice to mind what
he was here, folks, and about the whole decision process.
That's just like a normal date to me. Everybody else
is so hype around it that they kept aggravate you
(33:03):
kid in school and asked me and it was class
but it wasn't the same. I just talked about the
whole decision days. Yea, it was money, but it was funny.
Held like an example of one of the classes. Well,
we're actually have that well metal and jeweliry class usually
have to mix stuff little metal bracelets whatever. That day, kids,
(33:26):
it just running around just asking me. I'm sitting off
close to saying, Oh, what's it gonna be? In my
kind of listening the conversation. You know I'm got to do.
You know, I took him a little, put a little
successions and well, I think you should do it or whatever.
It was funny, it was back yea. I love the
(33:56):
thought of that scene. Kobe Bryant in metal jewelry class
making a braceletter and necklace, fending off questions about whether
he was going to college or the NBA. The press
conference had been his dad's idea. Joe thought Kobe's announcement
was newsworthy enough for such a spectacle, and he was right.
He also got Jeremy Treatment to plan and set up
the whole thing. Jeremy wrote up a press release and
(34:19):
called all the local and national media to make sure
they knew about the event. All that build up really
revealed Kobe's intentions without him having to reveal them himself.
Think about it. Would he and his family have called
a press conference if he weren't going to the NBA.
The answer by them was so obvious and had been
(34:40):
obvious for so long. If you were reading the tea
leaves that Kobe never had to tell anyone outside his
inner circle what he was doing. And who was in
that inner circle. Well, there was his father, there was
his mother, There were the Bryant and Cox families. There
was Sonny Vacara, the sneaker mogul who had signed Michael
George to his first contract with Nike. By that point, though,
(35:03):
Sonny was working for Adidas, and he had been talking
to Joe setting up a deal with Kobe for months.
Included in that deal was super agent. Aren't tell him? Remember,
aren't tell him? The kid from Southwest Philadelphia and Lower
Merion Township who grew up admiring Joe Bryant. Well, now
he was going to represent Joe's son. Kobe's teammates. He
(35:25):
never told then the secret, but he didn't have to.
They knew same thing with Greg Down That's right. Kobe
never explicitly told his high school basketball coach whether he
was choosing college or the NBA. When I was at
that press conference, I I really kind of oddly did
not know what he was gonna say. He had, you know,
(35:47):
a really small inner circle at that time, which was
probably Joe, Pam and the Coxes and and probably Sonny
Vicarro aren't tell him. But you know, I didn't know
what was going to happen that day. The sunglasses up
on the forehead. Ah, yes, the sunglasses. Talk show hosts
and columnus went bonkers over Kobe's decision, and they went
(36:10):
really bonkers over the spectacle of it, the arrogance of
it all, the press conference, his manner at that press conference,
and his attire at that press conference, which included a
pair of black Oval Designer sunglasses that rested on top
of his head. How dare he improvised? I think a
(36:30):
mother When he came over where the big much had
a couple of shoots out and the side which went out,
I prefer uh he described this problem. It was like
a page kind of covered jack uh halft night beach.
(36:53):
My kid gave me a detail and really glad like that.
That was my I've always loved I loved black, and
I figure, why not saw sow I throw mylay in
and I didn't know the big deal everybody but I
evened it up. That criticism didn't bother COVID question and
neither did the questions from the reporters on no, everybody
(37:15):
must add everything I expected in the ad, and then
I think them some of the questions will really um
trick kind of questions, really really trying to catch you
and saying something that that you might regret. And I
don't know if they they took me for grant, and
they will. He's a young kid. Maybe you won't be
able to see it. Right. I'm not gonna let you.
(37:39):
I'm not gonna let you tack me. And I'm saying
something that I thought I don't want to say. I
look at media questions that that's enough game. It's like
a game game to catch up thinking I can row runner.
I know you've seen that cartoon. He's always trying to
catch him. You can never catch him. I think that's
a that's how a question kind of trying to catch
(38:01):
get a situation, but thinking devocation. Jeremy Treatment, of course,
was one of the first people to learn that Kobe
was jumping straight to the NBA. It would be easy
and self flattering for him to look back at that
time and tell himself and everyone else, Hey, I knew
what Kobe was gonna do before just about anyone else did.
But as we sat there together by the Long Beach
(38:22):
Old in Bay, he made what I thought was a
pretty honest admission that even he didn't see the big
picture back then the way Kobe did. Maybe being in
the eye of a hurricane means you don't see clearly
how it's going to reshape the entire landscape. Was pretty
naive to this whole thing. And even though like I've
become one of these big basketball showcase entrepreneurs, I was
(38:43):
still I was actually pretty naive when I started that too.
Did I ever think about he was comparing himself to
the NBA at that time? No? Have I ever thought
about it ever, Not really until you know, I think
about it a little bit now. But he definitely was
preparing him. Him and Pam were definitely preparing him for
life in the n b A. What did you think
at the time before his senior year, did you think
(39:05):
this was a kid who could jump straight to the NBA?
Did you think he just mean touring college player? What
did you think? No? I I didn't think that until
they told me. To be honest, Um, I did. I
was privy to the plan, but I didn't. I didn't.
I mean, who would have thought it at the time. No,
But nobody thought about that when Kevin Garnett did it
the year before. I remember a lot of people were saying, God,
(39:28):
he's so smart, he would have to sit out of here.
There's no other option either have a seven s a T.
