WEBVTT - Phenom of Philly 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:16.160 Diversion podcasts. What if they never get the exposure? Were 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:20.840 all right, that will get the exposure, right, I'm gonna 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.920 get it, hopeful, little Marrion on the map and uh 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:26.840 doesn't type of person I am. Somebody says I can't 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:27.920 do something. I want to go out and do it 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:32.000 all purpose and do it at an unbelievable rate. I 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.400 don't want to clear I don't want to do get 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:40.760 over the ostle. I want to totally clear it. It 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:44.400 was a crisp late afternoon in the fall of and 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.040 the men who had coached Kobe Bryant during his senior 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:51.199 year at Lower Merion High School back in had come 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.760 together for a little reunion of sorts. There was pizza, 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.200 there was good beer, some juicy I p a s. 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.120 And there were a lot of memories and there was 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.040 a lot of reminiscent I would say that it was 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.880 the most incredible coaching staff ever, only because we were young. 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.720 We were relatively new at like high level stuff like this, 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:29.280 and it was just five. There were four coaches in me. 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:32.320 I had arranged this meeting so they could jog each 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:36.200 other's memories and share some anecdotes about Kobe's high school career, 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.720 especially his senior year. All of us were sitting around 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.679 a table on Greg Downer's back of coach. Greg is 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.920 still the head boys basketball coach at Lower Mery. He 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.600 was hired in nineteen ninety and has been there ever since. 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.800 When he was just thirty three years old, he created 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:59.080 a staff of assistance really for the specific purpose of 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:04.000 coaching Kobe Bryant. Downer knew what he had in Cope 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:06.920 and he knew what kind of attention Kobe would draw 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:11.040 from opponents, from the media, from everywhere. So he did 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:17.600 a really smart, really innovative thing. He brought on four 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:22.120 assistance and each coach would have his own specialized role. 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:26.799 Mike Egan, who had been a college coach in Delaware, 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:31.720 was already on board as Lower Marion's defensive coordinator. Downer's 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:34.600 older brother, Drew, had a way of talking to people, 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.959 even teenagers, that put them at ease, so he would 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.800 be the team's amateur sports psychologist. Jimmy Kaiserman was twenty 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.799 six at the time, had played Division one ball at 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:50.400 Miami University and at Writer, and had played professionally in Israel. 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.680 He was quick, he was tough, he could dump, and 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:57.280 he saw a news report about Kobe one night and 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:01.320 called up Greg down, volunteering to help in any way 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.560 he could. He became Kobe's foil, guarding and harassing him 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:10.080 every day at practice. Jeremy Treatment would be the team's 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:14.200 media relations coordinating. He'd take care of all the interview requests, 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.800 the reporters, the outside noise, and Greg would oversee the 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:24.040 whole operation. All this basically because of one seventeen year 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:29.480 old kid, because of Kobe. Now twenty five years later, 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.920 they were back together again. Kaiserman couldn't make it to 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:38.960 the reunion, but the other four could. Oh almost forgot 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:43.640 there was one other person there too, bring down Greg's daughters, 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:46.800 who was seven years old at the time. You know, 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:48.640 I think I'd like to think I don't really have 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.760 an ego, And I mean I used to await awake 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:55.440 at night wondering if we were gonna score baskets, you know, 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:57.920 literally when we first started, and you know, we were 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.800 giving up too many points. And this pre rope is 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.200 this with her without Kobe. Beforehand, I was gonna say, 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:05.600 if you were laying awake at night wonder if you're 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.680 gonna score when you coach, you had problem before he 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.640 definitely has a problem. Before before Kobe, when you first 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.240 got the job. Yeah, yeah, I want to call me, 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:24.560 I'm Mike Sealskip and from Diversion podceads, this is I 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:36.440 am Kobe. I love why see why create myself? Create yourself? 