On the Court With... Kobe Bryant (4 page)

Trailing by two with only seconds left, Hamilton got the ball on the right side of the basket. He drove toward the hoop, then
spun into the lane.

Kobe came out to stop him, but the wiry Hamilton
twisted and ducked beneath him, rolling in a lay-up to send the game into overtime.

Again the clubs ’traded the lead back and forth. Then, while trying to guard Kobe, Hamilton fouled out of the game.

But Coatesville responded to the loss of their star and led, 77-73, with less than a minute to play. It looked like the Aces
were going to fall short.

Kobe patiently dribbled the ball upcourt as Coatesville scrambled to set their defense. When he was twenty-five feet from
the hoop, they backed off, covering the passing lanes and blocking his way to the basket.

Kobe didn’t hesitate. He launched into the air and shot.

The ball soared in a high arc and then came down.

Swish!
The ball hit nothing but net and the referee threw up both his hands, signaling a three-point basket. Now Coatesville led
by only one point.

Lower Merion needed to get the ball back and quickly fouled. When Coatesville missed the foul shot, Kobe swooped in and grabbed
the rebound.

The crowd was roaring as Kobe dribbled downcourt and the clock ticked down. Ten… nine… eight…

As Kobe crossed midcourt, he picked up his pace,
cutting first to the right and then to the left, past a defender just above the free throw line as he looked for an opening.

Seven… six… five…

He spotted an opening between defenders and slashed into the lane.

Four… three…

As several Coatesville defenders raised their arms and swarmed over him, Kobe pulled up, jumped, and shot a soft six-footer.

Two…

Swish!
The ball found the bottom of the net! Kobe and the Aces won, 78-77!

The big win put the Aces in position to dethrone the defending Central League champions, Ridley High. In early February, the
two teams met to decide the title.

The Aces trailed by five, 51-46, entering the fourth quarter. Then Kobe took over.

In the final period he poured in 13 points and setup forward Jermaine Griffin for several easy baskets for another 12. Lower
Merion won going away, 76-70. Kobe described the game later. “It was like a heavyweight fight. We would not take no for an
answer.” Kobe finished with a career-high 42 points.

The win clinched the league title for the Aces, and they began to look ahead to the state tournament. But in their district
quarterfinal versus Norristown, Kobe played poorly at first, missing several easy shots.

The vocal Norristown crowd took notice and began to taunt Kobe, chanting, “O-ver-ra-ted.” It seemed to work at first, as Kobe
couldn’t get his game going. At halftime, Kobe had only six points and the Aces trailed by eight, 35-27.

But in the second half he responded to the pressure like the professional he wanted to be. He scored an incredible 29 second-half
points, including 18 in the fourth period. Lower Merion fought back to win, 75-70. By the end of the game the only noise from
the crowd came from delirious Lower Merion fans. “It’s the best feeling in the world to silence an opposing crowd,” said Kobe
after the game.

The Aces fought their way into the state tournament, then ran up against a tough Hazelton team. Despite Kobe’s 33 points and
15 rebounds, the Aces lost, 64-59, in overtime.

Kobe was crushed. After the game he broke down in tears and apologized to his teammates for not doing more in the loss.

His teammates and coach scoffed at his apology. As
one teammate said later, “Playing with Kobe makes you play better.” They all knew Kobe had done everything he could to help
them win.

But Kobe Bryant was still determined to become even better. With only one year remaining in his high school career, he hadn’t
forgotten about his dream of playing in the NBA.

CHAPTER FIVE
1995-1996

One of Bryant’s classmates was the daughter of Philadelphia 76er coach John Lucas. One day in the summer before Kobe’s senior
year at Lower Merion, she told her father that he should see Kobe play. He did, and soon afterward invited Kobe to the gym
at St. Joseph’s College. When Kobe arrived, Lucas said, “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

In walked 76er star Jerry Stackhouse. Lucas asked him to play Kobe one-on-one. In a few moments it became clear that Kobe
could keep up with the NBA star. Afterward, Lucas asked Kobe if he’d like to work out with some of the other 76er players.

Although the 76ers didn’t hold any official practices during the summer, some members of the team and other pros who lived
in the Philadelphia area regularly got together at the college gym to scrimmage. Kobe jumped at Lucas’s offer. It was another
chance to play basketball and improve his skills.

Kobe was excited, but he wasn’t nervous. Nothing about basketball made him nervous. “I had no butterflies,” he said later.
“No nothing. I never felt intimidated.”

Few young players would have had the same response, for the group included players such as New Jersey Nets’ tough guy Rich
Mahorn and 76ers Dana Barros, Clarence Weatherspoon, and seven-foot-six-inch center Shawn Bradley, in addition to Stackhouse.

Although many of the pros were initially skeptical about playing with a high school student, Kobe soon won them over with
his play. As Mahorn said later, “He blended with the rest of us,” not the best player on the court, but not the worst, either.
“He even tried to ‘poster’ [dunk] on me,” recalled Mahorn. The burly big man rejected Bryant’s shot, but offered, “That’s
not the point. He actually tried.”

They would play for hours, competing in a series of games to eleven baskets, then choosing new sides and playing again. The
games were more than a test of skill. They were also a test of stamina and desire.

