WEBVTT - We Need A Hero 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:14.640 Diversion podcasts. I know that the media I probably nobody. 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:18.239 Now I'm gonna make my own because I want to 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.079 go to the sound board in the sound I want 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.840 to go to hine. What I was on was no 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.680 question that I'm making my own. To sty know, it 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:31.800 a right good job to print something. It's just good job. 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.879 Probo believe that they print, happy to do what they 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:56.480 happen to do. On a hot Monday afternoon last August, 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:58.880 I went back to a place that is very special 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.480 to me. In fact act, it's the place where I 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:06.319 first heard the name Kobe Bryant. So I've just parked 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.399 here at my alma mater, LSU University, and I'm heading 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.400 to the Connelly Library so I can find the very 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:21.920 first article I ever wrote about Kobe Bryant. I graduated 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:26.360 from Lasal. It's a private Catholic university in Philadelphia, a 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.959 mid size university with about four thousand undergraduates. And I 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.640 was kind of meant to go there anything. After all, 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:35.839 my father went to Lasal and his brother went to Lasal, 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.120 and my mom's brother went to Lasal, and my younger 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.039 sister went to Lasal. And while I was there, I 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.760 spent a lot of my time in a tiny, cramped 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.880 office in the basement of the student union building, the 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:53.720 headquarters of the university student newspaper, The Collegiate. I don't 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.760 know how many times I've come through this door left 0:01:57.760 --> 0:01:59.640 the store late at night, back when I was writing 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.760 for and editing the student paper. Just feel so weird, 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.480 like all this happened yesterday, or it all happened a 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.680 quarter century ago, A kind of violing back and forth 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:16.240 between those two feelings. Plus, it's always a little strange 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.240 to come back here. In some ways, it feels like 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.960 I haven't graduated. Everything kind of comes rushing back. The 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:25.320 campus doesn't look that different from when I was here 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.000 in the early to mid nineties, and some of the 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:33.680 buildings and rooms even smell the same. My freshman year 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.840 at LaSalle began in the fall of another person's tenure 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.440 at the school began that year too, Joe Bryant's Kobe's dad, 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.400 Speedy Morris, La Salle's men's basketball coach, had hired Joe 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.080 as an assistant, and one of the intended by products 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:50.640 of that move was the belief that Kobe would decide 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:53.360 to play college ball there. Actually, for those of us 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.560 who were connected to Lasal. It wasn't really belief. It 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.600 was hope. Who was this kid playing at Lower Marian? 0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:02.000 Was he that good? Was he as good as his 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.200 dad had been when Joe played for LaSalle? Was even better? 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.079 So yes, I remember the first time I wrote about Kobe. 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:12.760 I just don't remember what I wrote. I'm not really 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.639 looking forward to seeing this article. If there's one thing 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.400 that I think all writers hate, it's going back and 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.239 looking at their pieces or stories or whatever they wrote 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.400 when they were young. I know for me, I was 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.720 trying so hard to find my voice that what I 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:32.440 wrote was really stilted and kind of old fashioned in 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.120 a way. So I'm not looking forward at all to 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:39.000 seeing what I actually wrote about him. I didn't know 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:42.480 much about Kobe then, his background, his personality. I just 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.520 knew he was this tremendous high school basketball player who 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.320 might end up being a tremendous college basketball player at 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.400 my college. To find the article, I got in touch 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.720 with Carol Brigham, whose official title at LaSalle is Associate 0:03:55.840 --> 0:04:00.240 Dean of Operations and Collections Management, which means he's in 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:02.640 charge of a lot of the archival material at the 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.840 Connelly Library, which means she's in charge of all the 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.680 back copies of the Collegiate. She was waiting for me 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:10.680 when I got to the library and went through the 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:16.400 front turnstyle. I'm sorry you, Mike, I am, and then 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.800 I'll say hi, I'm caring car with the you can't 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:25.360 tell Vernice to see you. Thanks for doing this problem. Yeah, 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:26.960 so I'm here to check out the Collegian. You know 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.159 what it is to your hair is very much Were 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.279 you here when I was a student here? Oh yeah, 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:36.680 okay back in the nice yes, yes, yes, I should 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.880 have warned you. That's okay. Am. I allowed to ask him? 