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:42.279 Stay nice night, go on, create yourself. You gotta learn 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:44.920 from the great mass. Do we gain line selling? That's 0:04:44.960 --> 0:05:03.599 getting time? Episode four, Phenom of Philly. Before Kobe, the 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:07.119 Lower Marian Aces didn't have much of a basketball program. 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:11.120 Before Kobe, their uniforms were often mismatched. A kid would 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:13.839 be wearing a tank top number forty five on the back, 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:18.320 but his short said number twenty one. Before Kobe, the 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:22.440 Aces lost the game fifty four to thirteen, and because 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.520 they had so few players to begin with, and so 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.719 many of those players had fouled out, they finished the 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.960 game with just four on the floor. They were a 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.200 team that nobody paid much attention to, even in the 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:40.880 halls of the high school itself. Lower Merion Township, generally speaking, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.760 is a pretty posh area, and the most popular sports 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:47.599 at the school in the late nineteen eighties were the 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:50.680 ones you'd expect to be popular at that kind of school. 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:58.040 Soccer lacrosse foot Then in Greg Downer Kid, and the 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:04.280 basketball team got a little better. Then Kobe Bryant came in, 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:07.560 and by the start of his senior year, his coaches 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.719 knew they had the best high school basketball player in 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.479 America on their team. They just had to figure out 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:23.120 how to make the most offense. The Kaiserman thing was cool. 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:25.120 I remember when Greg called me, He's like, I got 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:28.440 this guy and the coach with us he played at Miami. 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:30.599 I was like, how did you get that guy? I mean, 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.560 that's that's ingenious. It really is, because we knew there's 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.080 no one on our team that can cover Kobe. The 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:39.400 ball is gonna be in Kobe's hands. We're not gonna 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:43.200 overthink it. We're not gonna put in the Princeton offense. Right, 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:46.360 You're gonna have to deal with this kid all night. 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:47.880 The ball is gonna be his hand. We're gonna set 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.039 up our defense, pressure and like, and we're not gonna 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.240 overthink it. We're gonna let him play. We may not 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:56.320 have real ashes at the time, but you know, we 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.559 did get along and maybe the role definition was good. 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:01.840 But I think there was maybe a part of us 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.360 who was thinking, like, uh, this is like a one 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.320 shot deal. Let's not screw it up, you know, let's 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:10.480 not screw it up with like Fickeren or you know, 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.400 like you're you're gonna get one crack at Kobe Bryant. 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:17.119 I don't think any of us expected another player quite 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:32.960 like him. Once the Bryant family moved back to the 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:35.920 United States, it didn't take long for Greg Downer to 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.720 hear the rumors about this amazing eighth grade basketball player 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:43.440 at balotkin Wood Middle School. But Downer also knew that 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.960 Dr George Smith, Kobe's coach at Ballot ran a tight 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.720 ship and didn't let any of his players, no matter 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.560 how good they were, show off their individual talents. So 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:56.600 Downer went to a Ballot practice to check out Kobe 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:58.800 for himself to get a sense of how good this 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:04.000 kid really was. What he saw blew him away. Well, 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:06.840 I couldn't believe that somebody at the tender age of 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:11.360 thirteen was was that advance with their skills. Um invited 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.520 him to a practice with my current varsity and you know, 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.560 he was more than point in his own and at 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.760 six ft two hundred fourth pals, I knew that he 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:26.200 was gonna get dumb but bigger. But his foundation at 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.280 such a young age was was really solid. Good shooter 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:34.199 could pass her good intellect, and my mind started racing 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:38.240 pretty quickly. Asked to uh, what do you give me 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:42.679 down the road? And my initial depression was certainly that 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:47.439 I very have something very special and and your need 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.559 on my hands. If Kobe had been a high school 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.640 phenom these days, he probably would have transferred to a 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.720 well known basketball school like Mont Verde Academy or i 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:02.280 AMG Academy in Florida, a place that produces top notch athletes, 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:06.040 like a factory producers