WEBVTT - The Bryant Family Legacy 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:14.440 Diversion podcasts were welcome to the Quest of Palestrium. When 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:16.080 we first walked into the gym, we saw them people 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.640 outside waiting for takes, and I got I got chills 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:21.599 because it's starting to know that you came such a 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:23.759 long way and people are all here to watch you 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.840 play and watch you show your skills. And they gave 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.280 a lot of jilling and but I got I couldn't 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:31.040 really think about it. I just had to calm myself 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:32.879 down because if I came out with too much energy, job, 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.960 you're messing up. And turned the ball to narrable and 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:47.280 and then like that. At the intersection of thirty third 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.360 and South Streets in West Philadelphia, on the campus of 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:54.480 the University of Pennsylvania, stands a rectangular brick building that 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.279 is one of the most famous and revered sports arenas 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:00.920 in the world. It's the build in that Kobe Bryant 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.880 was talking about in that tape you just heard. The 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.840 building is called the Plestra. It was named appropriately by 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:11.600 a professor who taught Greek. It opened ninety four years ago, 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:15.520 and depending on what religious terminology you prefer, it is 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.640 usually referred to as the cathedral or the temple or 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:24.280 the mecca of college basketball and especially of Philadelphia a 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:32.360 basketball actually, by the standards of modern sports arenas, the 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.760 Polester is pretty tiny. It holds fewer than ten thousand 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:39.480 spectators eight thousand, seven dred and twenty two to be exact. 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:44.440 That's regarded as a magical and unforgettable number in Philly hoops. 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.600 Because the Polester is so small, Because everyone's on top 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.640 of each other, the building can get humid and it 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.320 can get loud. It's an electric place to see a game. 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.280 It's the home of the Penn Quakers. It's the home 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.760 of Philadelphia. Is Big five, all of them Division One 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:08.840 basketball teams in or around the city with storied local rivalries, Penn, Villanova, Temple, St. Joseph's, 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:13.360 and LaSalle. This tape from a seven matchup between Temple 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.760 and Saint Joe's paints a vivid image of the heat 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.919 and energized crowd at the Polestra could generate again. You're 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.840 looking live but the Plestra, a freezing rain has been 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.680 falling all day outside of Philadelphia. But they may not 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:28.919 need any money for great magnus. There may be enough 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.919 peat generated right there in the Plestra day to melt 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:35.120 all the ice and Philadelphia please devolved, whether they're ready 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:38.239 to get after one another again? Temple coming again, five 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:40.840 minity of an ay ten Saint jos to the four 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.000 and one who up the battle for the spot in 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.519 the leg race at the Rage the midway one of 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:47.880 the season, they are jammed in there. That remodels the 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:51.320 Palestra this year that now see that, I don't think 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:56.040 there's an MP seat end the place. The Polestra became 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.720 a very special place for Kobe, and we'll get into 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:01.240 why it was so special to whom in later episodes. 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.000 But the Briant family's connection to the Polestra actually started 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:11.880 a generation before Kobe. It started with Kobe's dad Joe, 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:17.440 I'm might seal see and from diversion podcasts, this is 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:28.400 I am Kobe. I write Wright State, create myself up, 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:35.760 Create yourself, say nice on, create yourself. You gotta learn 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.440 from the great minds. No, we ain't tell them that's 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:51.440 getting time. Episode two. The Bryant Family Legacy. If you 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:53.640 want to get to the heart of the Kobe Bryant story, 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.720 you have to start with the Joe Brian story, and 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:58.680 that means you have to start in the city where 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:03.400 Joe grew up, Piladelphia. One of the pieces of Kobe 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.040 story that tends to get glossed over is that his 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:09.240 dad also played in the NBA. It's treated as trivia. 