So he bucked the system and he went into the
NBA and bam number five pick in the draft. And
I remember just thinking, Kevin Garnett, there was such great advice.
Whoever gave it to him? Um? And then with Kobe,
he was like, No, I did think NBA started him.
I absolutely thought Michael Jordan's absolutely, but not sure Jeremy
(40:01):
really thought through the implications of what he was saying there.
He was right. If Kobe didn't become the next Jordan's,
he got as close as anyone ever did. But for
Kobe to reach that level, to develop into the greatest
basketball player on the planet and come close to matching
the greatest of all time, he would have to change.
(40:21):
As I'll explore in the next episode, Kobe would have
to harden himself even more as he grew older, as
the demands and pressure on him increased, as his world
grew more vast, and as his world at the same
time shrank, There would have to be sacrifices along the way,
his free time would be scarcer than it already was.
(40:42):
The charms of his youth would begin to vanish, and
he would no longer have room in his life for
certain relationships. His friendship with his old confidante, Jeremy Treating,
would be one of those sacrifices. Sure, I wanted to
be part of his knife. I absolutely, I love the kids,
I love the family. I loved it. You know it
(41:02):
wasn't it wasn't about money, it was about fame. It
was about I want to be. I want to be
part of his life. That's next week on I Am Kobe.
I Am Kobe is a production of the Version podcasts
(41:24):
in association with I Heart Radio. This season is written
and hosted by me Mike Sealskin. It's produced by Jacob
Bronstein and directed by Mark Francis. Story editing by Jacob Bronstein,
with editorial direction from Scott Waxy, Editing, mixing and sound
design by Mark Francis. Stephen Tompkins is our production assistant.
(41:45):
Our theme music is Create Yourself by Grover Brown featuring
Justin Starling find Create Yourself wherever you stream music. Music
supervisor is Scott Velasquez. For Freesan Sinking. Executive produce sers
are Mark Francis and Scott Waxman join the conversation about
I Am Kobe on social media on Twitter and Instagram.
(42:08):
It's at diversion Pods thanks to Rain Rosenbaum, Susan Cannavan
and Jeremy Treatment. They rise before the sun. They don't
understand when I said to Brian is fun. Never clocked
you out. Even when my work is done. If they're
trying to block me, I might hurt someone throw the
blood sweat and says, we persefit, stay tending in, let
(42:28):
it keep the hurses and then if they don't believe
in themselves, they revert to find that it Sampa says,
So I'm telling them, ask my am, this the reason
why my work so damn different to the negatives. I
can't listen see me at the time. You can't listen
where I'm a vote to play like cash is see
I pay my dudes because Texas gotta work. I thinking
(42:49):
Brian ahead of his time. So I'm saying that they
made you. Don't tell them you create yourself. Finn watch us,
but that's you got snake clock, then break clock break
We create ourselves watch me, watch me to create myself.
Shack client times up and create yourself. Stay nice. Ain't
(43:15):
so hard create yourself. You gotta learn from the great minds. No,
we ain't lying. Tell them next game time. This time
I wasn't given it was made the future. Any time
I could change better, tell them that I made it
back home as I walked through the hearts of the fact,
I came from the valley of the shadow with death
waiting for us. Some spoons. Don't hold your breath, sat Town,
(43:36):
sat train. But I did it with less. I know
warm that the being so there's nothing to guess. Yeah,
there's nothing to guess. It's our times and then we
up next. We don't got any regrets. I did it
with my soon hands, and we never forgets my This
the reason why my work so damn different to the negatives.
I can't listen see me at the time. You can't
(43:57):
listen for where rebuild, reshape, give me your eye. You
got to risk take do it now. When I'm saying
why wat, I was saying that they mayn't it will
tell them you create yourself the best you finn or
watch us by It's by that time you've gotta sneak click,
then creak clock creak. We Create yourself, Watch me question,
(44:20):
watch the Create Myself exac clim times LP. Create yourself
may nice and ain't so hard. Create yourself. Gotta learn
from the great minds. No, we ain't lying, tell them
next anytime. Diversion Podcasts
Diversion podcasts, Test Sport or five, Test Sport five, Test
Sport five. The first thing I want to ask you
about what you think about was all we best fount
and post off your mind most it like your home.
But I wasn't. I wasn't really thinking about the whole thing. Okay,
if my father asked me when when I would like
(00:26):
that at prest count I was like, come on, it
really didn't matter to me. You know, I didn't care.
But I think my mother and father, I can't do
it really nervous, like can since that, and I'll kind
of tease them any more ever, denying that's kind of
plaining me. They're running around make sure I knew what
to say, how to say everything, and things like that.
I was just cracking up because it really wasn't that
verity with this, and so the whole week basically that's
(00:50):
where it was. Back in July two thousand ten, everyone
in America, at least everyone in America who cared about
professional basketball, was fixated on a single question, what team
with the biggest basketball star in the world, Lebron James,
(01:13):
play for next. Lebron had spent his first seven NBA
seasons with his quasi hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. He
had grown up a few miles away in Akron, But
now he was a free agent and he could play
for any team he wanted. And when he was ready
to reveal his decision, he reached a deal with ESPN
(01:34):
to televise his announcement. He hand picked an interviewer, famed
sportscaster Jim Gray, to help build up some artificial drama,
and then he said, this Um, and this fall man
very tough, Um, and this fall I'm gonna take my
talents to South Beach and Um joined the Miami Beach.