sports cars. Back in the early 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:09.600 nine nineties, though, things were a little different. Downer was 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.240 more worried that a private school in the Philadelphia area 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.400 might recruit Code, and a few of them did, so 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.640 he took a big step toward making sure Kobe wanted 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.600 to stay at Lower Merryan Downer knew that Joe Bryant 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.080 was coaching girls basketball at a Cuba Hebrew academy, and 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:27.960 the two of them had hit it off when they met, 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:32.960 so Downer hired Joe to be Lower Marian's junior varsity 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.120 boys coach. It was a pretty smart idea. Joe was 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:39.400 a former NBA player and he had some coaching experience, 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.400 and really was Kobe going to transfer away from the 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:50.800 school where his dad coached. I think there was the 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.800 salesmanship to keep him at Lower Marian, to convince the 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:57.440 parents that that I was the right guy with a 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.479 job and that that public educ issue could could accomplish 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.920 what Kobe needed. Um you know, there there definitely was 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:07.920 a paranoia that he would drift off to one of 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.439 the Catholic schools where somebody would swerve Ben and try 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:27.520 to take him. The funny part is Downer never really 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.360 had to worry about that. Kobe took kind of an 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:33.720 old school approach to his early career. He stayed and 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.480 played for his local hometown high school. His parents could 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.320 see him play, his friends could see him play, his 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:43.760 community could see him play and rally around him and 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.480 the team. I always like that aspect of him and 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.000 his career. It showed loyalty. Here he is talking to 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.720 Jeremy treatment about it. I knew that a man was 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:56.960 the right properly grade. I really know Clue dying that 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.360 road right. Simber fact that he accepted me a great 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.040 coming to a school to practice with his team and 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.240 allowed me to stay after Batty and welcome my game. 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.160 I knew there was no other places my two sisters 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.480 with him, So there was never in the truth to 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.559 that to those works went around, never uh got knew 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.840 the truth father and my family and coaching the truth 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:23.000 where I was going to Gray Contact and a lot 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:26.200 by ole Bright schools. But I just wanted to go 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:29.240 to home Man because my sisters with him type family. 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.199 But even in the years after that eleven grade Roman 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.719 was calling in uh Piscopal Germantown Academy. They because of 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.120 my father, and I said, I want your sunny coming 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.079 to school and be great for him, and saying all 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.240 this stuff. My father was listening, but at the same 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.000 time he was always happy at the Man, and you 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:49.360 know I wouldn't want to leave. Koby didn't quite have 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.280 to resurrect the basketball program when he got to Lower Merry. 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.320 The ass had made the district playoffs the year before 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:58.600 under Downers coaching. It looked like they were getting better 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:01.240 and it didn't take for them to see how much 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.439 talent the new freshman had and how much he liked 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:09.679 the flat it. Here's Kobe's teammate from Lower Marrian Guy Stewart, 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.120 this freshman year. I mean when he came in, you 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:15.480 could just you can kind of see he was different. 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.360 It wasn't your typical freshman that came in. I mean 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:20.600 he was you know, six three at this time and 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.160 probably waited, you know, and five pounds. But you could 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:26.560 just see the way he moved on the court and 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.320 he understood the game that he was going to be different. Now, 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:32.400 at that time, it was just he was going to 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.480 be a different type of player. You know, he could 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.160 have just been a great high school player and went 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:40.280 on and play college and then that was it. Right. 