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:12.560 It's true Joe Bryant spent eight years in the league, 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.800 but throwing out that fact and then moving on doesn't 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.279 capture the full picture of Joe's career because long before 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.840 Kobe Bryant was a high school legend around Philadelphia, Joe 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.080 Bryant was a high school legend in Philadelphia, and his 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:35.719 legend was every bit as grand as his sons. We 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:42.320 always thought that Joe was um. He was a one off, right. 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.719 He was a six nine guy who could dribble and 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:52.280 shoot it and pass. That's Mo Howard. He and Joe 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:54.400 have been friends for years. They've known each other since 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:57.560 high school when they were maybe the two best teenage 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:01.159 basketball players in Philadelphia. Mo on to play college ball 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:03.880 at Maryland and have a brief career in the NBA. 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.000 We always thought like, as we got older, we would 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:12.400 compare j b to sort of like Magic Johnson, right, 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:16.160 because at that time, big guys played near the basket. 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:21.320 But Joe had a very unique skill set because again 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.839 he was six and nine does a very very proficient 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:29.200 dribbler and passer, and he could shoot the ball, so 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:33.160 he was he was extraordinary as a high school player 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:42.400 because there were not many six nine guys like him. 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.000 To learn the full story of Kobe Bryant's father, you 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.320 can't just pop the name Joe Bryant into Google and 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.640 then wait half a second for the Internet to spit 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.599 some links and post set. You have to do what 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:56.720 I did one day during the summer. You have to 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.919 go to the library at Temple University in North Philadelphia 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.560 and its urban Archives. The library has hundreds of articles 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:07.880 from the Philadelphia Bulletin, which back in the nineteen sixties 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.839 and seventies had the largest circulation of any afternoon daily 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:16.880 newspaper in the country. The library had these newspaper clippings 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.200 and tiny Manila envelopes, and they were yellowed and fading 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.800 in brittle. I had to handle them gently because I 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.640 was afraid they would fall apart in my hands. But 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:29.599 in those clippings were details that showed just how much 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.800 Joe and Kobe had in common. There were some foreshadowing, there, 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.120 some connections and similarities. If you were willing to look 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:44.159 hard enough. I thought Kobe was a little more hard 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:48.520 and Joe, Joe were more of the smiling of canna 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:53.000 basketball player. This is Julius Thompson. He writes amazing novels 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.640 about basketball and basketball players now, but he started out 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.680 as a sportswriter. He spent ten years covering high school 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.840 sports at the Philadelphia Bolton in the nineteen seventies and eighties, 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.400 which means he covered Joe Bryant's entire career at Bartram 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.200 High School in southwest Philadelphia. I can see the one thing, 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:15.200 the agility and the quickness and the size. Now I 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.560 only the call I tell Kobe Joe Joe's sixtent. I 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:20.920 know that he was he plut six tent. Kobe made 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.400 a little smaller. But you can see the same talent. 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:27.120 You can see the same we'll want to be excellent. 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:30.520 You can see the same quickness, and you can see 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:34.000 the same move So so sometimes I watched Kobe, I 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:36.960 could almost see Joe, a little shorter virgin of Joe 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.800 on the on the on the court. Um shoot if 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:42.560 you can't wait to shoot the shoot, can shoot it 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.600 from going to the basket, hard, play strong. When he 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:51.240 had to and one thing I should people realized determination. 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.720 That's the thing I think, and that that will is 0:07:54.760 --> 0:08:05.760 to be the best. And I saw that in the vote. 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.080 Philadelphia has had a share of young groups phenots. Of course, 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.040 before he scored a hundred points in one NBA game, 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.720 Wilt Chamberlain scored ninety in a game for Overbrooke High. 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:20.880 Tom Gola was the king of the city at Lassal 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.920 High School and at Las South College, where he won 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:28.200 a national championship. Into Golda still holds the n c 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:34.840 A record for most rebounds in a career. Earl top 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:40.880 of the gig road, right, what hey, what a player. 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.480 And then there's the legendary Hall of Famer Earl Monroe, 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:50.240 who proceeded Joe Bryant and far from high he could 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:52.040 have handled the ball like it was on a string. 