1
00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:16,160
Speaker 1: Diversion podcasts. What if they never get the exposure? Were

2
00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:20,840
Speaker 1: all right, that will get the exposure, right, I'm gonna

3
00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:23,920
Speaker 1: get it, hopeful, little Marrion on the map and uh

4
00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:26,840
Speaker 1: doesn't type of person I am. Somebody says I can't

5
00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:27,920
Speaker 1: do something. I want to go out and do it

6
00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:32,000
Speaker 1: all purpose and do it at an unbelievable rate. I

7
00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:34,400
Speaker 1: don't want to clear I don't want to do get

8
00:00:34,440 --> 00:00:40,760
Speaker 1: over the ostle. I want to totally clear it. It

9
00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:44,400
Speaker 1: was a crisp late afternoon in the fall of and

10
00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:47,040
Speaker 1: the men who had coached Kobe Bryant during his senior

11
00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:51,199
Speaker 1: year at Lower Merion High School back in had come

12
00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,760
Speaker 1: together for a little reunion of sorts. There was pizza,

13
00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,200
Speaker 1: there was good beer, some juicy I p a s.

14
00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,120
Speaker 1: And there were a lot of memories and there was

15
00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:04,040
Speaker 1: a lot of reminiscent I would say that it was

16
00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:07,880
Speaker 1: the most incredible coaching staff ever, only because we were young.

17
00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:12,720
Speaker 1: We were relatively new at like high level stuff like this,

18
00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:29,280
Speaker 1: and it was just five. There were four coaches in me.

19
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,320
Speaker 1: I had arranged this meeting so they could jog each

20
00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:36,200
Speaker 1: other's memories and share some anecdotes about Kobe's high school career,

21
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:39,720
Speaker 1: especially his senior year. All of us were sitting around

22
00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:43,679
Speaker 1: a table on Greg Downer's back of coach. Greg is

23
00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:46,920
Speaker 1: still the head boys basketball coach at Lower Mery. He

24
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,600
Speaker 1: was hired in nineteen ninety and has been there ever since.

25
00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:54,800
Speaker 1: When he was just thirty three years old, he created

26
00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:59,080
Speaker 1: a staff of assistance really for the specific purpose of

27
00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:04,000
Speaker 1: coaching Kobe Bryant. Downer knew what he had in Cope

28
00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:06,920
Speaker 1: and he knew what kind of attention Kobe would draw

29
00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:11,040
Speaker 1: from opponents, from the media, from everywhere. So he did

30
00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:17,600
Speaker 1: a really smart, really innovative thing. He brought on four

31
00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:22,120
Speaker 1: assistance and each coach would have his own specialized role.

32
00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:26,799
Speaker 1: Mike Egan, who had been a college coach in Delaware,

33
00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:31,720
Speaker 1: was already on board as Lower Marion's defensive coordinator. Downer's

34
00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:34,600
Speaker 1: older brother, Drew, had a way of talking to people,

35
00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:37,959
Speaker 1: even teenagers, that put them at ease, so he would

36
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:42,800
Speaker 1: be the team's amateur sports psychologist. Jimmy Kaiserman was twenty

37
00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:45,799
Speaker 1: six at the time, had played Division one ball at

38
00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:50,400
Speaker 1: Miami University and at Writer, and had played professionally in Israel.

39
00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:54,680
Speaker 1: He was quick, he was tough, he could dump, and

40
00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:57,280
Speaker 1: he saw a news report about Kobe one night and

41
00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:01,320
Speaker 1: called up Greg down, volunteering to help in any way

42
00:03:01,360 --> 00:03:05,560
Speaker 1: he could. He became Kobe's foil, guarding and harassing him

43
00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:10,080
Speaker 1: every day at practice. Jeremy Treatment would be the team's

44
00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:14,200
Speaker 1: media relations coordinating. He'd take care of all the interview requests,

45
00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:18,800
Speaker 1: the reporters, the outside noise, and Greg would oversee the

46
00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:24,040
Speaker 1: whole operation. All this basically because of one seventeen year

47
00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:29,480
Speaker 1: old kid, because of Kobe. Now twenty five years later,

48
00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:32,920
Speaker 1: they were back together again. Kaiserman couldn't make it to

49
00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:38,960
Speaker 1: the reunion, but the other four could. Oh almost forgot

50
00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:43,640
Speaker 1: there was one other person there too, bring down Greg's daughters,

51
00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:46,800
Speaker 1: who was seven years old at the time. You know,

52
00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:48,640
Speaker 1: I think I'd like to think I don't really have

53
00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:51,760
Speaker 1: an ego, And I mean I used to await awake

54
00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:55,440
Speaker 1: at night wondering if we were gonna score baskets, you know,

55
00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:57,920
Speaker 1: literally when we first started, and you know, we were

56
00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:00,800
Speaker 1: giving up too many points. And this pre rope is

57
00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:04,200
Speaker 1: this with her without Kobe. Beforehand, I was gonna say,

58
00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:05,600
Speaker 1: if you were laying awake at night wonder if you're

59
00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:08,680
Speaker 1: gonna score when you coach, you had problem before he

60
00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:12,640
Speaker 1: definitely has a problem. Before before Kobe, when you first

61
00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:15,240
Speaker 1: got the job. Yeah, yeah, I want to call me,

62
00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:24,560
Speaker 1: I'm Mike Sealskip and from Diversion podceads, this is I

63
00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:36,440
Speaker 1: am Kobe. I love why see why create myself? Create yourself?

64
00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:42,279
Speaker 1: Stay nice night, go on, create yourself. You gotta learn

65
00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:44,920
Speaker 1: from the great mass. Do we gain line selling? That's

66
00:04:44,960 --> 00:05:03,599
Speaker 1: getting time? Episode four, Phenom of Philly. Before Kobe, the

67
00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:07,119
Speaker 1: Lower Marian Aces didn't have much of a basketball program.