Any basketball fan who watched that interview and who had
(01:56):
a good memory heard something in those words that should
have infamiliar. Lebron James might be the greatest basketball player
of all time. But when he made that announcement, the
one thing he wasn't was original. That line, I'm going
to take my talents too, wasn't his not first. He
ripped it off from a seventeen year old high school
(02:18):
senior who made a similar announcement way back in the
spring of Kobe Bryant decided talents to uh I had
(02:39):
designed to scoop college towns in India. That was Kobe
Bryant on Monday April at Lower Merion High School in
a pack gymnasium, making it official. He wasn't going to Duke.
He wasn't going to the South. He wasn't going to
North Carolina or Arizona or Michigan. He wasn't going to
(03:03):
college at all. He was going straight to the n
b A two months later, the Charlotte Hornets took him
with the thirteenth pick in the NBA Draft, then traded
him to the Los Angeles Lakers. That press conference represents
the apex of Kobe's confidence and self assurance during his
high school years. During that little pause before he says, no,
(03:25):
I have decided to skip college, he puts his hand
to his chin like he's thinking about something. He's pretending
playing to the crowd, like he was an actor or
a talk show host. A few days before that press conference, though,
Kobe wasn't so confident. In fact, he had been questioning
himself about the wisdom of his decision. Those doubts didn't
(03:46):
last long, but they were there, and Kobe needed some
help and advice to get over them. He needed to
talk to his dad, Joe the first time I probably
really doubted myself saying, well, I'm not It was it.
It was the first time he ever died you something.
You never died something in high school. You never died you.
So okay, ye, people with doubting you're saying that you
(04:10):
can't do this, you can't do that. You pulled them
all on, said, nybody, I can do you. Never doubt yourself.
So last time. Now, I think that was that was
great advice because I have I've never dined a myself,
all right, because I've always worried as hard a pop,
always wanted, always will poself. You don't want to do
(04:32):
good work hard that, don't do it. Kobe had kept
this secret from most of the people in his life,
even many of those very close to him, his coaches,
his teammates. They thought he might jump to the pros,
(04:52):
but they didn't know for certain. Only a very few
people did. Jeremy treatment was one of them. I'm still
amazed by that that no one really knew that a
teenager went to such lengths to keep a secret. When
I visited Jeremy on Long Beach Island, I asked him
about it. What do you think that says about him,
that he was able to keep that secret and that
(05:13):
he was willing to kind of only tell certain people
about he was smarter than anybody we knew. Well, I
think a lot of people surmised it, but nobody, nobody
actually had heard him say it. But I mean, I
don't think people were surprised to day of that press conference.
But until you actually hear it, you know, it's like
(05:34):
their grandfather is dying and like everybody sad, he's sick,
and then but when he actually dies, it's like, oh
my god, it happened. You know, it's like, oh my god,
the press conference happened. He actually said he's going high school, NBA.
It really happened. So it was it was kind of
like that. With that announcement, Kobe Bryant launched himself into
the stratosphere of stardom, and he would remain there for
(05:54):
the rest of his life. But for many weeks before
that press conference, he had already been taste celebrity, getting
close to it, seeing what it was like, and sometimes
it was hard for him to handle. In fact, he
needed Jeremy Treatment's help with what you think would be
the easiest thing for a superstar high school athlete to
do he needed help getting a date. I'm Mike Seals
(06:22):
and from Diversion Podcasts, this is I am Kobe the
state rat state to create myself. Self, Create yourself, very nice,
create yourself? Got any great minds that we gain? Gaining time?
(06:47):
Episode eight, The Taste of Fame. We'll come back to
that faithful press conference later. First, I want to give
you a little context for all that confidence that seventeen
year old Kobe flashing there. Like I said, he may
have been completely poised on the basketball court or even
an electern in a huge room full of people, but
(07:08):
in other settings he wasn't so sure of himself, and
often those settings involved girls. Now I realized we're heading
into sensitive territory here. In two thousand three and two
thousand four, Kobe Bryant was accused of and charged with
(07:28):
sexual assault. At the least, he committed adultery, At the worst,
he was alleged to have committed a heinous crime. It
may be tempting to draw a straight line between Kobe's
social life and habits as a teenager and his alleged
actions as a grown man. It may even be natural
(07:48):
and understandable everyone brings his or her own experiences and
perspective to this topic and has his her own opinion
on that aspect of Kobe's life and story. I'm not
going to tell you how to feel or what to
think about Kobe or about what he did or did
(08:09):
not do. What I will do is present his own words,
present anecdotes I uncovered during my research for this podcast
and for my book, Present my own insight, and let
you decide for yourself. Yo. Talking about how cook Treatment cook, uh,
you know, I heard a lot about it. I just
(08:30):
want to go check out see plate and con She
was a game and she was getting busy. Cheah child
like bad. Jeremy Treatment celebrated his thirtieth birthday in February
(08:54):
by introducing Kobe to Kristen Ace Clement. She was the
female version of Kobe Bryant at the time, the top
female high school basketball player, certainly in the Philadelphia area,
perhaps in the country. Her name hadn't been in the
press as much as Kobe's, but she was something of
a local celebrity. Five ft eleven with long brown hair,
(09:15):
She had been linked romantically to Eric lynd Ross, the
star player for the Philadelphia Flyers, hockey team, she also
had serious game. She went to Cardinal O'Hara High School,
a girl's basketball powerhouse not far from Lower Merion. She
later went on to play for legendary coach Pat Summit
at the University of Tennessee. Here's how they described her.