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:55.400 Monroe became one of the most skilled guards the NBA 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:59.480 has ever seen. That clip of the pearl on MSG 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:02.720 net was just one of many highlights he would have 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.760 on a nightly basis. He was part of a generation 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.640 of players who brought the flare of street basketball to 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:12.640 the pros who made it mainstream. He also had maybe 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:17.320 the two coolest nicknames in basketball History, Black Jesus and 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:23.520 the poem. Here's Mo Howard. Back at that time, the 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.160 men who played on the seventies sixers and the pros 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:31.680 from Philadelphia played in the Baker League, and uh, prior 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.000 to any of the Baker League games, we had sunny 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:39.760 year games and were very approachable, right, I mean at 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:44.480 everybody in Philadelphia wanted to be any played basketball anyway, 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.520 wanted to have at least Earl spin move, right, you know. 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.040 I mean those guys influenced all of us, not just 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:55.600 in the basketball part, but you know as being part 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:59.319 of our community as well. You know, these guys, as 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.560 I said, with very approachable. They were very visible and 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:07.600 present in our community. So there were a few guys 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:09.520 that you know, we sort of kind of looked up to. 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.160 But I would have to say from my era it 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.640 was Earle Pearl Monroe and Joe Bryant grew up in 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:19.520 the same neighborhood and it was a pretty rough neighborhood. 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.840 There was crime, there were gangs. Joe once got stabbed 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.280 in the leg with a knife during a fight. But 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.520 his father, Joe Sr. Was tough and protective, and Joe 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:34.760 found solace in sports, football, track, and especially basketball. If 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:37.480 you could play on the playground courts of Philadelphia, you 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.480 could play just about anywhere. It was a lesson Joe's 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:44.000 son would learn too, because at that time he had 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.800 to understand there was gangs and there was a lot 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:51.160 of negative things going on in the community, and so 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.319 this was a way for kids to express themselves. And 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:57.480 a matter of fact, when I first started covering high 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.680 school sports in Philadelphia, there were no night games allowed 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.640 in the public League. Everything had to be on Tuesday 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:10.439 afternoon and on Thursday afternoon, and you had to have security. 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.520 Fans were not allowed. They gradually they brought the fans 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.000 come to the game, but it was kind of difficult era. 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:21.160 But then when the athletics started really exploding and people 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.440 started to get interest, there was a lot more people 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.360 going to the games, and the Polester with just the 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:33.800 ultimately you played the Polester. That was an incredible, incredible experience. 0:11:57.400 --> 0:11:59.800 When Joe Bryant was a kid, Earl the Pearl was 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:04.080 his hero, his biggest basketball influence, which made Joe different 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.679 from just about every Philly high school star who had 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:10.280 come before. And see the Pearl was six ft three. 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.480 Joe wanted to play just like it. And he could, 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.280 and he did. Joe put the ball behind his back. 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.120 He worked on his spin moves. He aspired to be 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.240 as creative and flashy as the pearl. There was one 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.680 big difference though Joe wasn't six ft three, he was 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:29.200 six ft nine, and six ft nine players didn't do 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:33.520 the kinds of things that Joe could do. I'd like 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.160 to do stories and do picture stories, and so I 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.160 went and brought them, uh and I and I saw 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:41.800 him playing. I was just amazed at the agility and 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.400 did quickness, and the size and talent and multiple of 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:49.800 the personality, the great personality. He could just charm anybody 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.960 with the smile. As a senior in nineteen seventy two, 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.720 Joe average more than twenty seven points at seventeen rebounds 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.480 a game. He scored fifty seven points in one game 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.760 and had forty points and twenty one rebounds in another. 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.880 The newspapers in Philly, The Daily News, The Inquirer, the 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:11.040 Bulletin covered him like he played in the NBA already. 