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.360 But like you think of you know, his dad being 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.320 in the NBA, and you know, him being tall and 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.040 his sisters were tall. You know, you were like, okay this, 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:51.480 you know, he could he could be something. He shot 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:55.280 a lot. It was freshman year, um, but you know 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.240 that was to be expected because we you know, we 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:00.120 weren't as good as we we should have been. Oh 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.960 they weren't good. Period. The Aces went four and twenty 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:09.080 in Kobe's freshman season. It seems impossible to go four 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:11.560 and twenty when you have Kobe Bryant on your roster. 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.960 But as Stewart said, Kobe shot a lot in fact, 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:19.240 he shot too much and his teammates resented him for it. 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.600 There were also a bunch of injuries to key players, 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.120 including to Kobe. He fractured his kneecap and missed the 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:37.760 season's final few weeks. But everything brightened up for him 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:41.240 his sophomore year when Jermaine Griffin, who had grown up 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.800 in Queens, New York, transferred into Lower Marian and joined 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.440 the basketball team. The two of them were among the 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:51.040 relatively few black students in the school, and they connected 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:56.200 immediately over their love of basketball and rap music. Better yet, 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.960 for the Aces, Griffin was the perfect compliment to Kobe 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:05.200 you on the court. He was smart, tough, played tenacious defense, 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.160 and didn't need to shoot the ball off to help 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:12.160 the team win games. Lower Marian went sixteen and six 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.520 in Kobe's sophomore year and reached the second round of 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.000 the district playoffs, and there was no doubt any longer 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.640 that Kobe was there to stay. It was like Jamaine 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:25.840 with the Savior, because the hen will come to Lower 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:31.240 Marian at the right time, right man, which guy Coba 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:35.680 he came into the right time, right round. It's just 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:37.640 a great seven because it's someone that I can be 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.360 saying the basketball so what I'm comfortable with? All right? 0:14:41.480 --> 0:15:04.320 He came I really wrongly going every day. Hey, this 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.480 is Mike Sealsky, host and writer of I Am Kobe. 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:10.200 This podcast project came out of my work on a 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:14.240 related book called The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.280 of Immortality. If you want to explore other parts of 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.720 Kobe's story, check out The Rise. It's not just a 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.840 book version of the podcast. I dive deeper into some 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.600 of the topics covered in this series, and even some 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.960 that we don't cover at all. Kobe's upbringing, his family, 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:33.480 his identity, his effect on his friends and teammates, his 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.240 journey into the n b A, and his earliest days 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:40.040 with the Lakers. The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.560 of Immortality is out now. Just head over to the 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.160 Rise of Kobe book dot com and you can buy 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:50.920 it from any of your favorite retailers. That's The Rise 0:15:51.080 --> 0:16:01.960 of Kobe Book dot Com. Thanks So. Kobe was entrenched 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:05.040 at Lower Merio, but Joe spent just one year as 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.880 the j V coach before he got a better opportunity 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:12.680 at a familiar place, his alma mater LaSalle University. The 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.520 head coach there, Speedy Morris, needed to fill an opening 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.880 for an assistant, and one of his friends recommended Joe 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.960 for the job. The Higher maid Sense LSAL was a 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.560 small college in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Only, but 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:35.400 it had a strong basketball program for years under Morris. 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.840 The LaSalle Explorers had made the n c A Tournament 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.880 four times in the previous six years. One season they 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.080 went thirty and two and nearly reached the Sweet six 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.440 team and LaSalle had a tradition of recruiting and getting 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:52.400 the best high school player in or around Philadelphia. Peck 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.640 Joe had been that player at Bartram High School in 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:59.480 the nineteen seventies. But now the program needed a little boost, 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:04.320 and maybe Joe could provide. I know all about the 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:07.520 boost that the program needed there. The year that Joe 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:12.000 came back to LASA was the same year I started 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:16.359 at LaSalle myself as a freshman. Eventually I started covering 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.000 the team for the student newspaper. I got to know 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.879 Speedy Morris well, and I met Joe Bryant too, But 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:25.920 I didn't know anything about Kobe During his first couple 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.879 of years at Lower Merion, nobody really did, which is 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.400 kind of weird when you think about it. I mean, 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:35.159 you think it would be a big story, right. It 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:39.000 had all the elements. A once great basketball player was 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.080 now coaching at his old school in his hometown and 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:45.199 his son was a rising star at a local high school. 