The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality

This was an eye opening experience to read. I knew about Kobe Bryant, but not his back story. This book takes you from the beginning, starting with a brief history of Joe Bryant's career in the NBA and then his move to Italy to play there.Mr. Sielski has a talent for making a biography feel like you're reading a novel, which I really like because I didn't get bored with it. Some authors of biographies can drag and drone on and on about everything.l and put me to sleep. This one did not.Everytime you get to a pivotal moment like an important game or even a dunk contest, Sielski describes it in a way that makes you feel like you're there and witnessing the excitement for yourself.I don't hugely follow the NBA, I read this to connect with my boyfriend a little more about something he follows and enjoys. We had discussions a couple times about what I was reading and had some good conversations. If you are a Kobe fab or maybe just a fan of the NBA or Basketball in general, pick thus one up you won't regret it.

Kobe was an amazing player

A well-written, well-researched book that provides a relatively interesting look at Kobe's early life. You come out of it understanding where the Mamba Mentality came from and learn about his unusual upbringing. Recommended for more hardcore NBA or Kobe fans, but unlikely to be interesting for a casual basketball or sports fan as it doesn't cover any of his time in the NBA. 3.5 stars.

All Kobe fans owe Mike Sielski their appreciation for writing the story of Kobe's early life, especially his time at Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia. Sielski, a sports columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, grew up in Philly around the time Kobe did. As a result, he has many crucial contacts that no one else does and is therefore uniquely positioned to write this book. In fact, Sielski obtained tape recorded interviews of a 17-19 year old Kobe from Jeremy Treatman, who was on the basketball staff when Kobe was at Lower Merion and had planned to use them himself for a book about Kobe's rookie year in the NBA.My favorite narrative in the book is the rivalry with Chester High School. Chester is the ghetto; Lower Merion the suburbs: "It was as much about class and culture as it was about skin color, and Kobe was at the center of that conflict, threatening to steal Chester's birthright, a piece of the town's very identity" (264). Here is Sielski's description of "the pit", the basketball court outside the William Penn projects in Chester: "In the pit, those kids learned that the sport could be as vital to their survival and flourishing as their beating hearts. In the pit, the sinister pops of gunfire and foreboding blares of police sirens, the awful sounds intrinsic to their lives, would fall, to their ears, silent for a while. In the pit, there was nothing to dread. In Chester, the pit was where you went to climb out" (168).When Lower Merion went up against Chester in the district tournament in Kobe's junior year in 1995, Chester was too much for Lower Merion, beating them 77-50. In his senior season, Kobe achieved the seemingly impossible, leading Lower Merion to victories over Chester in both the district and state championship tournaments. In my eyes this victory foreshadows the pinnacle of Kobe's basketball career, The Laker's defeat of The Boston Celtics (a team with three future Hall of Famers in Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen) in the 2010 NBA Finals after being beat by them in the 2008 Finals."Every superhero needs an origin story" reads the blurb from author Jeff Pearlman on the front of The Rise. While a complete, first class, biography of Kobe's life has yet to be written, Mike Sielski has brilliantly written his origin story - a book that only he could write.

Bought this for my 16 yr old son and he read it in 3 days. He is Kobe obsessed and says this was the best Kobe book he's read. He hated for it to end, so he definitely recommends. Who knows, I may read it now as well.