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.280 When Joe was in high school, they played a team 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:18.679 called Germantown High School with Mike Sojoona. Germantown was the 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.920 biggest team i've ever seen the high school basketball we 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.160 called the Johnny Green Giants. The shortest guy was six ft, 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.280 the only six points six five six seven six nine 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:32.080 seven seven one their only botch of had Joe and 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.480 another kid to call Maddy dog a rebound. Joe want 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:37.800 to term to win the game, and people said, they bought, 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:39.920 you can't win botcham can't do they botch of just 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.160 two Freeland. It was that's old McDonald's hall pat house. 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:48.120 Joe scored over forty points, took over the game, took 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.199 over the game. And that's that same determination to steely 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.000 when he had to be and I see that moreent. 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.640 Kobe Thompson is getting at something really important here, the 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.960 difference between Joe and b b between father and son. 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:06.000 Joe ratcheted up his competitiveness, his will to win only 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:10.079 sometimes when he absolutely had to. But of course this 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.760 is the quality that Kobe is probably most well known for. 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.240 He was at that peak level all the time, so 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.240 that steely kind of attitude, I'm gonna be the best. 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.040 Joe didn't have that all the time, but when he 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.360 did get it, like a net game. That's why he's 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.440 publicly champion. Because she said this is mine. I'm gonna 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.440 We're gonna win this, and he's stunned the Philadelphia basketball 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:41.760 I'm he absolutely stunned it. That's how fame worked back then. 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.360 There was no sports center, no Twitter, no social media 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.000 scuttle butt. There was just one newspaper headline after another 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.880 proclaiming that Joe Bryant was the next great Philly player. 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:55.960 The guys on the playgrounds gave him the nickname based 0:14:55.960 --> 0:15:00.520 in an old Big band lyric, must bid love Ja, 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:05.840 That's who Joe was now jelly Beans. He even brad 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.320 to a reporter that he ate four pounds of jelly 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.800 beans a day. Was it true, didn't matter, It just 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.800 added to the legend I knew of Joe. Brody was 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.840 the same high school classes of me. And the only 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.200 game I really saw as the City championship came that 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.640 year and I went down to the Fluster to see it. 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.400 It was just it was just so exciting. It was 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:31.640 a packhouse. That's aren't tell Him, a native of West 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.880 Philadelphia and one of the most powerful sports agents of 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:41.000 the last half century. NBA stars Tracy McGrady, Anthony Davis, Russell, Westbrook, 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:45.080 Derek Rose, tell him represented all of them during his career. 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:49.360 He was also Kobe Bryant's first age tell Him and 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:51.920 Joe Bryant grew up not far from each other. Tell 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.880 Him had read about Joe in the local papers, had 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:57.720 heard about this kid who could play anywhere on the floor, 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:01.120 and he just had to see him for himself. When 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:05.400 Bartram met St. Thomas Moore in ninety two for Philly 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.800 High School Hoops Supremacy, tell him and moved out of 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.720 the city by then to Lower Merion Township, but he 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.400 made sure he was at the Palestra that day for 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:19.880 that game. And even though Joe and Bartram lost, tell 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:24.000 Him was fascinated by him. I just remember watching Joe. 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.880 The thing that struck me about Joe was that he 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:29.640 was a player that with his size, that could play 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.320 from any team, and I've never really seen that before. 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.520 Usually the the tallest guy on the team are one 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:36.200 of the biggest guy team was not bringing the ball 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.320 off the part. And what struck me about Joe orgists 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:43.520 as unbelieable skill level as a player from guy that size. 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:45.160 He know, he was a guy that was actually playing 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:50.000 point guard, you know, for his team. Joe was such 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:52.520 a brilliant high school player that he was selected to 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:56.280 play in the Dapper Dan round Ball Classic, an all 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.640 star game in Pittsburgh that pitted the best prospects from 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.760 Pencil Vania against high school standouts from the rest of 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.400 the country. It was the McDonald's All American Game before 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:09.480 the McDonald's All American Game, and it was founded and 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.280 organized by a former school teacher from Western Pennsylvania who 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.920 had turned himself into a basketball recruiter and promoter, Sonny Vacaro. 