68
00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:11,120
Speaker 1: Before Kobe, their uniforms were often mismatched. A kid would

69
00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:13,839
Speaker 1: be wearing a tank top number forty five on the back,

70
00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:18,320
Speaker 1: but his short said number twenty one. Before Kobe, the

71
00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:22,440
Speaker 1: Aces lost the game fifty four to thirteen, and because

72
00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:25,520
Speaker 1: they had so few players to begin with, and so

73
00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,719
Speaker 1: many of those players had fouled out, they finished the

74
00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:32,960
Speaker 1: game with just four on the floor. They were a

75
00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:36,200
Speaker 1: team that nobody paid much attention to, even in the

76
00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:40,880
Speaker 1: halls of the high school itself. Lower Merion Township, generally speaking,

77
00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:44,760
Speaker 1: is a pretty posh area, and the most popular sports

78
00:05:44,839 --> 00:05:47,599
Speaker 1: at the school in the late nineteen eighties were the

79
00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:50,680
Speaker 1: ones you'd expect to be popular at that kind of school.

80
00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:58,040
Speaker 1: Soccer lacrosse foot Then in Greg Downer Kid, and the

81
00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:04,280
Speaker 1: basketball team got a little better. Then Kobe Bryant came in,

82
00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,560
Speaker 1: and by the start of his senior year, his coaches

83
00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:10,719
Speaker 1: knew they had the best high school basketball player in

84
00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:14,479
Speaker 1: America on their team. They just had to figure out

85
00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:23,120
Speaker 1: how to make the most offense. The Kaiserman thing was cool.

86
00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:25,120
Speaker 1: I remember when Greg called me, He's like, I got

87
00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:28,440
Speaker 1: this guy and the coach with us he played at Miami.

88
00:06:28,640 --> 00:06:30,599
Speaker 1: I was like, how did you get that guy? I mean,

89
00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:34,560
Speaker 1: that's that's ingenious. It really is, because we knew there's

90
00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:37,080
Speaker 1: no one on our team that can cover Kobe. The

91
00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:39,400
Speaker 1: ball is gonna be in Kobe's hands. We're not gonna

92
00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:43,200
Speaker 1: overthink it. We're not gonna put in the Princeton offense. Right,

93
00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:46,360
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to deal with this kid all night.

94
00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:47,880
Speaker 1: The ball is gonna be his hand. We're gonna set

95
00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,039
Speaker 1: up our defense, pressure and like, and we're not gonna

96
00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:53,240
Speaker 1: overthink it. We're gonna let him play. We may not

97
00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:56,320
Speaker 1: have real ashes at the time, but you know, we

98
00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:59,559
Speaker 1: did get along and maybe the role definition was good.

99
00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:01,840
Speaker 1: But I think there was maybe a part of us

100
00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:04,360
Speaker 1: who was thinking, like, uh, this is like a one

101
00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:07,320
Speaker 1: shot deal. Let's not screw it up, you know, let's

102
00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,480
Speaker 1: not screw it up with like Fickeren or you know,

103
00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:13,400
Speaker 1: like you're you're gonna get one crack at Kobe Bryant.

104
00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:17,119
Speaker 1: I don't think any of us expected another player quite

105
00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:32,960
Speaker 1: like him. Once the Bryant family moved back to the

106
00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:35,920
Speaker 1: United States, it didn't take long for Greg Downer to

107
00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:39,720
Speaker 1: hear the rumors about this amazing eighth grade basketball player

108
00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:43,440
Speaker 1: at balotkin Wood Middle School. But Downer also knew that

109
00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:46,960
Speaker 1: Dr George Smith, Kobe's coach at Ballot ran a tight

110
00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,720
Speaker 1: ship and didn't let any of his players, no matter

111
00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:53,560
Speaker 1: how good they were, show off their individual talents. So

112
00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:56,600
Speaker 1: Downer went to a Ballot practice to check out Kobe

113
00:07:56,640 --> 00:07:58,800
Speaker 1: for himself to get a sense of how good this

114
00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:04,000
Speaker 1: kid really was. What he saw blew him away. Well,

115
00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:06,840
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that somebody at the tender age of

116
00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:11,360
Speaker 1: thirteen was was that advance with their skills. Um invited

117
00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:14,520
Speaker 1: him to a practice with my current varsity and you know,

118
00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:18,560
Speaker 1: he was more than point in his own and at

119
00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:21,760
Speaker 1: six ft two hundred fourth pals, I knew that he

120
00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:26,200
Speaker 1: was gonna get dumb but bigger. But his foundation at

121
00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:29,280
Speaker 1: such a young age was was really solid. Good shooter

122
00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:34,199
Speaker 1: could pass her good intellect, and my mind started racing

123
00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:38,240
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. Asked to uh, what do you give me

124
00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:42,679
Speaker 1: down the road? And my initial depression was certainly that

125
00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:47,439
Speaker 1: I very have something very special and and your need

126
00:08:47,559 --> 00:08:50,559
Speaker 1: on my hands. If Kobe had been a high school

127
00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:53,640
Speaker 1: phenom these days, he probably would have transferred to a

128
00:08:53,679 --> 00:08:57,720
Speaker 1: well known basketball school like Mont Verde Academy or i

129
00:08:57,800 --> 00:09:02,280
Speaker 1: AMG Academy in Florida, a place that produces top notch athletes,

130
00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:06,040
Speaker 1: like a factory producers sports cars. Back in the early

131
00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:09,600
Speaker 1: nine nineties, though, things were a little different. Downer was

132
00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:12,240
Speaker 1: more worried that a private school in the Philadelphia area

133
00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:15,400
Speaker 1: might recruit Code, and a few of them did, so

134
00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:18,640
Speaker 1: he took a big step toward making sure Kobe wanted

135
00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:22,600
Speaker 1: to stay at Lower Merryan Downer knew that Joe Bryant

136
00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:26,080
Speaker 1: was coaching girls basketball at a Cuba Hebrew academy, and

137
00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:27,960
Speaker 1: the two of them had hit it off when they met,

138
00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:32,960
Speaker 1: so Downer hired Joe to be Lower Marian's junior varsity

139
00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:36,120
Speaker 1: boys coach. It was a pretty smart idea. Joe was

140
00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:39,400
Speaker 1: a former NBA player and he had some coaching experience,

141
00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:43,400
Speaker 1: and really was Kobe going to transfer away from the

142
00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:50,800
Speaker 1: school where his dad coached. I think there was the

143
00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:54,800
Speaker 1: salesmanship to keep him at Lower Marian, to convince the

144
00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:57,440
Speaker 1: parents that that I was the right guy with a

