Kobe Bryant remains among the most fascinating and widely discussed athletes of the modern era. His storied career has been examined, re-examined, and re-examined yet again countless times, and that's not changing anytime soon. But while the broad strokes of his life before the NBA - rabid basketball fandom as a toddler, formative years in Italy, dominance at Lower Merion High School before "taking (his) talents to the NBA" - have also been widely discussed, relatively speaking, less has been told about it compared to his twenty seasons with the Lakers, or even his life and death after basketball.

As such, that makes Mike Sielski's new book, "The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality" a fascinating must-read for Kobe fans. Sielski attended a nearby high school while Kobe was a freshman, and gained a unique perspective of what it was like to watch a legend in the making. He later went on to write for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and became the ideal person to document Kobe's formative years, his effect on the Lower Merion and Philadelphia communities, and how that childhood was instrumental in shaping an all-time great. Even if you think you already know everything about Kobe, this interview and the book offer lots of great new details.

Hosts: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT ONE: Why did Sielski decide to focus a book on Kobe's childhood?

SEGMENT TWO: How Kobe's upbringing both fueled his love for basketball, but also a permanent sense of "otherness," and never quite belonging anywhere.

SEGMENT THREE: The many ways Kobe was, even as a teenager, incredibly calculating and quite ahead of his time.

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