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:32.960 We'll hear more about Sonny later in Kobe's Story. Hey, 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:36.280 this is Mike Selsky, host and writer of I Am Kobe. 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.119 This podcast project came out of my work on a 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:43.159 related book called The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.240 of Immortality. If you want to explore other parts of 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.600 Kobe's story, check out The Rise. It's not just a 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.720 book version of the podcast. I dive deeper into some 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.480 of the topics covered in this series, and even some 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.879 that we don't cover at all. Kobe's upbringing, his family, 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.399 his identity, his effect on his friends and teammates, his 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:05.160 journey into the n b A, and his earliest days 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.959 with the Lakers. The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.440 of Immortality is out now. Just head over to the 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.080 Rise of Kobe book dot Com and you can buy 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.840 it from any of your favorite retailers. That's the rise 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:45.200 of Kobe book dot Com. Thanks. Nowadays, high school superstars 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.560 leave their hometowns for big national college programs all the 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:53.919 time Duke Kansas, North Carolina, Kentucky. That didn't happen as 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.200 much in the seventies. A great player was more likely 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:00.080 to stay local, which is exactly what Joe wanted to 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.119 do and exactly what he did do. He decided to 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:07.240 go to Lasau College. It would be comfortable, his family 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.520 would be able to see him play all his home games, 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.600 and the Lossale Explorers coach Paul west Head had his 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.880 team play a wide open style that suited Joe's game. 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:19.520 It wasn't quite as open as Barge from his running 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:23.640 gun style, but it was close. Here's west Head well, 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:28.680 Joe Briant was a multifaceted basketball party. He was, you know, 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:33.240 in modern terms, he was the six ten point guard 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.080 Jose Slemma was. When you were six ten back in 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.480 the seventies, no one saw you as a point guard. 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.359 But but Joe could handle the ball. Joe was a 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.879 great pass or a great shooter. He had vision for 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.959 the game. So his biggest asset was just give him 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:53.720 the ball and leave him alone and he will create 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:56.840 for you. He fought his whole career. I think you 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:00.240 not so much with me, but his whole career. People 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.640 didn't want to give him the ball. They wanted them 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:05.920 the position up either in the posts or down on 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:09.240 the baseline and then hopefully score for you. But he 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.720 wanted to be a handler. He was. He was a 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:15.600 player way ahead of his times. What were some of 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:20.440 the negatives, drawbacks, shortcomings he might have had as a player. Yeah, 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:22.639 he need to have a lot of shortcomings. I mean, 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.120 when when you can score it well, when you can 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:30.440 drive and jump over top of people, when you can 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:34.120 hit the outside shot, I mean he had some drawbacks. 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:38.560 I mean the years Ico show, the sal they banned 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:43.840 dunking because they were ruining brims that stopping games. So 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.360 the s C Double as a note, said no dunkings. Well, 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:51.240 Joe had a propensity to dunk the basketball. So his 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.520 shortcoming was he just couldn't resist a good dunk once 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:58.200 in a while. And and uh, but you can't call 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:02.560 them for that. Who was personality like Joe was about 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:08.080 as outgoing and as gregarious as you could finding a 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:14.080 basketball player. He was friendly, courteous, engaging. He easily put 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:18.280 his arm around team Mason. Hey, don't worry about that, Chad. 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:20.840 You okay, Maybe next time get me the ball and 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.359 I'll make the shot for a game. So so, Joe 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.240 always had a smile on his face. I don't ever 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:30.800 remember seeing Joe uh in an unhappy or unpleasant mode. 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.280 Joe didn't qualify academically to play as a freshman, so 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:37.520 he sat out a year to pull his grades up. 