145
00:09:57,559 --> 00:10:01,479
Speaker 1: job and that that public educ issue could could accomplish

146
00:10:01,559 --> 00:10:04,920
Speaker 1: what Kobe needed. Um you know, there there definitely was

147
00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:07,920
Speaker 1: a paranoia that he would drift off to one of

148
00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:11,439
Speaker 1: the Catholic schools where somebody would swerve Ben and try

149
00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:27,520
Speaker 1: to take him. The funny part is Downer never really

150
00:10:27,559 --> 00:10:30,360
Speaker 1: had to worry about that. Kobe took kind of an

151
00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:33,720
Speaker 1: old school approach to his early career. He stayed and

152
00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:37,480
Speaker 1: played for his local hometown high school. His parents could

153
00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:40,320
Speaker 1: see him play, his friends could see him play, his

154
00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:43,760
Speaker 1: community could see him play and rally around him and

155
00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:46,480
Speaker 1: the team. I always like that aspect of him and

156
00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:50,000
Speaker 1: his career. It showed loyalty. Here he is talking to

157
00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:52,720
Speaker 1: Jeremy treatment about it. I knew that a man was

158
00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:56,960
Speaker 1: the right properly grade. I really know Clue dying that

159
00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:00,360
Speaker 1: road right. Simber fact that he accepted me a great

160
00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:03,040
Speaker 1: coming to a school to practice with his team and

161
00:11:03,679 --> 00:11:06,240
Speaker 1: allowed me to stay after Batty and welcome my game.

162
00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:09,160
Speaker 1: I knew there was no other places my two sisters

163
00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:11,480
Speaker 1: with him, So there was never in the truth to

164
00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:15,559
Speaker 1: that to those works went around, never uh got knew

165
00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:18,840
Speaker 1: the truth father and my family and coaching the truth

166
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:23,000
Speaker 1: where I was going to Gray Contact and a lot

167
00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:26,200
Speaker 1: by ole Bright schools. But I just wanted to go

168
00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:29,240
Speaker 1: to home Man because my sisters with him type family.

169
00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:32,199
Speaker 1: But even in the years after that eleven grade Roman

170
00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:36,719
Speaker 1: was calling in uh Piscopal Germantown Academy. They because of

171
00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:39,120
Speaker 1: my father, and I said, I want your sunny coming

172
00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:41,079
Speaker 1: to school and be great for him, and saying all

173
00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:44,240
Speaker 1: this stuff. My father was listening, but at the same

174
00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:46,000
Speaker 1: time he was always happy at the Man, and you

175
00:11:46,040 --> 00:11:49,360
Speaker 1: know I wouldn't want to leave. Koby didn't quite have

176
00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:52,280
Speaker 1: to resurrect the basketball program when he got to Lower Merry.

177
00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:55,320
Speaker 1: The ass had made the district playoffs the year before

178
00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:58,600
Speaker 1: under Downers coaching. It looked like they were getting better

179
00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:01,240
Speaker 1: and it didn't take for them to see how much

180
00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,439
Speaker 1: talent the new freshman had and how much he liked

181
00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:09,679
Speaker 1: the flat it. Here's Kobe's teammate from Lower Marrian Guy Stewart,

182
00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:12,120
Speaker 1: this freshman year. I mean when he came in, you

183
00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:15,480
Speaker 1: could just you can kind of see he was different.

184
00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:18,360
Speaker 1: It wasn't your typical freshman that came in. I mean

185
00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:20,600
Speaker 1: he was you know, six three at this time and

186
00:12:20,640 --> 00:12:24,160
Speaker 1: probably waited, you know, and five pounds. But you could

187
00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:26,560
Speaker 1: just see the way he moved on the court and

188
00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:30,320
Speaker 1: he understood the game that he was going to be different. Now,

189
00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:32,400
Speaker 1: at that time, it was just he was going to

190
00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:35,480
Speaker 1: be a different type of player. You know, he could

191
00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:38,160
Speaker 1: have just been a great high school player and went

192
00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:40,280
Speaker 1: on and play college and then that was it. Right.

193
00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,360
Speaker 1: But like you think of you know, his dad being

194
00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:46,320
Speaker 1: in the NBA, and you know, him being tall and

195
00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:49,040
Speaker 1: his sisters were tall. You know, you were like, okay this,

196
00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:51,480
Speaker 1: you know, he could he could be something. He shot

197
00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:55,280
Speaker 1: a lot. It was freshman year, um, but you know

198
00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:57,240
Speaker 1: that was to be expected because we you know, we

199
00:12:57,240 --> 00:13:00,120
Speaker 1: weren't as good as we we should have been. Oh

200
00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:04,960
Speaker 1: they weren't good. Period. The Aces went four and twenty

201
00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:09,080
Speaker 1: in Kobe's freshman season. It seems impossible to go four

202
00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,560
Speaker 1: and twenty when you have Kobe Bryant on your roster.

203
00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:15,960
Speaker 1: But as Stewart said, Kobe shot a lot in fact,

204
00:13:16,040 --> 00:13:19,240
Speaker 1: he shot too much and his teammates resented him for it.

205
00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:22,600
Speaker 1: There were also a bunch of injuries to key players,

206
00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:26,120
Speaker 1: including to Kobe. He fractured his kneecap and missed the

207
00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:37,760
Speaker 1: season's final few weeks. But everything brightened up for him

208
00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:41,240
Speaker 1: his sophomore year when Jermaine Griffin, who had grown up

209
00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:44,800
Speaker 1: in Queens, New York, transferred into Lower Marian and joined

210
00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:47,440
Speaker 1: the basketball team. The two of them were among the

211
00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:51,040
Speaker 1: relatively few black students in the school, and they connected

212
00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:56,200
Speaker 1: immediately over their love of basketball and rap music. Better yet,

213
00:13:56,200 --> 00:13:59,960
Speaker 1: for the Aces, Griffin was the perfect compliment to Kobe

214
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:05,200
Speaker 1: you on the court. He was smart, tough, played tenacious defense,

215
00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:08,160
Speaker 1: and didn't need to shoot the ball off to help

216
00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:12,160
Speaker 1: the team win games. Lower Marian went sixteen and six

217
00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:15,520
Speaker 1: in Kobe's sophomore year and reached the second round of

218
00:14:15,559 --> 00:14:19,000
Speaker 1: the district playoffs, and there was no doubt any longer

219
00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:23,640
Speaker 1: that Kobe was there to stay. It was like Jamaine

220
00:14:23,640 --> 00:14:25,840
Speaker 1: with the Savior, because the hen will come to Lower

221
00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:31,240
Speaker 1: Marian at the right time, right man, which guy Coba

222
00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:35,680
Speaker 1: he came into the right time, right round. It's just

223
00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:37,640
Speaker 1: a great seven because it's someone that I can be

224
00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:41,360
Speaker 1: saying the basketball so what I'm comfortable with? All right?