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:48.800 Why sure? Um? So an in January? That vie um 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.640 and that also, which is why A here today right 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.520 come out later this year, and as part of it, 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:00.280 one of the episodes delving into the possibility to Coobe 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.720 would have come here and the fact that I was 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.120 a student in right third with Collegian at the time, 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:07.479 so I wanted to take up I know this is 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:14.359 the first article. Yeah, so in front of me, I 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:24.440 have about eighteen issues of the Collegian from my junior year, 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:26.760 and I've got to find the article that I wrote 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:40.440 about Toby. So let's see the saying it and here 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:54.440 it is. I found it Wednesday, December and guess what 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.719 it is? Every bit as bad as I feared it 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:08.280 would be. I'm Mike Sealskip and from Diversion Podcasts, this 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:15.919 is I am cooked the White wat Stein, Create myself, 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:25.320 exact signs, Create yourself, say nice, go on, create yourself. 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.320 You gotta learn of friendly great minds that we gained 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:33.320 line selling that's getting signed. Episode five. We need a hero. 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.720 Growing up just outside Philadelphia, I got turned onto Big 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.840 Five Basketball at an early age. The Big Five is 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.160 an informal association of college teams from Philly, some of 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.880 the oldest and most successful men's basketball programs in the country. 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:03.040 Villanova won the national championship just before I turned ten. 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.799 I can remember watching that incredible upset of Patrick Ewing 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:09.840 and the Georgetown Hoyas at home with my mom while 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.680 my dad was out of town for work. Penn was 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:16.240 the Ivy League school that held its own and then some. St. 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.560 Joe's always had this kind of underdog status, fit for 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:23.360 its motto the Hawks Will Never Die. Temple had its 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.760 wild eyed genius coach John Cheney. He had his team's 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:30.600 played this weird matchup zone defense that nobody could figure out. 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.200 But of course my team was LaSalle. My family had 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.400 all those connections to the school, and I'd watched the 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.320 Explorers games with my dad, including a few with the Pialester, 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:44.520 which we talked about previously in this series. Plus LaSalle 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:46.760 I thought was the best team in the Big Five 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.040 to watch. The school had won a national championship in 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.720 nineteen fifty four and had been great in the late 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.720 nineteen sixties when my dad was a student there. It 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.400 would traditionally recruit and get one or more of the 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.520 best players in the city, if not the best, and 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:05.000 in the late nineteen eighties, the Explorers coach Speedy Morris 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:10.160 continued that tradition. Speedy is still around, but he's experienced 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.880 some health problems in the last few years, including Parkinson's disease. 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.480 So I spoke to his oldest son, Keith, who played 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.200 for him at LaSalle and became a high school coach himself. 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:25.160 When you think of the Big Five, what comes to 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:31.400 mind tremendous history, worse didn't matter if you were University 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.959 of Penn having a tough season. We'll say having a 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.520 tough season, anybody could beat anybody. Any given night, sadness 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:40.280 a little bit, and then it's not what it was. 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:46.439 TV money, conference money obviously ended those palestrial doubleheaders, and 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:48.559 you know, you get it. There's nothing like it in 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.800 the country. We all know that. And some great teams, 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:56.319 great players, great coaches, and just it's silly Philly. I 0:08:56.400 --> 0:09:06.480 missed the old days with it, to be honest. Speedy 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.640 is a Philadelphia institution himself. Grew up in the city, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.400 got his first coaching job in a C Y O league, 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.559 was a great high school coach here for years. One 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:17.760 writer in town said that Speedy was as much a 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.160 part of the fabric of Philadelphia as Chiefe steaks, dripping 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.959 adjecta and soft pretzels flavored with bus exhaust. What a 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:29.520 great line. During games and practices, he had a volcanic temper. 