The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Quest for Immortality

Kobe Bryant: Legend - The Rise is a fascinating look at his early life and how he came to be regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Kobe Bryant's death in January 2020 didn't just shake the worlds of sports and celebrity. It took that helicopter crash tragedy to reveal the full extent and depth of Kobe's influence, and by tracing and telling his often forgotten and lesser-known early life story, The Rise promises to offer unparalleled insight into Kobe. In The Rise, listeners will travel from the cracked concrete basketball courts of 1960s and 1970s Philadelphia—where Kobe's father, Joe, became a stadium, a university, and a prominent figure—to the grandeur and isolation of Europe, where Kobe spent his formative years, and to the leafy suburbs of Lower Merion, where Kobe's legend was born. The story will culminate with his leadership of Lower Merion to the 1995-96 Pennsylvania State Championship—an unlikely run for a team that featured only one star player, Kobe—and with the 1996 NBA Draft, where Kobe's dream of playing professional basketball culminated in his acquisition by the Los Angeles Lakers. In researching and writing The Rise, Mike Celski had a remarkable advantage over other writers who have attempted to chronicle Kobe's life: access to a series of previously unpublished interviews with him during his final season and early days in the NBA. For a quarter-century, these tapes and transcripts preserved Kobe's thoughts, dreams, and goals from his teenage years, containing insights into him and telling stories about him that had never before been told. This will be more than just a basketball book. This will be an exploration of the making of an icon and the impact his evolution had on those around him—the essence of the man before he truly became one.