225
00:14:41,480 --> 00:15:04,320
Speaker 1: He came I really wrongly going every day. Hey, this

226
00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:07,480
Speaker 1: is Mike Sealsky, host and writer of I Am Kobe.

227
00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:10,200
Speaker 1: This podcast project came out of my work on a

228
00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:14,240
Speaker 1: related book called The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit

229
00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:17,280
Speaker 1: of Immortality. If you want to explore other parts of

230
00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:20,720
Speaker 1: Kobe's story, check out The Rise. It's not just a

231
00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:23,840
Speaker 1: book version of the podcast. I dive deeper into some

232
00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:26,600
Speaker 1: of the topics covered in this series, and even some

233
00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:29,960
Speaker 1: that we don't cover at all. Kobe's upbringing, his family,

234
00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:33,480
Speaker 1: his identity, his effect on his friends and teammates, his

235
00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:36,240
Speaker 1: journey into the n b A, and his earliest days

236
00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:40,040
Speaker 1: with the Lakers. The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit

237
00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:43,560
Speaker 1: of Immortality is out now. Just head over to the

238
00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:47,160
Speaker 1: Rise of Kobe book dot com and you can buy

239
00:15:47,200 --> 00:15:50,920
Speaker 1: it from any of your favorite retailers. That's The Rise

240
00:15:51,080 --> 00:16:01,960
Speaker 1: of Kobe Book dot Com. Thanks So. Kobe was entrenched

241
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:05,040
Speaker 1: at Lower Merio, but Joe spent just one year as

242
00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:07,880
Speaker 1: the j V coach before he got a better opportunity

243
00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:12,680
Speaker 1: at a familiar place, his alma mater LaSalle University. The

244
00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:15,520
Speaker 1: head coach there, Speedy Morris, needed to fill an opening

245
00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:18,880
Speaker 1: for an assistant, and one of his friends recommended Joe

246
00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:21,960
Speaker 1: for the job. The Higher maid Sense LSAL was a

247
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,560
Speaker 1: small college in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Only, but

248
00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:35,400
Speaker 1: it had a strong basketball program for years under Morris.

249
00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:37,840
Speaker 1: The LaSalle Explorers had made the n c A Tournament

250
00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:41,880
Speaker 1: four times in the previous six years. One season they

251
00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:45,080
Speaker 1: went thirty and two and nearly reached the Sweet six

252
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:48,440
Speaker 1: team and LaSalle had a tradition of recruiting and getting

253
00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:52,400
Speaker 1: the best high school player in or around Philadelphia. Peck

254
00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:55,640
Speaker 1: Joe had been that player at Bartram High School in

255
00:16:55,680 --> 00:16:59,480
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies. But now the program needed a little boost,

256
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,320
Speaker 1: and maybe Joe could provide. I know all about the

257
00:17:04,320 --> 00:17:07,520
Speaker 1: boost that the program needed there. The year that Joe

258
00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:12,000
Speaker 1: came back to LASA was the same year I started

259
00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:16,359
Speaker 1: at LaSalle myself as a freshman. Eventually I started covering

260
00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:19,000
Speaker 1: the team for the student newspaper. I got to know

261
00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:22,879
Speaker 1: Speedy Morris well, and I met Joe Bryant too, But

262
00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:25,920
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about Kobe During his first couple

263
00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:29,879
Speaker 1: of years at Lower Merion, nobody really did, which is

264
00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:32,400
Speaker 1: kind of weird when you think about it. I mean,

265
00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:35,159
Speaker 1: you think it would be a big story, right. It

266
00:17:35,240 --> 00:17:39,000
Speaker 1: had all the elements. A once great basketball player was

267
00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:42,080
Speaker 1: now coaching at his old school in his hometown and

268
00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:45,199
Speaker 1: his son was a rising star at a local high school.

269
00:17:45,880 --> 00:17:49,080
Speaker 1: Except it wasn't a big story because at the time,

270
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:52,520
Speaker 1: there was really only one person in the entire media

271
00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,520
Speaker 1: market who recognized that it was a story at all.

272
00:17:56,240 --> 00:18:00,160
Speaker 1: Jeremy Treatment. Here he is talking about a six teen

273
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,200
Speaker 1: year old Kobe Bryant for a segment on the Inquiry

274
00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:10,560
Speaker 1: High School Sports show. Kobe Bryant has a maturity not

275
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:13,679
Speaker 1: seen in most sixteen year old superstars. He credits that

276
00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:16,760
Speaker 1: to the strength of his family, especially his relationship with

277
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:20,520
Speaker 1: his father, former La Salan seventy six star Joe Bryant

278
00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:24,119
Speaker 1: Joe Jelly being Bryant, the popular hometown hero, was a

279
00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:35,320
Speaker 1: two time At this point, Jeremy was still coaching at

280
00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:37,760
Speaker 1: a key behabor where he and Joe had met and

281
00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:41,639
Speaker 1: become friends, but he was also working as a freelance

282
00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:45,240
Speaker 1: reporter for the biggest newspaper in Pennsylvania and the biggest

283
00:18:45,359 --> 00:18:48,760
Speaker 1: media outlet in the entire Delaware Valley. The paper I

284
00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:53,400
Speaker 1: worked for now the Philadelphia Inquiry. As a reporter, Jeremy

285
00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:56,560
Speaker 1: covered a bunch of Lower Marian's games during Kobe's freshman

286
00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:59,119
Speaker 1: and sophomore years, and he wrote a bunch of stories

287
00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:02,080
Speaker 1: about those games, talking to Kobe and Greg down or

288
00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,600
Speaker 1: after everyone getting to be friends with both of them.