(09:35):
During a broadcast on NBC ten of Philadelphia, dried and
Smith called her an All American. USA Today called her
the best player in Pennsylvania. But as big Almelton reports
to her friends and teammates, Kristin Clement simply called eight.
Jeremy had covered Clement for the Inquired High School Sports show,
the TV show that the paper had started just a
year or two earlier to focus on the high volume
(09:57):
of amazing young town in the Philly area. He set
up a meat cute for Kobe at one of her games.
Kobe saw himself and Clement on similar tracks, both elite
basketball players, both under the glare of the spotlight. And remember,
Kobe was so immersed in basketball, so focused on honing
his game and making it to the NBA, that he
(10:20):
could be challenging for him to make time for dating
or to find a point of connection with a member
of the opposite sex. He had a quasi girlfriend throughout
high school, a girl he met at a party, but
most of their dates consisted of her coming over to
the Bryant's house to watch basketball games and basketball videos
with Kobe. Not exactly the most romantic thing for two
(10:40):
teams to do on a Friday night, but with Kristen Clement,
he had that connection through basketball. He sat in the
bleachers and watched her play, and after the game Jeremy introduced.
From there, they chatted frequently on the phone. Sometimes Kobe
would call her from a pay phone after practice or
a game, but he insisted they were dating in the
(11:01):
traditional set. You know, we have a lot of commage
because she didn't number one player. I'm the number one player.
It's about the same thing she's going through a junior
year I went through my junior year. So you had
a lot of things in common. We're talk on the
phone about that stuff a lot. You know, a lot
of people say, well, they're they're romantic or whatever and
things like that. That's really out the kid, which is
(11:23):
very in close friends and we get along very well.
She made a big decision for to Tennessee and junior. Yeah,
I give a lot of guts for that, because album
I would never do anything like actually exactly exactly. But
when I give a lot of prayer now, I wish
you the best hope next year and next she is
gonna be very active when you've heard whatever the met
(11:46):
did you think I would start ship that relationship from her?
Whatever it is. I can expect that because we have
so much in common. You know, was just gonna be
like a high bid thing. Because you have so much
in common. I can see and I think she understands that.
So we're talking about other things, you know, songs and
movies and games and things like that. We just really
(12:06):
hang out and have fun. She's another friend. Um, you
love getting your ears right, and I love watching the play.
She she can play. This is on the show. Oh
my god. People to play. It's like it's like watching
the great player and go to work. You know. I
know when people come to watch me play, I don't.
(12:26):
That's why she comes to watch me play, because I
can put on the show. I'm come to watch the play.
He could put on the show. People some kind of
look at it, said, well, they're going out because they're
at each other's games and things like that. But I'm thinking,
I'm like, why what are you doing there? You're come
to watch the play, right, I'm saying, what you're doing,
That's what I'm doing. I just put on the show.
(12:48):
So it's been j j dropping. He's been he's been
the only one. He's been the only one people tracking
a little Joe's but a lot of people are saying
things wondering, you do you understand when it's in the spotlight,
people automatically want to say, we understand that. The Robbie
that Kobe and Jeremy mentioned there, of course, is Robbie Schwartz,
(13:10):
who I introduced you to in the last episode. Kobe's
lower marrying teammate and passenger on those rides to the
gym for Kobe's early morning workouts. But Robbie was more
than just a guy who chased down rebounds for Kobe
or sat on the bench for the aces during games.
He was his wingman. On one of Kobe's dates with
Kristin Clement, they went on a double date to a
(13:34):
restaurant in Ordinary. It was a memorable night for Robbie,
but not because of his date or the dinner conversation.
Here's Robbie talking to me about Kobe and Kristina. Of course,
we went to Ruby's one night. This was after one
of our games. I think she came to one of
our away games. So we're like getting off the bus
and he says to me, he goes, you want to
He goes, you want to come to Ruby's with me?
(13:54):
I'm like what. I was like, what are you talking about.
He's like ye. He's like, He's like, I'm supposed to
meet Ace there. She's bringing a friend. He was, you
want to come with of course? So it was so weird.
We went to Rubies, which is note which is closed
by the way in suburban Sware. But I remember sitting
in the booth and I was sitting across from this
(14:15):
this girl who I did not remember her name for
the life of me. And we were sitting there and
we were like the wing people, and I just remember
looking around and everybody was like staring at our booth.
