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