289
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:08,919
Speaker 1: But he couldn't persuade his editors at the Inquirer to

290
00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:11,760
Speaker 1: let him do what he wanted to do, a big

291
00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:18,160
Speaker 1: blowout feature all about this rising local basketball phenomenon, Kobe Bryant.

292
00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:21,760
Speaker 1: Jeremy says they were more interested in focusing on players

293
00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:25,119
Speaker 1: from the city's public and Catholic leagues, and he couldn't

294
00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:28,560
Speaker 1: understand why they were missing this obvious story that was

295
00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:32,199
Speaker 1: staring them in the face. There's two levels of the

296
00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:36,280
Speaker 1: frustration there. One was among my friends in general public

297
00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:37,960
Speaker 1: and believe me when I was telling a dot co.

298
00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:42,040
Speaker 1: But the second level of frustration was worse. My editor

299
00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:44,920
Speaker 1: at the time wouldn't give me the opportunity to write

300
00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:47,960
Speaker 1: about him, and I pitched him in ninth grade, tenth grade,

301
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:51,159
Speaker 1: eleventh grade, and by the end of eleventh grade he

302
00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:52,960
Speaker 1: had come around. But he ended up giving it to

303
00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:55,760
Speaker 1: another writer, Christma Cadis, and his exact word was, it's

304
00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:58,360
Speaker 1: Christmas be He's our he's our high school basketball writer.

305
00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:01,720
Speaker 1: And I remember it was in a meeting in front

306
00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:04,080
Speaker 1: of many many people. I said, I've been pitching this

307
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,080
Speaker 1: for three years. He said, Chris's speed. That was this

308
00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:11,800
Speaker 1: guy where Jeremy was crushed. This was going to be

309
00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:15,359
Speaker 1: the first big story ever about a kid. Jeremy knew

310
00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:18,240
Speaker 1: was going to be huge. In his mind, he was

311
00:20:18,280 --> 00:20:21,520
Speaker 1: the logical choice to cover Kobe. Nobody on the staff

312
00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:25,439
Speaker 1: knew him, or Joe or Greg down or better. But

313
00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:28,520
Speaker 1: Jeremy did catch a break. The editor told him that

314
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:33,040
Speaker 1: The Inquirer was starting a TV show devoted entirely to

315
00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:36,640
Speaker 1: high school sports. And I was like, oh my god,

316
00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:38,359
Speaker 1: I've been waiting for this all my life. I'm twenty

317
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,680
Speaker 1: years old. This is it, and this is like TV

318
00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:43,920
Speaker 1: on air. Yeah, it's gonna be on Fox or Challenge

319
00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:47,480
Speaker 1: seventeen or whatever it was on. And they said, well, okay,

320
00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:50,000
Speaker 1: well you're the guys us to know high schools. Uh,

321
00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:53,240
Speaker 1: if you have to pitch one story to us, This guy,

322
00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:54,840
Speaker 1: Sean Docker, he said, do you have to pitch one

323
00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:56,720
Speaker 1: story for us, what would it be. I said, well,

324
00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:58,720
Speaker 1: there's this guy with the three point five with a

325
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:01,479
Speaker 1: good because I think school in the country, speaks Italian

326
00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:04,320
Speaker 1: and Sapanish. His dad playing the NBA, and I believe

327
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:06,640
Speaker 1: he's the best player in the country. And he think.

328
00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:08,560
Speaker 1: The first thing he said was when do we meet him?

329
00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:12,920
Speaker 1: And I was like, I found my place. How long

330
00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:19,120
Speaker 1: is which anything? Grade? Uh? Coach down on myself. We're

331
00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:23,400
Speaker 1: watching the room day and after game, he just said

332
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:25,960
Speaker 1: to me, goes, does anybody realize that the next uncle

333
00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:28,359
Speaker 1: Jordan is in r GM. Uh. He was in the

334
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:30,040
Speaker 1: gym and school out in the morning as the high

335
00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:33,440
Speaker 1: school kid. Uh. He was the last one to leave.

336
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:37,840
Speaker 1: He stayed extra to shoot like five hunter jump shots. Uh.

337
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:40,000
Speaker 1: He was very focus. We had a couple of practices

338
00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:42,840
Speaker 1: that were canceled. He was boy king out. He was

339
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:56,239
Speaker 1: so angry that the practices were canceled. Now Jeremy had

340
00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:58,680
Speaker 1: an outlet to tell the world what he knew they

341
00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,879
Speaker 1: needed to know. The one big thing that he felt

342
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:06,040
Speaker 1: had become his mantle to carry. Kobe Bryant was going

343
00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:09,240
Speaker 1: to be one of the best basketball players the world

344
00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:12,480
Speaker 1: had ever seen. And in his junior year at lower Merion.

345
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:16,800
Speaker 1: Kobe started to show everyone just that because he spent

346
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:21,840
Speaker 1: the entire summer of doing pretty much nothing but playing basketball.

347
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:25,760
Speaker 1: He came back to school a little bigger, a little stronger,

348
00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:31,119
Speaker 1: a little smarter, his skills more refined. The Aces lost

349
00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:35,359
Speaker 1: their first game, then won games in a row. Kobe

350
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:39,160
Speaker 1: ended up averaging more than thirty one points a game.

351
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:43,600
Speaker 1: He had forty points in one game, forty two in another.

352
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:48,720
Speaker 1: An opposing coach said, if you hold Kobe to fifteen points,

353
00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:53,520
Speaker 1: you'll win by thirty. Kobe read that comment and took

354
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:56,399
Speaker 1: it as a slight against his teammates. So when it

355
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:59,840
Speaker 1: came time to play that school, he spent all night

356
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:03,239
Speaker 1: passing the ball to those teammates. He ended up with

357
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:08,359
Speaker 1: fifteen points and seventeen assists, and lower Merryan one. By

358
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:12,399
Speaker 1: twenty two, Mike Egan was in his first season as

359
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:15,480
Speaker 1: one of Greg Downer's assistants, and he couldn't believe what

360
00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:18,960
Speaker 1: he was seeing from Kobe. I knew he was good,

361
00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:22,400
Speaker 1: but you know he's a I guess he's a sixteen

362
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:24,480
Speaker 1: year old kid. At that day, he just earned sixteen

363
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:29,439
Speaker 1: UM and then every day he would do something in

364
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:32,520
Speaker 1: practice and I would look at the other coaches that

365
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:35,640
Speaker 1: would say, can you believe that? I mean, it could

366
00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 1: be something as simple as, you know, a move he

367
00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:42,040
Speaker 1: made on the baseline. He had a really strange habit

368
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 1: of his junior year. He kept working on this move

369
00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:47,800
Speaker 1: on the baseline and he kept stepping out of bounds

370
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,240
Speaker 1: and you know, we blow the whistle. You're out of bounds.