I don't think I said more than like ken words
the whole night, but it was definitely it was definitely
like a come with us. So it's so we're not alone,
(14:36):
you know what I mean? He was like, yeah, I
don't know what they had, who they helped him. She
was a big fan of his. She was he was
very nice and we had a very fun night. But
I remember I don't I think we said anything. Robbie
told me he understood why Kobe asked him to accompany
him and Kristen Clement on their day. I mean basketball
was of his life, but like he was as normal
(14:57):
as the best player in the in country could be,
because I think people acting different around him, Like if
you were introduced to someone, like if you met me, like, hey,
there's a guy who plays lower Marian basketball over there,
you would come up to me and say hi, and
and be normal. But people never acting normal. They would
just say dumb ship or just like act they like
(15:19):
they like forgot how to act around him. Around this time,
in Kobe's senior year of high school, his fame was growing,
sometimes incrementally, sometimes in great leaps. Coverage of his basketball
exploits was increasing, which meant more people were reading his
name in local and national newspapers, were seeing him on TV,
which meant more people were recognizing his face and his name,
(15:42):
even basketball's biggest stars, even the biggest sports star in
the world, Hey, this is Mike Sealsky, host and writer
(16:03):
of I Am Kobe. 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,
(16:26):
his family, 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
(16:47):
Rise of Kobe book dot com. Thanks. On the night
(17:10):
of Monday, March eighteenth, the same day that Kobe broke
his nose in practice ahead of the state semi finals,
he and his father, Joe, went to the Spectrum to
see the Sixers play the Chicago Bulls and to get
an audience with Michael Jordan's Kobe had met Jordan briefly
in eighth grade when Joe had taken him to a game,
(17:31):
but this was different. John Lucas, the Sixers coach at
the time, invited Kobe into the team's locker room to
say hello to his old pickup game friends from the summer,
Jerry Stackhouse and Vernon Maxwell. Then Lucas escorted Kobe down
to the visiting WAC to meet Michael. Michael had a
media people around me. Didn't know what I was. I
(17:53):
didn't know. He had it too, want to say, Kobe
without right right, right, yeah, trying to another code. I know.
The rest out like a hand out and stick his
hand so small. The main advice that Michael gave me
(18:17):
enjoy it again, I get because a lot of pressure
that's going on. I hype that going on was very easy.
He can become easily distracted. Therefore, and said, don't let
people leave after still yourself and go out there and
half fight out there on the court. Everything would be fined.
(18:39):
Jordan had no idea, of course, that Kobe had pretty
much already made up his mind to go to the NBA,
so he did what any loyal North Carolina alumnus would
have done. He lobbied for Kobe to go to Chapel Hill.
I knew he was gonna say go to Caroline. That's
a slap. Said that s about three or four times. Man,
(19:00):
it was up to me, I may you go to
North Carolina? You know it was cool? Uh But again,
like I didn't know he knew anything about me because
I'm just saying up during the war and he came
up to me, was like, hey, you know, nice being
young man. All this thing. It's like that. I'm like,
he's like you can about paying the world. You're looking
(19:21):
at him and he's just a human being, just like
everybody else. Was that like my nervous I was nervous
at all. Basketball man to prayer with basketball man, and
I knew you can achieve that, go to b but
work hard as everybody else. I wasn't nervous at all.
I was very hyped up Michael. But I think definitely
(19:43):
one that said, n talk to him and hopefully give
me some advice. But I can try to pring us
right here now. But it would be nice, would be
nice to down see he's going through Chiles because things
like that, Well, he had done get to wherever. So
(20:06):
to me, here's the funny part of that. Now, legendary
encounter between the greatest basketball player in the world and
young Kobe Bryant. At the time, nobody made a big
deal about it. The Philadelphia Inquire barely cared about it
(20:29):
or mentioned it. There was a throwaway line and a
story about Kobe a few days later. And if you
think about it, why would anybody make a big deal
of it? There have been lots of quote unquote best
high school players in America, and not all of them,
not even most of them, turn out to be all
time greats. Who thought Kobe was going to be the
next Michael Jordan's except maybe his family, Jeremy Treatment and
(20:52):
Greg Downer and Kobe himself. I mean, Jordan was thirty
three at the time, in his prime and Kobe was
just seven. Team But think about this. Michael Jordan's won
his last championship with the Bulls in Kobe won his
first with the Lakers in two thousand. That's just two
(21:13):
years of separation from the king to his heir. When
you look at it that way, those few minutes in
the locker room before that six years Bulls game back
in weren't just a random interaction between an immortal and
a kid who admired and emulated him. They were a
prelude to a torch passing. There were two more major
(21:37):
events that took place in Kobe's life before his time
at Lower Marian came to an end. And these events
showed two things. One that he was becoming more famous
by the day, and two that he knew he was
becoming more famous by the day and he liked it.
Let's cover the second event. First, in late May, Lower
(21:58):
Marian held its Senior Pram, and the gossip at the
school came down the one question, who was Kobe going
to take? There had been rumors for months. A reporter
from the Lower Marian student newspaper actually asked Kobe if
he was taking Tatiana Ali, an actress who was starring
on the show The Fresh Prince of bel Air Great.
(22:20):
I love Champagne, I mean I love the look of it,
the color and the and the bubbles. For his part,
Kobe was happy to let the scuttlebuts swirm. Here he
is talking to Jeremy treatment about it. It would say,
first of all, I was joking around at the beginning
(22:41):
of the year. I joked around with his girl name
Renee Williams was just joking around, right, that's what I'd like,
I'll take and I no, no, no, no, I'm okay, okay,
that's which I'm taking to the first place. You're like, no, no, no, no,
(23:06):
I'm taking. No. I just kind of switching up, playing
with him. But the rumors weren't all that far from
the truth. And you heard Kobe there mentioned the name
of his true eventual prompting the actress and singer Brandy. Now,
if that name doesn't ring a bell to you, then
you probably weren't alive in the mid nineteen nineties, because
(23:28):
in that era, Brandy was everywhere. She had hit songs
in her debut album was released and went on to
sell more than six million copies. In she began starring
in a hit TV show in which she played the
title character, a sitcom called Moitia that Kobe and his
sisters and seemingly half of young America watched all the time.