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:32.800 He'd scream at his players, ball up his sport code 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.680 and chucking in the stands, roll up a game program 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:37.800 into a baton and smack a kid in the back 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:40.120 of the head room. He could be tough to play for. 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.680 I'll give you an idea of what I mean. Andrew 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.400 Trella grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and was a year 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:48.840 behind me. At LA South. His dad went there too, 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.240 just like mine. Andrew was six ft four, a really 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.160 good basketball player, used to destroy me and my team 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:58.720 and intermurals. These days, he lives and works just outside 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.360 Philly and coaches bass the ball at his local high school. 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.480 His sophomore year at LASAL, he tried to make the 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.600 team as a non scholarship player, a walk on, which 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:10.240 meant he got an up close look at Speedy's approach. 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.880 Here's Andrew. The one thing that really stuck out to me, 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:17.360 and it actually has affected me a little bit. I 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:19.360 think in the way I coach my kids at high school. 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:24.640 At the high school level, is he I don't want 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.400 a bad mouthing, but boy, he would curse up a storm. 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:32.679 He would just dress kids down and just you know, 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.640 I couldn't believe his mouth. I was like, wow, he's 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.920 really ripping guys a new one here. So he didn't 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:44.199 take any nonsense, and I respect that, but I certainly 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:48.040 have a more kind of gentler approach and maybe less 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.280 profane approach to coaching than he did. But it was 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.280 like a mile a minute he was he was slaying 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:58.839 into people and it wasn't you know, PG rated for 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:01.840 him It was just kind of a constant riding and ride, 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:16.079 and I was like, this is kind of uncomfortable. Not 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.040 everybody loved the way Speedy went about things, but man 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:22.520 could he coach offense. When he took over Asal's men's 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:26.000 program in the n c a A had just added 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.880 the three point shot to college basketball. It didn't take 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:30.640 him long to fall in love with it, and he 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:34.319 got guys who could shoot. Tim Legler dug over to 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.080 Randy Woods and the best of the bunch, the l Train. 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:44.040 Lionel Simmons, during the sideline report from Philly broadcaster Mark 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:48.640 zoom Off, explains exactly how LaSalle's offense could easily score 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.600 inside or kick it out to a three point sniper 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:56.280 like Tim Legler and destroy you from left marks. Team 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:58.880 failed to win a single Big Five game last year, 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:00.880 as Big Five Player of the Year had posted decided 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.280 that weight hy dramatic dial Lionel let Let's dottle a 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.280 perfect record so far. Clearly the Explorers are back if 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:12.400 that's the state. But those days were fading away when 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:14.800 Kobe was making his rise through the high school ranks. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.160 It would have been a miracle for LaSalle to win 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:21.400 a national championship or even sniff one. The school didn't 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.439 spend much money on its basketball program, didn't even have 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.360 an on campus arena. The team played all its home 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.720 games at the Palestra or the Philadelphia Civic Center, twenty 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:34.439 minutes away from campus. But somehow the Explorers were contender 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.000 to win their conference every year, make the n c 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.280 A tournament, and earned some city bragging rights. Here's Keith 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.599 Morris again explaining how his dad tried to keep Lasale competitive. 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:49.880 Get those solid Philly players one or two a year 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:52.600 if you can, and build around it. Was his philosophy, 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.080 get them here, and I think one of his greatest 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.599 attributes was making it known and making guys feel like 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:00.600 I'm here for you off the court as well as 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.240 on the court. There was a family atmosphere for sure. 