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.080 Except it wasn't a big story because at the time, 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.520 there was really only one person in the entire media 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.520 market who recognized that it was a story at all. 0:17:56.240 --> 0:18:00.160 Jeremy Treatment. Here he is talking about a six teen 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.200 year old Kobe Bryant for a segment on the Inquiry 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:10.560 High School Sports show. Kobe Bryant has a maturity not 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.679 seen in most sixteen year old superstars. He credits that 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.760 to the strength of his family, especially his relationship with 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:20.520 his father, former La Salan seventy six star Joe Bryant 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.119 Joe Jelly being Bryant, the popular hometown hero, was a 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:35.320 two time At this point, Jeremy was still coaching at 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.760 a key behabor where he and Joe had met and 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:41.639 become friends, but he was also working as a freelance 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.240 reporter for the biggest newspaper in Pennsylvania and the biggest 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.760 media outlet in the entire Delaware Valley. The paper I 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:53.400 worked for now the Philadelphia Inquiry. As a reporter, Jeremy 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.560 covered a bunch of Lower Marian's games during Kobe's freshman 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:59.119 and sophomore years, and he wrote a bunch of stories 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:02.080 about those games, talking to Kobe and Greg down or 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:05.600 after everyone getting to be friends with both of them. 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.919 But he couldn't persuade his editors at the Inquirer to 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.760 let him do what he wanted to do, a big 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:18.160 blowout feature all about this rising local basketball phenomenon, Kobe Bryant. 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.760 Jeremy says they were more interested in focusing on players 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.119 from the city's public and Catholic leagues, and he couldn't 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.560 understand why they were missing this obvious story that was 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:32.199 staring them in the face. There's two levels of the 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:36.280 frustration there. One was among my friends in general public 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:37.960 and believe me when I was telling a dot co. 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:42.040 But the second level of frustration was worse. My editor 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:44.920 at the time wouldn't give me the opportunity to write 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.960 about him, and I pitched him in ninth grade, tenth grade, 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.159 eleventh grade, and by the end of eleventh grade he 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:52.960 had come around. But he ended up giving it to 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:55.760 another writer, Christma Cadis, and his exact word was, it's 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:58.360 Christmas be He's our he's our high school basketball writer. 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:01.720 And I remember it was in a meeting in front 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.080 of many many people. I said, I've been pitching this 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:07.080 for three years. He said, Chris's speed. That was this 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:11.800 guy where Jeremy was crushed. This was going to be 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:15.359 the first big story ever about a kid. Jeremy knew 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:18.240 was going to be huge. In his mind, he was 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.520 the logical choice to cover Kobe. Nobody on the staff 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.439 knew him, or Joe or Greg down or better. But 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.520 Jeremy did catch a break. The editor told him that 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:33.040 The Inquirer was starting a TV show devoted entirely to 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:36.640 high school sports. And I was like, oh my god, 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:38.359 I've been waiting for this all my life. I'm twenty 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.680 years old. This is it, and this is like TV 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:43.920 on air. Yeah, it's gonna be on Fox or Challenge 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:47.480 seventeen or whatever it was on. And they said, well, okay, 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.000 well you're the guys us to know high schools. Uh, 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:53.240 if you have to pitch one story to us, This guy, 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:54.840 Sean Docker, he said, do you have to pitch one 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:56.720 story for us, what would it be. I said, well, 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:58.720 there's this guy with the three point five with a 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:01.479 good because I think school in the country, speaks Italian 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.320 and Sapanish. His dad playing the NBA, and I believe 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:06.640 he's the best player in the country. And he think. 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:08.560 The first thing he said was when do we meet him? 