(23:52):
You can think of her as sort of a younger
version of Beyonce in the mid nineteen nineties, with a
more wholesome image. Kobe wanted to meet in and he
got his chance through another stable of nineties pop culture,
the R and B group Boys Two Men. Here's a
short version of how it all went down. Kobe's sister Shia,
took part in a fashion show. There she met Mike Harris,
(24:15):
known as Big Mikey, a marketer and promoter who worked
with Boys Two Men. Now, just in case you've somehow
missed one of the most successful R and B groups
of the last thirty years, a group that has sold
more than sixty million records and continues to sell out
tours to this day, let me just say that at
this time in Boys Two Men was a huge pop
(24:37):
music phenomenon that dominated the charts, dominated MTV video airplay,
and dominated young women's hearts, especially in Philadelphia. Philadelphia was
the group's hometown. Mike Harris was interested in bringing on
Kobe as a client too. That's an important detail because
it's not like Big Mike was going any lengths for
(24:58):
Kobe solely out of the goodness of his heart. So
Kobe and Big Mike meet up. Kobe happens to mention
that he has a little crush on Brandy. Before you
know it, Kobe is in New York City a few
weeks later for the Essence Awards, and he's on his
way to the four Seasons hotel in a limousine with
Big Mike and two members of Boys Too Men, Mike
(25:22):
McCrary and one Yea Morris. One Yea Morris has a
room in the hotel and everyone heads up there, going
out to his room, and Mike walks in Rome He
started giggling, Right, what the hell's going on? I'll walk in.
I turned the left A month's job, man, I started laughed, Right,
(25:42):
I did the first I've ever been nerved. This cracking up?
What else? And all of this was arranged. Big Mike
had a plan, a scheme to right to coax Kobe
into hiring him to have the kid make a big
(26:03):
splash on the national scene with the publicity stuff. What
nobody in the public knew was Jan Yae Morris and
Brandy had been romantically involved. Nevertheless, Big Mike got Morris's
permission to have Kobe asked Brandy to lower Marian's prompt.
It was all a set up and h So then
(26:29):
in there Big Mike, not Kobe, called Brandy and asked
her to the prom The man called whatever I mean,
the worlds whom I would They're just like that? Okay,
back from so when you're nervous. H yes, I mean
(26:52):
it was like expected what and I just like um
said she said she had. I was just like it
more more shot, more than anything, like, hey, how are
you doing? How you doing whatever? I'm saying dying? Yeah,
(27:19):
you can play some ball. The whole thing was an
odd combination of a cynical hunt for publicity and an
old fashioned formal courtship. Yes, Brandy did ask her mother
for permission to accompany Kobe to the prom. She had
to her mother was her management, and Kobe, the big
man on campus, the most recognizable person at Lower Merion
(27:41):
High School, never worked up the nerve to ask Brandy
to the dance himself. The two of them hung out
a little and chatted on the phone a few times
before finally prom night arrived. Kobe spent the afternoon with
his friend Jermaine Griffin watching a Chicago Bulls playoff game.
Like everybody knows about the house now, Me and Jamaine
(28:02):
watching basketball videos the Buller player players watched the game.
We're related to, Uh go pick Brandy up at the Marriott.
H go pick it up by myself first of all,
because I like stopped that target's house. Toby Luca's house,
drop Jermaine off. They're taking pictures or whatever, and not
with myself to pick Brandy up at the Marriott and man,
(28:25):
she liked she coldress. Everything was just so perfect. When
they got to the Bellevue Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, the
media we're waiting for me. Here's a clip from NBC
ten Philadelphia that catches them arriving at the prow. Little
after limo arrived, bringing couple after couple. Everyone was supporting
(28:45):
all sorts of fashions and hairdoes. Three hours after it started,
Kobe Bryant and his date, pop star Brandy Norwood finally
arrived in a white limo. We pulled around the corner
of the Bellevue, all these cameras, all these lights and whatever.
I'm like, the big deal, ya to seventy ye old
kids going we get out cameras and everybody's asking questions
(29:09):
when people were asked the real through question. But he
looked at me like what the well when you get
to sing like like mad, She's like the sweetest deal.
But she's like no, I'm sure don't have a good time.
And all the class meets who they're bad mouthing the
whole thing. We get in there, They're like, oh, can
(29:31):
we have a picture with y'all? You know, can we
get close? Can we talk to you all? And I'm like,
get up bottom my face? Man, it was mouthful. I
don't know, I don't know, jealous, I guess we walked.
The people still were like, Brandy, are you serious? I
thought you said you won't take it. I was like, oh,
A lot, we do. I'm standing there, told my my back,
(29:54):
you know, I mean, I didn't say that. But they're like,
I don't said you want to take it, you know,
I like, don't madly care about it. I don't care
about it. Not my friends anyway, you know what I mean.
My friends people were close to me, have been close
to me the basketball time. Fake friends, that's there. I
(30:18):
have my close close people to me of course, you know,
guys are a basketball team like my brothers. Interesting, Kobe
was seeing the other side of fame, the whispers, the resentment,
the curiosity with his every move, and he didn't like it.
He was just a seventeen year old kid, of course,
but he was a pretty smart seventeen year old kid,
(30:38):
and one might think that it was hypocritical of him.
That it showed his immaturity at the stage of his
life to complain about people talking behind his back. You
can completely understand that a teenager wouldn't want all the
ins and outs of his life revealed to the world.