371
00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:54,760
Speaker 1: What are you doing? And then he started getting closer

372
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:58,200
Speaker 1: and closer. It was just kind of a weird story

373
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:02,240
Speaker 1: about him just trying to you know, he knew that

374
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:06,840
Speaker 1: the highest level of basketball is about inches and margins

375
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,200
Speaker 1: and just how close can I get to that edge

376
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 1: without going over it? Guys. Stewart was a senior on

377
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,960
Speaker 1: that team, one of its leaders, but he wasn't the leader,

378
00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:19,120
Speaker 1: and he kind of knew it. Kobe was the real

379
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:21,840
Speaker 1: leader of that team. He was very demanding. He was

380
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:26,720
Speaker 1: very furious on the court. He wanted you to play

381
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:30,880
Speaker 1: your role and do it great. He pushed you um

382
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:35,000
Speaker 1: every practice. He he never took off a practice. He

383
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:38,760
Speaker 1: was always challenging his teammates. You know, we would play

384
00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:41,080
Speaker 1: these games where you know, we would have to guard

385
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,679
Speaker 1: him and he would he would The way he played

386
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:47,159
Speaker 1: like He didn't care who you were. He didn't care

387
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:49,399
Speaker 1: if you were his teammate and practice or not. He

388
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 1: was going to go at you because in his mind,

389
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:55,879
Speaker 1: he's like, if I can challenge you and and and

390
00:24:56,200 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 1: into guarding me better, you can guard anybody, you know.

391
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,560
Speaker 1: If if if I'm pushing everybody to be better, we're

392
00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 1: all going to be better as a team. And and

393
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 1: and that was kind of like his mindset, right, He's

394
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 1: gonna push everybody. He's going to push himself because the

395
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 1: ultimate goal is to win a championship and to win games.

396
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,720
Speaker 1: The Aces won a lot of games in Kobe's junior season.

397
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:31,000
Speaker 1: They went twenty six and five, They won the Central

398
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,720
Speaker 1: League title. They made it all the way to the

399
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:38,159
Speaker 1: district championship game. Lower Merion hadn't won a district championship

400
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:41,520
Speaker 1: in years, and now here were Kobe and his teammates

401
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:45,000
Speaker 1: about to play at DuPont Pavilion on the campus of

402
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:51,399
Speaker 1: Villanova University, and the arena was packed and loud, and

403
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:54,800
Speaker 1: everybody had forgotten that the team had gone four and

404
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:58,119
Speaker 1: twenty just a couple of years early. It was an

405
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:03,440
Speaker 1: amazing turnaround. There was just one problem. Lower Marian was

406
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:07,359
Speaker 1: about to play the Chester High School Clippers, and Chester

407
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 1: had the best high school basketball program in Pennsylvania. Just

408
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:15,840
Speaker 1: the year before, the Clippers had won the state championship,

409
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,959
Speaker 1: the third in the school's history. They've won five more since.

410
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:25,720
Speaker 1: Terry Twoey has covered Chester basketball for forty years for

411
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 1: the Delaware County Daily Times. Basketball is everything in the

412
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:33,880
Speaker 1: city of Chester. It's it's their protein, that's their six Flyers,

413
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,720
Speaker 1: Eagles or whatever. Not that they're not Sixers flyers or

414
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 1: Eagles fans, but yeah, they live and die with the

415
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 1: Clippers on the basketball For the city of Chester itself

416
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:48,520
Speaker 1: could not have been more Unlike Lower Merion Township, of

417
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:53,520
Speaker 1: the forty people who lived there were black. It had

418
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:59,120
Speaker 1: a history of redlining, blockbusting, and political corruption. Drug markets

419
00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:01,680
Speaker 1: cropped up in the main teen eighties. By the mid

420
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:05,800
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, Chester had seen a huge drop in population

421
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,680
Speaker 1: and prosperity. Searches on to find whoever shot and killed

422
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,399
Speaker 1: a thirteen year old boy and injured two adults in

423
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:15,560
Speaker 1: Chester and two subspects meets Donna under Earl rust right

424
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,360
Speaker 1: Now and a deadly shooting that was called camera in Chester.

425
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: Take all the polize in Chester or searching for a

426
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 1: gunman after one man is killed and another is hurt

427
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 1: in a shooting. Gun fired up to just after six

428
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 1: last night, it was the poorest city in Pennsylvania and

429
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 1: the second most dangerous city in America. According to my newspaper,

430
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 1: The Philadelphia Inquirer. Between the years two thousand and two

431
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:43,719
Speaker 1: thousand fourteen, Chester average fifty three homicides per one hundred

432
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: thousand people, the highest rate of any city in the country.

433
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:53,879
Speaker 1: Basketball was the one unifying institution there. It was the

434
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:59,920
Speaker 1: one thing that made everyone in Chester proud. It's kind

435
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:05,679
Speaker 1: two diametrically different areas, and obviously, you know, Chester is

436
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,399
Speaker 1: a you know, for lack of a better term, you know,

437
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:13,919
Speaker 1: the press city Economically, Lower Marian is an affluent suburban

438
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:19,199
Speaker 1: community that has a little more you know, finances behind

439
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,439
Speaker 1: it than Chester. I think the two biggest sports in

440
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 1: Chester for a lot of years were basketball and baseball.