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.520 My mother, Mom Morris, as many of them call her, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.840 cook many a spaghetti, lasagna, meatball dinner for a lot 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:14.959 of these guys. So the family atmosphere, and that I 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.720 think enabled him to coach them hard. The kids knew 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:19.880 he had their back off of the court, that he 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:34.960 was more than just their coach, he was a father figure. Hey, 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.240 this is Mike Sealsky, host and writer of I Am Kobe. 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.079 This podcast project came out of my work on a 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:45.120 related book called The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.199 of Immortality. If you want to explore other parts of 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.559 Kobe's story, check out The Rise. It's not just a 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.719 book version of the podcast. I dive deeper into some 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.480 of the topics covered in this series, and even some 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.840 that we don't cover at all. Kobe's upbringing, his family, 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.400 his identity, his effect on his friends and teammates, his 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.800 journey into the NBA, and his earliest days with the Lakers. 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:12.040 The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality is 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:15.680 out now. Just head over to the Rise of Kobe 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.840 book dot com and you can buy it from any 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.880 of your favorite retailers. That's The Rise of Kobe Book 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:32.920 dot Com. Thanks. The first look that Speedy and Keith 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.720 Morris got at Kobe was during a Summer League game, 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.520 right around the same time that Speedy hired Joe Bryant 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.280 as an assistant coach. Keith was impressed with the kid. 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:46.120 Kobe was raw in that game as a freshman, but 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.920 you could tell very very talented, and what nobody realized 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:53.280 was that kids. Work ethic was just off the charts, 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.800 and each and every year after he's getting better and better, 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:02.520 to the point where my dad's LaSalle can't in the summer. 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:07.080 You know, there are ages eight through seventeen, so you know, 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:10.920 when I attended that camp, there were actually juniors heading 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:12.880 into their senior year in high school that attended it. 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:15.760 There were some decent players that came. Kobe I think 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:19.160 stopped coming after maybe tenth grade, because he just started 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.920 he culminated the camp. He was just he became that good. 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.880 It didn't take long for people, especially people around LaSalle, 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.880 to start to think that maybe, just maybe Kobe would 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:43.640 turn out to be good enough to play for his 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:47.000 dad in college someday. Kobe played a ton of pickup 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.040 games in Lasal's little sweat box of a practice gym. 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:53.000 Andrew Trella got to go up against him a few times, 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.320 and he could see how much better Kobe was than 0:15:56.440 --> 0:16:00.280 anybody else in that gym. He had moves. I would 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.760 go back to the dorm after plane and see that. 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.480 My body's like, I don't know how he gets around 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:07.760 the court so quickly. I don't know if he's traveling, 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.160 but he kind of had a game that I was like, 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:13.640 it seemed like it was already NBA ready, and maybe 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:15.960 he was traveling. Maybe he just had that good footwork 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:17.880 that I didn't know how to get in front of him. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.560 But he was really adept at getting around the floor, 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.480 maximizing the two steps that you get college basketball. I guess, 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:28.800 super competitive kid. The way he got around the floor, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:31.240 that's what I really remember. It's kind of it was 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:33.760 very effortless, how he could get around the floor. You 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:40.040 think he might come to a sale if if Oh, yeah, no, 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:42.920 I definitely did so. And this was a running in 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:46.160 conversation I had with my buddies who I lived with, 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:50.760 was his dad's here he could be this second coming 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.400 of line one really turned the program around. You know, 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.040 there was a lot of talk at that time. I 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.720 believe it was Duke was mentioned pretty heavily. I remember 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:02.520 getting a lot about Duke um and then obviously he 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:07.600 heard the whispers about the NBA. But I guess I 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:09.320 just had never been around with someone who made that 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.200 kind of jump to the n B A And you know, 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.280 he was still what at six six six seven, he 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:20.040 wasn't physically he hadn't failed out completely, So it seemed 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:21.719 to me, like, you know, he would be an awesome 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.440 college player for a couple of years, and the fact 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:26.640 that his dad was on campus and helping out with coach, 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:29.560 and I was like, yeah, this seems like a great fit. 