But remember, Kobe had courted all the attention he was getting.
It was unrealistic of him to think that nobody was
(31:00):
going to resent him, or be jealous of him, or
think he was entitled and spoiled and full of himself.
(31:27):
All of that brings us back to where we began
this episode in the Lower Merion High School gymnasium in
late April. Kobe at that lectern for that fateful press
conference telling the world that he was off to play
pro basketball. Kobe Bryant, I decided to see my talent
to uh no, I have designed to skip Collins in
(31:58):
towns in NBA. He didn't seem to mind the attention
he got that dead throughout the morning and into the afternoon,
he welcomed every question from his classmates and teachers. He
liked having a secret, knowing something that everyone else wanted
to know but didn't. I picture him walking around all
day with a sly little grin on his face. He
(32:19):
had this piece of information about himself that everyone wanted
him to share, and he wouldn't not until he was ready.
He was in control of his story. He had to
love it. And the day at the press conference, right,
my classmates coming to you and say, Colby, you know
I to the Crows game. Don't you tell me what
what's you gonna do? I said, uh no, They help
(32:41):
people ask me I I don't know yet. He's gonna
make it up at the sport a moment, but uh,
I'm glad I to turn out. A lot of people
came in and you know, supported or whatever. But the
whole week before I was really nice to mind what
he was here, folks, and about the whole decision process.
That's just like a normal date to me. Everybody else
is so hype around it that they kept aggravate you
(33:03):
kid in school and asked me and it was class
but it wasn't the same. I just talked about the
whole decision days. Yea, it was money, but it was funny.
Held like an example of one of the classes. Well,
we're actually have that well metal and jeweliry class usually
have to mix stuff little metal bracelets whatever. That day, kids,
(33:26):
it just running around just asking me. I'm sitting off
close to saying, Oh, what's it gonna be? In my
kind of listening the conversation. You know I'm got to do.
You know, I took him a little, put a little
successions and well, I think you should do it or whatever.
It was funny, it was back yea. I love the
(33:56):
thought of that scene. Kobe Bryant in metal jewelry class
making a braceletter and necklace, fending off questions about whether
he was going to college or the NBA. The press
conference had been his dad's idea. Joe thought Kobe's announcement
was newsworthy enough for such a spectacle, and he was right.
He also got Jeremy Treatment to plan and set up
the whole thing. Jeremy wrote up a press release and
(34:19):
called all the local and national media to make sure
they knew about the event. All that build up really
revealed Kobe's intentions without him having to reveal them himself.
Think about it. Would he and his family have called
a press conference if he weren't going to the NBA.
The answer by them was so obvious and had been
(34:40):
obvious for so long. If you were reading the tea
leaves that Kobe never had to tell anyone outside his
inner circle what he was doing. And who was in
that inner circle. Well, there was his father, there was
his mother, There were the Bryant and Cox families. There
was Sonny Vacara, the sneaker mogul who had signed Michael
George to his first contract with Nike. By that point, though,
(35:03):
Sonny was working for Adidas, and he had been talking
to Joe setting up a deal with Kobe for months.
Included in that deal was super agent. Aren't tell him? Remember,
aren't tell him? The kid from Southwest Philadelphia and Lower
Merion Township who grew up admiring Joe Bryant. Well, now
he was going to represent Joe's son. Kobe's teammates. He
(35:25):
never told then the secret, but he didn't have to.
They knew same thing with Greg Down That's right. Kobe
never explicitly told his high school basketball coach whether he
was choosing college or the NBA. When I was at
that press conference, I I really kind of oddly did
not know what he was gonna say. He had, you know,
(35:47):
a really small inner circle at that time, which was
probably Joe, Pam and the Coxes and and probably Sonny
Vicarro aren't tell him. But you know, I didn't know
what was going to happen that day. The sunglasses up
on the forehead. Ah, yes, the sunglasses. Talk show hosts
and columnus went bonkers over Kobe's decision, and they went
(36:10):
really bonkers over the spectacle of it, the arrogance of
it all, the press conference, his manner at that press conference,
and his attire at that press conference, which included a
pair of black Oval Designer sunglasses that rested on top
of his head. How dare he improvised? I think a
(36:30):
mother When he came over where the big much had
a couple of shoots out and the side which went out,
I prefer uh he described this problem. It was like
a page kind of covered jack uh halft night beach.
(36:53):
My kid gave me a detail and really glad like that.
That was my I've always loved I loved black, and
I figure, why not saw sow I throw mylay in
and I didn't know the big deal everybody but I
evened it up. That criticism didn't bother COVID question and
neither did the questions from the reporters on no, everybody
(37:15):
must add everything I expected in the ad, and then
I think them some of the questions will really um
trick kind of questions, really really trying to catch you
and saying something that that you might regret. And I
don't know if they they took me for grant, and
they will. He's a young kid. Maybe you won't be
able to see it. Right. I'm not gonna let you.
(37:39):
I'm not gonna let you tack me. And I'm saying
something that I thought I don't want to say. I
look at media questions that that's enough game. It's like
a game game to catch up thinking I can row runner.
I know you've seen that cartoon. He's always trying to
catch him. You can never catch him. I think that's
a that's how a question kind of trying to catch
(38:01):
get a situation, but thinking devocation. Jeremy Treatment, of course,
was one of the first people to learn that Kobe
was jumping straight to the NBA. It would be easy
and self flattering for him to look back at that
time and tell himself and everyone else, Hey, I knew
what Kobe was gonna do before just about anyone else did.