441
00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:29,760
Speaker 1: I'm actink at one time the city of Chester had

442
00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 1: produced Major League Baseball players than any other city. But

443
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's something that you know, in the playgrounds,

444
00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: it's it's huge. You know, you go down to Memorial

445
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:42,959
Speaker 1: Park in Chester and you used to be you know,

446
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 1: leads down there in the summertime and pick up games

447
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:51,240
Speaker 1: that were just lacious. Chester has been a state power

448
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 1: and at the high school level since the early nineteen

449
00:28:55,960 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 1: early to mid nineteen fifties, and it's just you know, basketball,

450
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,040
Speaker 1: it's a city game and Chester, you know, being a

451
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 1: being a city at one time, a thriving city that

452
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:09,080
Speaker 1: had you know, factories and things like that, that just

453
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 1: kind of manifested into the sport of choice. The Clippers

454
00:29:14,080 --> 00:29:17,600
Speaker 1: had at least eight guys maybe more who could start

455
00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 1: on any high school team in the state. Lower Marian

456
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:26,240
Speaker 1: had Well, Lower Marian had Kobe, and Lower Marian didn't

457
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 1: have a chance. The final score was Chester seventy seven,

458
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 1: Lower Marian fifty. Here's Aces coach Greg Downer again. What

459
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 1: I make of it is we're not ready. Uh you know,

460
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:42,280
Speaker 1: we've got to grow some more. We've got much more

461
00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: work to do. And I think it was some growing

462
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,760
Speaker 1: pains for us when the Central League compete for the

463
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 1: district title, make some noise and states and twenty seven

464
00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:56,480
Speaker 1: point loss in the district final and maybe that's not

465
00:29:56,560 --> 00:30:00,080
Speaker 1: even competing for the for the district title, and we

466
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:03,239
Speaker 1: got balanced a little bit early versus Hazelton in the

467
00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 1: in the state quarters, and you know it, it was

468
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:10,200
Speaker 1: a progression, And you know, I didn't have the sense

469
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 1: that that we could win the whole thing Kobe's junior year,

470
00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:19,200
Speaker 1: because I really was just in awe as to how

471
00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:40,520
Speaker 1: good Chester was. That lost to Chester stun but not

472
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,080
Speaker 1: as much as the one that ended Lower Merrion season

473
00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:46,280
Speaker 1: a few days later to Hazelton in the second round

474
00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: of the state playoffs. The game was tied late in regulation.

475
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:55,200
Speaker 1: Let's let defensive coordinator Mike Egan set the scene. We

476
00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 1: had the ball with the tie game under ten seconds

477
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: left in Kobe. You know, we had what we wanted.

478
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,680
Speaker 1: We had the ball in Kobe's hand the middle of

479
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,160
Speaker 1: the court. Um, he went to the basket and coach

480
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:10,520
Speaker 1: his sons dripped Kobe and went down and um, I

481
00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 1: don't know if he didn't get the shot off, but

482
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:14,480
Speaker 1: he didn't make the shot, could have lost the game

483
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:20,080
Speaker 1: right there. Instead, they lost in overtime. No district championship,

484
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:24,040
Speaker 1: no state championship. It was the final high school game

485
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:27,920
Speaker 1: for the team's seniors. The locker room afterward was sad

486
00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 1: and asylum as a church. Kobe was the last guy

487
00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 1: to speak there um, and he started to say something

488
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:40,840
Speaker 1: and then he just started to cry and started just

489
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:45,200
Speaker 1: kept saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, crying,

490
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:52,480
Speaker 1: and it was just fascinating look at him because he, um,

491
00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 1: you know, he sometimes come off as as being an

492
00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:59,600
Speaker 1: arrogant guy or a cocky guy or um, you know,

493
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 1: a lot of easy what he was and he was

494
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:05,200
Speaker 1: just a great, great team and he felt, um, you know,

495
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:07,240
Speaker 1: as a leader of the team, as the best player

496
00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:09,200
Speaker 1: in the team, he should have found a way for

497
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:12,920
Speaker 1: us to win that night. No one I was felt

498
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:17,800
Speaker 1: that way, obviously. But during that round table with Greg

499
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:21,080
Speaker 1: Downer's house last fall, I asked him what the hardest

500
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:25,240
Speaker 1: part about coaching Kobe was. We often don't think about

501
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: star athletes in those terms. We assume that it must

502
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,360
Speaker 1: be easy to coach them because they're so talented and

503
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:35,400
Speaker 1: because everything comes so naturally to them. But that's not

504
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: always true. In fact, it's rarely true. Expectations start to increase,

505
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:44,400
Speaker 1: people start to pay more attention to you and your team,

506
00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: everything starts to become more important. Greg, his brother, Drew,

507
00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: and Mike Egan batted the question around for a while.

508
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 1: What's the limelight to be an internalized pressure distractions, and

509
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 1: you know, I said, like, we're we're one Kobe sprang

510
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:06,680
Speaker 1: back away from not winning the Central League, you know,

511
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 1: And I think the expectation that sounds like you the

512
00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:14,520
Speaker 1: the expectation as time went on coming off the ninety

513
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:18,560
Speaker 1: five was kind of stay title or bus. But I

514
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:21,959
Speaker 1: think we're worried about whether he could handle all the exposure.

515
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:24,959
Speaker 1: He always worried about whether he would get caught up

516
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:27,920
Speaker 1: in that. Yeah, we could lose his focus or he

517
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:31,600
Speaker 1: never did, but he always worried. I would say, Greg,

518
00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:34,240
Speaker 1: you really there was a lot of pressure on you,

519
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:38,840
Speaker 1: right Gregy, young guys, young coach. He's got this prodigy

520
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 1: who's now you know, top five, top three, top player

521
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 1: in the country, and you know that that was hard

522
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:56,960
Speaker 1: and it was only going to get harder over the

523
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 1: following year. For Kobe, for his family, for Greg Downer,

524
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:05,640
Speaker 1: for everyone affiliated with the Lower Merian boys basketball program.

525
00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:10,040
Speaker 1: Think about, here's Kobe Bryant, just as his junior season

526
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:13,040
Speaker 1: is ending. He's emerging as one of the best high

527
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:17,400
Speaker 1: school basketball players in the country, maybe the best. His

528
00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 1: father is coaching at a local Division one college that

529
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:24,680
Speaker 1: is desperate to recruit a player of Kobe's caliber to

530
00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:30,680
Speaker 1: return it's basketball program to glory. Meanwhile, next year, Kobe's

531
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:33,360
Speaker 1: high school team is going to be considered one of

532
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:37,799
Speaker 1: the favorites to win a district championship and or a

533
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 1: state championship, which means young Kobe Bryant is caught in

534
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:47,560
Speaker 1: the middle of a whole mess of expectations and forces

535
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:52,200
Speaker 1: and agendas and opinions. If lower Marian doesn't win a

536
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:56,040
Speaker 1: state championship, people will say that Kobe is overrated, that

537
00:34:56,120 --> 00:34:58,879
Speaker 1: he's just a selfish gunner who isn't really that good.