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.760 I certainly hoped and thought that, you know, he would 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.520 be kind of the next guy to turn the program around. 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:40.680 So because he could have walked in and the ball 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.760 was his, Andrew was onto something back then. Early in 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.720 his high school career, Kobe was actually open to the 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:51.080 idea of going to a sound He was genuinely considering 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.040 it because he knew he would be a superstar if 0:17:54.080 --> 0:18:00.439 he went there. But I thought that was fund probably 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:04.000 be a nice right, not a couple of years, and 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.520 right sounded great to us. Kobe could come to Lassal, 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:13.680 stay for a year or two and dominate. We'd have 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.359 been cool with that. Heck, we needed him to do that. 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:20.440 Thanks to the programs athletic director Bob Mullen, LaSalle had 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:24.840 just changed conferences, moving to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, which 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:29.200 included schools like Detroit Mercy and Illinois Chicago. It was 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:33.000 supposed to be an upgrade, better competition, more money, but 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:42.880 it was a ridiculous decision. No one from the Philadelphia 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.080 area wanted to watch basketball games against those schools, And 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:49.320 you could be darn sure no Philly area players wanted 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.000 to go to Lasal to play against those schools. I 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:56.000 mean it, I was there. Nobody showed up sitting courtside 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:58.159 at the Civic Center for a Lasau game. It was 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:01.199 like being at the bottom of the Grand Can. One night, 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:03.800 I was sitting courtside on press row and the Civic 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:07.159 Center was practically empty, and a sportswriter leaned over to 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.119 me and said, you know, if you put everybody in 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:12.920 this building on the court, no one would get called 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.440 for three seconds. It was a great line. It's stung, 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:24.560 but he was right. Competitive ball game, turning it inside 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:30.920 out as always be winning. That clip of a loss 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.880 from a matchup between LaSalle and Temple was just one 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:38.320 of many examples of the Explorers getting trounced in that era. 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.240 If Lasal basketball was going to have any kind of renaissance, 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:48.359 it needed Kobe bad and everyone knew it. So Bob Mallen, 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.320 the a D pulled out all the stops. He gave 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:55.159 Joe a raise, and he arranged for Kobe's older sister, Shia, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.400 who played volleyball at Lower Merion to get a full 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:02.160 athletic scholarship to less out, even though the women's volleyball 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:08.360 coach never even met her, let alone recruited her. Through 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.480 all that, though, Kobe was pretty ambivalent about the idea 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:14.800 of becoming an explorer. For example, one of his pickup 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.440 partners at LaSalle was Larry Kentner, a six ft ten 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.560 stud at Roman Catholic High School, a Philly basketball powerhouse. 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:25.520 Kenner was a year ahead of Kobe in school, and 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.080 he was thinking about going to Losal himself. Kobe told 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.919 his friend Jeremy Treatment that Kentner basically gave him an ultimatum, 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:43.000 if you go Ala each other. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Kobe, 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:59.280 I'll commit to that. I have no clue what I'm doing. U. Yeah. 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:01.520 It was fun about goal there to play there. I 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.080 thought I could play there. I never really were out 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:09.359 there like it didn't man, that's all. Larry said, I'm 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:12.640 there tomorrow. And Larry Kenner wasn't the only big time 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.919 recruit who was considering the Sound just because of Kobe. 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:21.000 I got another one for you, Corey Benjamin. Corey Benjamin 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:23.880 was a six ft six shooting guard from Compton, California. 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:26.920 Kobe met him on the AUTH circuit. He'd go on 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.200 to be a first round draft pick and play three 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:33.160 plus seasons in the NBA. He said, going to I'm 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:38.560 going to because you know, you can't cout happen a 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:41.400 good time of hanging out. It started that he played 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:44.800 in comin with each other very well, going to the South. 