But as we sat there together by the Long Beach
(38:22):
Old in Bay, he made what I thought was a
pretty honest admission that even he didn't see the big
picture back then the way Kobe did. Maybe being in
the eye of a hurricane means you don't see clearly
how it's going to reshape the entire landscape. Was pretty
naive to this whole thing. And even though like I've
become one of these big basketball showcase entrepreneurs, I was
(38:43):
still I was actually pretty naive when I started that too.
Did I ever think about he was comparing himself to
the NBA at that time? No? Have I ever thought
about it ever, Not really until you know, I think
about it a little bit now. But he definitely was
preparing him. Him and Pam were definitely preparing him for
life in the n b A. What did you think
at the time before his senior year, did you think
(39:05):
this was a kid who could jump straight to the NBA?
Did you think he just mean touring college player? What
did you think? No? I I didn't think that until
they told me. To be honest, Um, I did. I
was privy to the plan, but I didn't. I didn't.
I mean, who would have thought it at the time. No,
But nobody thought about that when Kevin Garnett did it
the year before. I remember a lot of people were saying, God,
(39:28):
he's so smart, he would have to sit out of here.
There's no other option either have a seven s a T.
So he bucked the system and he went into the
NBA and bam number five pick in the draft. And
I remember just thinking, Kevin Garnett, there was such great advice.
Whoever gave it to him? Um? And then with Kobe,
he was like, No, I did think NBA started him.
I absolutely thought Michael Jordan's absolutely, but not sure Jeremy
(40:01):
really thought through the implications of what he was saying there.
He was right. If Kobe didn't become the next Jordan's,
he got as close as anyone ever did. But for
Kobe to reach that level, to develop into the greatest
basketball player on the planet and come close to matching
the greatest of all time, he would have to change.
(40:21):
As I'll explore in the next episode, Kobe would have
to harden himself even more as he grew older, as
the demands and pressure on him increased, as his world
grew more vast, and as his world at the same
time shrank, There would have to be sacrifices along the way,
his free time would be scarcer than it already was.
(40:42):
The charms of his youth would begin to vanish, and
he would no longer have room in his life for
certain relationships. His friendship with his old confidante, Jeremy Treating,
would be one of those sacrifices. Sure, I wanted to
be part of his knife. I absolutely, I love the kids,
I love the family. I loved it. You know it
(41:02):
wasn't it wasn't about money, it was about fame. It
was about I want to be. I want to be
part of his life. That's next week on I Am Kobe.
I Am Kobe is a production of the Version podcasts
(41:24):
in association with I Heart Radio. This season is written
and hosted by me Mike Sealskin. It's produced by Jacob
Bronstein and directed by Mark Francis. Story editing by Jacob Bronstein,
with editorial direction from Scott Waxy, Editing, mixing and sound
design by Mark Francis. Stephen Tompkins is our production assistant.
(41:45):
Our theme music is Create Yourself by Grover Brown featuring
Justin Starling find Create Yourself wherever you stream music. Music
supervisor is Scott Velasquez. For Freesan Sinking. Executive produce sers
are Mark Francis and Scott Waxman join the conversation about
I Am Kobe on social media on Twitter and Instagram.
(42:08):
It's at diversion Pods thanks to Rain Rosenbaum, Susan Cannavan
and Jeremy Treatment. They rise before the sun. They don't
understand when I said to Brian is fun. Never clocked
you out. Even when my work is done. If they're
trying to block me, I might hurt someone throw the
blood sweat and says, we persefit, stay tending in, let
(42:28):
it keep the hurses and then if they don't believe
in themselves, they revert to find that it Sampa says,
So I'm telling them, ask my am, this the reason
why my work so damn different to the negatives. I
can't listen see me at the time. You can't listen
where I'm a vote to play like cash is see
I pay my dudes because Texas gotta work. I thinking
(42:49):
Brian ahead of his time. So I'm saying that they
made you. Don't tell them you create yourself. Finn watch us,
but that's you got snake clock, then break clock break
We create ourselves watch me, watch me to create myself.
Shack client times up and create yourself. Stay nice. Ain't
(43:15):
so hard create yourself. You gotta learn from the great minds. No,
we ain't lying. Tell them next game time. This time
I wasn't given it was made the future. Any time
I could change better, tell them that I made it
back home as I walked through the hearts of the fact,
I came from the valley of the shadow with death
waiting for us. Some spoons. Don't hold your breath, sat Town,
(43:36):
sat train. But I did it with less. I know
warm that the being so there's nothing to guess. Yeah,
there's nothing to guess. It's our times and then we
up next. We don't got any regrets. I did it
with my soon hands, and we never forgets my This
the reason why my work so damn different to the negatives.
I can't listen see me at the time. You can't
(43:57):
listen for where rebuild, reshape, give me your eye. You
got to risk take do it now. When I'm saying
why wat, I was saying that they mayn't it will
tell them you create yourself the best you finn or
watch us by It's by that time you've gotta sneak click,
then creak clock creak. We Create yourself, Watch me question,
(44:20):
watch the Create Myself exac clim times LP. Create yourself
may nice and ain't so hard. Create yourself. Gotta learn
from the great minds. No, we ain't lying, tell them
next anytime. Diversion Podcasts
Host
Mike Sielski
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