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:41.040 In his first college game in the fall of three, 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:45.560 he established himself immediately as the team's best player. His 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:50.639 debut was incredible. He had nineteen points and fifteen rebounds 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.840 and made three behind the back passes. He did a 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:59.000 little bit of everything, and LaSalle won by fifty. But 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:01.880 that game, the first of a double header at the Palestra, 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.920 was significant to Joe for another more lasting reason. Villanova 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:10.200 was playing in the doubleheader's nightcap and had a freshman 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:14.000 guard named John Cox who had grown up near Joe's neighborhood. 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:19.320 And John Cox had a sister, Pam Joe had had 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:21.720 a crush on Pam when they were younger, and when 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.080 they said hello to each other again in the palestra 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:28.399 that night, that was that they got married the following summer, 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:32.200 as they were entering their junior years of college. Their 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:36.200 personalities complimented each other. Joe was fun, loving and carefree. 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:40.200 Pam was strong will protective of Joe and her family. 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:44.600 She had been raised a devout Catholic. Those polarities would 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:48.480 to a great degree, come to define their son's life. 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:51.879 Joe and Pam's plan was to have Joe finish up 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:56.399 at LaSalle then entered the NBA after graduating. He had 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:58.920 pretty much proved by now that he was the best, 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:02.560 most talent player in the Big Five, and some people 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:05.920 believed that if Joe stayed in school through his senior year, 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:10.720 he would be the top pick in the nineteen NBA draft. 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:18.440 Here's writer Julius Thompson again, Joe was like poetry, emotion, 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:23.320 and he could hold the ball. He he was before 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.240 his era. Joe should have been the era and there 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:28.960 where you could have people, even the big guys, hand 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:31.400 the ball. At that time, you were told to take 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:34.000 you a big lankey behind get down on the block, 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:36.360 you know, put your back to the bad catch the ball. 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:41.160 But Joe said, Joe was a rebel. Joe could hound 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:45.760 the ball, he could run the offense, he could free land, 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:50.280 he could shoot, but only being Joe didn't like to do. 0:23:50.440 --> 0:23:52.480 Joe did not like to rebound. He didn't like to 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:55.240 get down there and ball the big guys. He want 0:23:55.280 --> 0:23:57.200 to be outside. He wanted to be pretty boy. And 0:23:57.400 --> 0:23:59.800 everybody's lap at Joe being the pretty boy because he 0:24:00.119 --> 0:24:03.520 he would just but he was absolutely fantastic to watch. 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:07.560 I cannot think of a player today that big and 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:10.720 that quick. I just came with a different era. He 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:13.040 had been ruling today. Everybody would have thought, he wow, 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:15.880 big man, can handle the ball, could do all kinds 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:29.840 of things. But Joe's dad, Joe Bryant, Sr. Fell and 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:33.240 broke a bone in his back, which many couldn't work anymore, 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:37.960 which meant Joe and Pam's plans had to change. After 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:42.680 LaSalle lost in the n c A Tournament, Joe withdrew 0:24:42.840 --> 0:24:45.359 from several of his classes and lost interest in the 0:24:45.400 --> 0:24:48.399 other ones. He got approval from the NBA to enter 0:24:48.440 --> 0:24:51.560 the draft early. It didn't take much. He had to 0:24:51.640 --> 0:24:54.960 show that he was what the league called an economic hardship, 0:24:55.320 --> 0:24:58.920 which was pretty much a rubber stamp. The Golden State Warriors, 0:24:58.920 --> 0:25:02.040 who had just won their first championship, took Joe with 0:25:02.119 --> 0:25:04.760 the fourteenth pick in the first round. He was off 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:09.639 to the West Coast. He was going going gone, or 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:12.840 so he thought. The Warriors had a problem. They had 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:16.480 neglected to tender Joe a contract by the league's September 0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:19.560 one deadline. It was a clerical error, but it was 0:25:19.640 --> 0:25:23.359 a costly They had lost his rights. He could sign 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:26.400 with any team he wanted, and he wanted to sign 0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:29.720 with the Sixers and stay in phil so he did. 0:25:31.040 --> 0:25:33.280 The Sixers had been a pretty good team the year before, 0:25:33.720 --> 0:25:36.119 and Joe figured he'd come in and play right away. 0:25:37.119 --> 0:25:40.160 It didn't quite work out that way. Before the season began, 0:25:40.320 --> 0:25:43.280 the team spent six million dollars a fortune at the 0:25:43.359 --> 0:25:48.119 time to sign superstar Julius Irving, and Dr Jay's arrival 0:25:48.280 --> 0:25:51.320 pushed Joe down on the depth chart, and when the 0:25:51.400 --> 0:25:54.919 season did start, Joe kept shooting, even though he couldn't 0:25:54.960 --> 0:25:58.280 make any of his shots. He missed thirty of his 0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:02.840 first thirty six shots from the field. In time, Joe 0:26:02.920 --> 0:26:05.320 got his Barracks. He played about sixteen minutes a game, 0:26:05.800 --> 0:26:08.280