Kobe proved he had all three. In one memorable contest, Kobe was matched up against the 76ers’ Willie Burton, an explosive
offensive player who had scored a team-best 53 points in a regular-season game the previous season.

The first time down the court, Burton took the ball to Kobe and popped in a jumper over his head. As they ran back upcourt,
Burton threw some trash talk Kobe’s way.

Kobe didn’t get mad. He got even. On defense, Kobe hounded Burton the remainder of the game, limiting him to only one more
basket. On offense, he showed the veteran that he had some skills of his own, scoring every way possible — hitting long jumpers,
driving to the hoop, and dunking the ball. Kobe scored ten of his team’s eleven baskets as they romped to a win.

Burton stormed off the court after the game and never returned to the 76ers. The last anyone heard, he was playing in Europe.

Kobe’s performance caused him to revisit the wager he had made with his friend a few years before. “After a while,” said Bryant
of his experience playing ’with the pros, “it kind of popped into my mind that I can play with these guys. I could get to
the hole, I could hit the jumper, I could score, although not at will, but I could get some shots. I was able to create for
my teammates and rebound. Plus, the guys respected me, and when they respect you, that must mean something.”

Before the summer was over, Kobe’s confidence received several more boosts. At the prestigious ABCD camp, a showcase of high
school talent, he was named MVP. At the Adidas Big Time Tournament, a similar event, he earned first-team honors. Then he
added another MVP title playing in Pennsylvania’s Keystone Games, scoring 47 points in the final to lead his Delaware Valley
Team to the title over Philadelphia. Commented Gregg Downer afterward, “Kobe’s just in a league of his own, really. He just
has levels of his game that no high school player has possibly ever reached.”

By the time Kobe returned to school to begin his senior year, virtually every top-notch college in the country was trying
to convince him to accept a scholarship. Most scouting services were calling him the best high school player in the country.
But he was also attractive to colleges for another reason. Not only was he a great player, he was also a great student who’
carried a grade-point average above 3.0 and had scored well over 1,000 on his SAT, and important test required of most students
considering college. Kobe had both the athletic and academic skills to succeed in college.

Some observers expected Kobe to attend nearby LaSalle, which was Joe Bryant’s alma mater and where
he now served as assistant basketball coach. Many thought that LaSalle had hired Bryant just to give them an edge in recruiting
Kobe.

Joe Bryant scoffed at that charge, and also dismissed any notion that he was pressuring his son to attend LaSalle. Early that
fall he told the press, “I’m a father first. If I couldn’t look out for Kobe’s best interest, I wouldn’t have taken this job.”
Then he tipped off the press to another possibility. “What I tell Kobe is that he can go to any college that he wants to.
Yet, then, Kobe’s dream has always been to play in the NBA and that dream is more a reality for him now. If that’s what he
wants, why should he not go?”

The father and son had already discussed the topic, and as Kobe noted at the time, “My parents raised me to be an individual,
to make my own decisions, and this is my decision.” It wasn’t a secret anymore that Kobe Bryant wanted to go straight to the
NBA. His father had become convinced that Kobe could do so after he had seen the way Kobe had played against the pros that
summer. He still knew many people who worked in the NBA and knew that word of Kobe’s play had filtered up to pro scouts. They
were beginning to look at him as closely as the colleges were.

But the possibility that Kobe Bryant might move directly from high school to the NBA was controversial. For many years, the
NBA had not allowed its teams to sign high school players. When they finally changed the rule, only a handful successfully
made the transition from high school to pro basketball. They had all been big men, like Moses Malone, Darryl Dawkins, and
most recently, Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Garnett.

But some observers thought it would be irresponsible for Joe Bryant to allow his son to skip college. They believed Kobe wasn’t
mature enough for pro basketball or the pro lifestyle and warned that if he failed, or lost his confidence, his career could
be ruined.

Some people also thought that Joe Bryant was pressuring Kobe to play pro basketball to make up for his own disappointing NBA
career. Bryant dismissed the notion. “I don’t need to live my life through Kobe,” he said. “I’ve already played in the NBA.”

All those concerns would have been valid for most high school players, but Kobe was different. Growing up in Europe and around
pro basketball for his entire life left him mature beyond his years. As Joe Bryant said, “Talking to Kobe isn’t like talking
to a
seventeen-year-old. It’s like talking to a twenty-three-year-old.”

Kobe tried to deflect speculation over his future by talking about the present. All he wanted to do was lead Lower Merion
to a state title.

He knew that wasn’t going to be easy. Coach Downer had decided to challenge his team and had upgraded Lower Merion’s schedule.
They were due to play some of the best high school teams in the country, including the tough competition at the Beach Ball
Classic, a national tournament in South Carolina. In addition, several key players had graduated and Kobe’s surrounding cast
would be relatively inexperienced. That would allow the opposition to double- and triple-team him every time Lower Merion
had the ball.

The Aces stumbled out of the blocks. In an early season meeting against Philadelphia powerhouse Roman Catholic High, Kobe
was matched up against Donnie Carr, a player some observers considered his equal. Carr lived in the inner city and was considered
to be tougher and more aggressive than Kobe, who some complained played a softer, more “suburban” game. The two had faced
each other before in summer camps.

Of Kobe, Carr said disdainfully, “If he’s a pro, I’m a pro.”

A crowd of more than 1,500 turned out to watch the contest. They got their money’s worth.