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:46.760 I'm going all the way out there and I'm going 0:21:48.760 --> 0:22:00.280 that's for you. I mean, what players standpoint. Then they're 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:04.240 saying if you college, If you do go to college, 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.479 I'm coming rich girl, I'm saying, but they know. I mean, 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:10.320 if they were my things, she may be taking man 0:22:10.880 --> 0:22:13.680 and it would be a nice plot. But at the 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:15.440 same time, you might want to go to college and 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:18.240 having become a good time. So you never know what 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:23.000 to happen. So even in retrospect, it sounds too good 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:27.880 to be true. Kobe Bryant, Larry Kentner, Corey Benjamin All 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:31.439 a little old lassal well, guess what it was too 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:35.000 good to be true? Kentner picked you Mass. Benjamin ended 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.680 up going to Oregon State. As for Kobe, he was 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:41.679 keeping most of these plans to himself and even though 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:44.240 his dad was in a tough spot being an assistant 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:47.080 coach and everything. He and Kobe were kind of stringing 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:52.359 Speedy Morris along. Here's the other thing. Jeremy Treatment was 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.360 the radio play by play guy for the Explorers at 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:58.159 the time, and he was tight with Joe Bryant. I mean, 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:04.120 I saw your dads being Marson's jumping out the sound. Well. 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:06.920 I think at good time, I thought I'd be going 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:11.560 to the South. IM be a nice back my father. 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:14.680 Those of us who weren't really in the know, thought 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:17.760 that bond between Joe and Kobe might be enough to 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:20.440 pull the kid to the South. Our school might have 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:23.000 a chance to get him. Our school might be the 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:26.480 one that Dick Vitale was screaming and shouting about on ESPN. 0:23:27.080 --> 0:23:29.879 Our school would be in the spotlight for a change 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:06.520 that chance. However, Slim made a certain high school basketball 0:24:06.560 --> 0:24:11.159 game in December of a huge event in Philadelphia, and 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:16.400 particularly to everyone who followed was sal Who's The game 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:20.520 was between Lower Marian and Roman Catholic. Larry Kentner had graduated, 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:23.960 so Romans best player was a guard named Donnie Carr. 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:27.119 He and Kobe were friends. They played summer ball against 0:24:27.160 --> 0:24:30.560 each other for years, and Donnie was Speedy Morris's top 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:34.000 recruiting target. He was just six ft three but strong, 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:36.720 could shoot from the outside and had a great handle, 0:24:37.200 --> 0:24:40.800 the perfect Lasal player. The game was at Drexel University, 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:45.440 and Donnie and Kobe went toe to toe. That was 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:47.639 the game that inspired me to write my first article 0:24:47.680 --> 0:24:50.119 about Cope. There had been so much build up to 0:24:50.200 --> 0:24:52.920 it and so much reaction after it, and Kobe and 0:24:53.000 --> 0:24:55.640 Donnie had played so well that I felt I had 0:24:55.720 --> 0:24:58.040 to weigh in. I had a regular column for The 0:24:58.119 --> 0:25:00.840 Collegian back then, and here's a snippet of the one 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:04.160 I wrote after the lower Marian versus Roman Catholic game. 0:25:04.880 --> 0:25:12.680 Prepare yourself for some awful probes. Last Monday night, the 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:17.240 prospective saviors of the LaSalle basketball program stood out in 0:25:17.320 --> 0:25:22.040 the center of Drexel's Physical Education Center, drew their cult 0:25:22.119 --> 0:25:26.640 forty five, and blasted away at one another. Neither blinked. 0:25:27.640 --> 0:25:32.520 Kobe Bryant, Lower Marian's sleek and supple guard, scored thirty points, 0:25:32.960 --> 0:25:37.400 flying and floating through the heavy gymnasium air. Roman Catholics 0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:41.560 Donny Carr scored thirty four points. The game was a 0:25:41.640 --> 0:25:48.320 victory for Roman, the gunfighting duel a draw the future 0:25:48.400 --> 0:25:52.280 for Explorer basketball should these young snipers choose to come 0:25:52.359 --> 0:26:00.720 here blinding Yikes, that's some overwrought college paper garbage. But 0:26:00.840 --> 0:26:03.400 I was just one of several writers who read way 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:06.040 too much into that game, who didn't really know what 0:26:06.200 --> 0:26:09.440 Kobe was thinking. And as I would learn much later, 0:26:09.960 --> 0:26:12.480 what he was thinking was I don't want to play 0:26:12.520 --> 0:26:15.400 for La Salle, and I especially don't want to play 0:26:15.480 --> 0:26:19.399 for a coach who screamed so much. Right as the 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:23.680 season when I really I really begin to dislike me 0:26:23.880 --> 0:26:26.920 more because the way he's coaching. A couple of things 0:26:26.960 --> 0:26:30.720 you did, I mean didn't like. I said, Man, yeah, 0:26:31.800 --> 0:26:34.840 you know, it's not you. I really just don't like 0:26:36.119 --> 0:26:42.000 like I did. Decided to college, and I would not 0:26:42.080 --> 0:26:45.880 be side. I really want to thinking, you don't realer 0:26:45.920 --> 0:26:54.480 what you're doing. I remember, but I know my mother 0:26:54.560 --> 0:27:02.440 dart where Kobe was pretty emphatic there, and you have 0:27:02.560 --> 0:27:05.520 to put his thinking in the right context, the context 0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:16.520