538
00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:05,480
Speaker 1: But there are still plenty of people out there who

539
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:09,000
Speaker 1: don't believe lower Marian is all that good even with Kobe.

540
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 1: There are still plenty of people out there doubting Kobe Bryant,

541
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 1: And make no mistake, he hears every single one of them.

542
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:21,880
Speaker 1: Remember against the argument when of the teaching in the school,

543
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: now in the teacher like the Southern teacher gam Mr Collin, Right,

544
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 1: this is when I would a junior. We're like to

545
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:32,440
Speaker 1: start the playoffs, and he's come up to me. He's

546
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:34,759
Speaker 1: talking to artist trash and you have to be just

547
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:38,120
Speaker 1: a lot of testing you, y'all never win a state championship?

548
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 1: Do you honestly win state championship? Right? Yes? Right here

549
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:45,439
Speaker 1: are you will never win a state championship? Simple fact.

550
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:47,600
Speaker 1: Too many people playing out there, many streight teams. I

551
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: think will never have been right, he said, I'm like, man,

552
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 1: come to that. I'm gonna tell you flies. Just watch.

553
00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:15,000
Speaker 1: That's next week on I Am Kobe. I Am Kobe

554
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: is a production of the Version podcasts in association with

555
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:21,480
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. This season is written and hosted by

556
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:25,800
Speaker 1: me Mike Sealsky. It's produced by Jacob Bronstein and directed

557
00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,880
Speaker 1: by Mark Francis, Story editing by Jacob Bronstein, with editorial

558
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 1: direction from Scott Waxman, editing, mixing and sound design by

559
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 1: Mark Francis. Stephen Tompkins is our production assistant. Our theme

560
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:43,040
Speaker 1: music is Create Yourself by Grover Brown featuring Justin Starling

561
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:48,719
Speaker 1: find Create Yourself wherever you stream music. Music supervisor is

562
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:53,840
Speaker 1: Scott Velasquez for Freesan Sinc. Executive producers are Mark Francis

563
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:58,040
Speaker 1: and Scott Waxman. Join the conversation about I Am Kobe

564
00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 1: on social media on Twitter and Instagram. It's at diversion

565
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: pots thanks to rain Rosenbaum, Susan Canavan and Jeremy Treatment.

566
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:11,320
Speaker 1: I love our brides before the sun. They don't understand

567
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:13,440
Speaker 1: when I said to grind is fun. Never clock you

568
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 1: out even when my work is done. If they're trying

569
00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 1: to block me, I might hurt someone through the blood

570
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:20,920
Speaker 1: sweat and says, we persevered, stay tilling in, let it

571
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:23,320
Speaker 1: keep the horses, and then if they don't believe in themselves,

572
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:26,000
Speaker 1: gave revert to find now the Tampa's head. So I'm

573
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:28,759
Speaker 1: telling them that's my a. This the reason why I

574
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:32,240
Speaker 1: mnna work so damn different to the negatives. I can't

575
00:37:32,480 --> 00:37:35,120
Speaker 1: listen to see me at the time. You can't listen

576
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:38,920
Speaker 1: for I'm ana mote to play like cash see I

577
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:42,000
Speaker 1: pay my dudes because taxes gotta work. I think and

578
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:44,239
Speaker 1: grind ahead of his time. So i'mone saying that they

579
00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 1: made you. Don't tell them you create yourself the best

580
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:52,959
Speaker 1: Finn watch us, but by that time you gotta sneak

581
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:57,680
Speaker 1: clock then break clock break. We create ourselves, watch speak,

582
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:03,560
Speaker 1: clock watch Steve, create my self, shot climb, signs up

583
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:09,759
Speaker 1: and create yourself. They nice ain't so hard to create yourself.

584
00:38:10,280 --> 00:38:12,760
Speaker 1: You gotta learn from the great minds. But we ain't

585
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:16,279
Speaker 1: lying to tell them next. Any time this talent wasn't given,

586
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:19,320
Speaker 1: it was made the future. Any time I could change,

587
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:21,520
Speaker 1: you better tell them that I made it back home.

588
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:24,080
Speaker 1: As I walked through the hearts of the fame, I

589
00:38:24,239 --> 00:38:26,560
Speaker 1: came from the valley of the Shadow with death waiting

590
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,160
Speaker 1: for a silver spoons. Don't hold your breath, same town,

591
00:38:29,239 --> 00:38:31,200
Speaker 1: sat drains. But I did it with less. I know

592
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 1: one at the beach, so there's nothing to guess. Yeah,

593
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,279
Speaker 1: there's nothing to guess. It's our times. Tell them we

594
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:40,080
Speaker 1: up next. We don't got any regrets. I did it

595
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:42,719
Speaker 1: with my soul hands, and we never forget as my an.

596
00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,000
Speaker 1: This the reason why my work so damn different to

597
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:49,160
Speaker 1: the negatives. I can't listen see me at the time.

598
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:54,600
Speaker 1: You can't listen for where rebuild, re shape, give me

599
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:57,319
Speaker 1: your eye. You got to risk take do it now.

600
00:38:57,440 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 1: When I'm saying while waves, I was saying that they

601
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 1: made you. Tell them you create yourself on the best

602
00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:07,399
Speaker 1: you finn l watch us by. It's by that time.

603
00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:09,880
Speaker 1: You've got to sneak click, then break clack, break we

604
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:14,600
Speaker 1: create yourself, Watch me, quatch me, watch Steve, watch to

605
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 1: create myself exact client signs up and create yourself. Say

606
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:26,239
Speaker 1: nice and ain't go on create yourself. You gotta line

607
00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 1: from the great minds, No we ain't lying. Tell them

608
00:39:28,719 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 1: next anytime. Diversion Podcasts