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.920 And I was like, I found my place. How long 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:19.120 is which anything? Grade? Uh? Coach down on myself. We're 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:23.400 watching the room day and after game, he just said 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:25.960 to me, goes, does anybody realize that the next uncle 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.359 Jordan is in r GM. Uh. He was in the 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:30.040 gym and school out in the morning as the high 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.440 school kid. Uh. He was the last one to leave. 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.840 He stayed extra to shoot like five hunter jump shots. Uh. 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:40.000 He was very focus. We had a couple of practices 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:42.840 that were canceled. He was boy king out. He was 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:56.239 so angry that the practices were canceled. Now Jeremy had 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:58.680 an outlet to tell the world what he knew they 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:01.879 needed to know. The one big thing that he felt 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:06.040 had become his mantle to carry. Kobe Bryant was going 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:09.240 to be one of the best basketball players the world 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.480 had ever seen. And in his junior year at lower Merion. 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:16.800 Kobe started to show everyone just that because he spent 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:21.840 the entire summer of doing pretty much nothing but playing basketball. 0:22:22.320 --> 0:22:25.760 He came back to school a little bigger, a little stronger, 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:31.119 a little smarter, his skills more refined. The Aces lost 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:35.359 their first game, then won games in a row. Kobe 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.160 ended up averaging more than thirty one points a game. 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:43.600 He had forty points in one game, forty two in another. 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:48.720 An opposing coach said, if you hold Kobe to fifteen points, 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:53.520 you'll win by thirty. Kobe read that comment and took 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:56.399 it as a slight against his teammates. So when it 0:22:56.480 --> 0:22:59.840 came time to play that school, he spent all night 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:03.239 passing the ball to those teammates. He ended up with 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:08.359 fifteen points and seventeen assists, and lower Merryan one. By 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:12.399 twenty two, Mike Egan was in his first season as 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.480 one of Greg Downer's assistants, and he couldn't believe what 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:18.960 he was seeing from Kobe. I knew he was good, 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:22.400 but you know he's a I guess he's a sixteen 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:24.480 year old kid. At that day, he just earned sixteen 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:29.439 UM and then every day he would do something in 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:32.520 practice and I would look at the other coaches that 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:35.640 would say, can you believe that? I mean, it could 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:38.480 be something as simple as, you know, a move he 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:42.040 made on the baseline. He had a really strange habit 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:45.240 of his junior year. He kept working on this move 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:47.800 on the baseline and he kept stepping out of bounds 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:51.240 and you know, we blow the whistle. You're out of bounds. 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:54.760 What are you doing? And then he started getting closer 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:58.200 and closer. It was just kind of a weird story 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:02.240 about him just trying to you know, he knew that 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:06.840 the highest level of basketball is about inches and margins 0:24:06.880 --> 0:24:09.200 and just how close can I get to that edge 0:24:09.200 --> 0:24:12.280 without going over it? Guys. Stewart was a senior on 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:15.960 that team, one of its leaders, but he wasn't the leader, 0:24:16.119 --> 0:24:19.120 and he kind of knew it. Kobe was the real 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:21.840 leader of that team. He was very demanding. He was 0:24:22.000 --> 0:24:26.720 very furious on the court. He wanted you to play 0:24:26.800 --> 0:24:30.880 your role and do it great. He pushed you um 0:24:30.920 --> 0:24:35.000 every practice. He he never took off a practice. He 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:38.760 was always challenging his teammates. You know, we would play 0:24:38.800 --> 0:24:41.080 these games where you know, we would have to guard 0:24:41.160 --> 0:24:44.679 him and he would he would The way he played 0:24:44.800 --> 0:24:47.159 like He didn't care who you were. He didn't care 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:49.399 if you were his teammate and practice or not. He 0:24:49.520 --> 0:24:51.840 was going to go at you because in his mind, 0:24:51.960 --> 0:24:55.879 he's like, if I can challenge you and and and 0:24:56.200 --> 0:25:00.760 into guarding me better, you can guard anybody, you know. 0:25:00.840 --> 0:25:03.560 If if if I'm pushing everybody to be better, we're 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:05.960 all going to be better as a team. And and 0:25:05.960 --> 0:25:09.280 and that was kind of like his mindset, right, He's 0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:11.960 gonna push everybody. He's going to push himself because the 0:25:12.040 --> 0:25:14.960 ultimate goal is to win a championship and to win games. 0:25:24.720 --> 0:25:27.720 The Aces won a lot of games in Kobe's junior season. 0:25:27.960 --> 0:25:31.000 They went twenty six and five, They won the Central 0:25:31.080 --> 0:25:33.720 League title. They made it all the way to the 0:25:33.760 --> 0:25:38.159 district championship game. Lower Merion hadn't won a district championship 0:25:38.160 --> 0:25:41.520 in years, and now here were Kobe and his teammates 0:25:42.119 --> 0:25:45.000