S1E6: The Summer of '95

coming to you actually for autograph. So I accepted. I accepted, and I saw pluss if I was a little kid and I looked up at somebody and I wanted an autograph. I want to basket with an autograph, and they said no, I'd be crushed. So when somebody comes into me I asked for autograph, I'm not going I say short. In the summer of the head coach and general manager of the Philadelphia seventy sixers was a man named John Lucas.

Lucas had spent a star crossed fourteen years in the NBA as a quick, left handed and troubled point guard. A drug and alcohol addiction had nearly ruined his career, but he had turned his life around, and as a coach he had a bit of a Pollyanna view of players. He always saw the very very best in that always believed they would reach their highest potential. He was a dreamer. He just wasn't a particularly good NBA coach. During the season, the Sixers won twenty four games under Lucas and lost

fifty eight. Here, they blew a twenty one lead in a gut wrenching loss to chart Was Barkley and the Phoenix Suns in front of their home crowd in Philly. Final score the Sun setting a franchise record with their ninth straight victory, and they do it in a most improbable way. At John Lucas will ruminate about this one Phoenix one oh eight s seven. One night in March, John Lucas attended a Lower Merion High School playoff game

with his family at the Polesto. It wasn't that surprising for Lucas to attend the game, after all, his daughter Tarvia was a junior at Lower Marian. But just as Lucas stepped into the arena, something did surprise him. He ran into a guy who he had played against dozens of times in the NBA, he ran into Joe Bryant. John Lucas had heard of Kobe Bryant, but he didn't

know that Kobe was Joe's son. So after Lucas watched Lower Marian win, after he watched Kobe scored twenty six points in just twenty seven minutes of action, he got an idea. Back then, it was common for pro and college players to work out, scrimmage and play pickup games together during the NBA off season, kind of like an unofficial summer league. Lucas was so impressed with Kobe that he thought the Sixers might be able to draft him

the following year. So he called up the Bryant's and asked if Kobe wanted to work out with the team that summer full court games at the field house at St. Joseph's University and at nearby Episcopal Academy. Several of the Sixers players would be there, including power forward Sharon Right and the team's seven ft six inch center Shawn Bradley.

Kobe of course said yes. Then Lucas called his old backcourt mate and buddy from the University of Maryland, Mo Howard, Joe's old friend from high school Lucas gave Howard an assignment. It was his job to oversee these scrimmages and to make sure that Kobe played in as many of them as he wanted. Mo Howard still lives in Philadelphia and he's still a big name in basketball around the city. He gets asked about that summer of ninety five a lot,

but he never minds talking about it. He was there each day to see the turning point in Kobe Bryant's basketball career and in his life. Finally, describe what you saw from Kobe during that summer when John Lucas had you running those scrimmages at St. Joe's in Episcopal Wow. Wow, I'm Mike seal Scope and from Diversion Podcasts, this is I am Kobe st w state to create myself. Create yourself, very nice. Create yourself got a pretty great minds. But

we ain't time. Episode six. The summer of Mo Howard had played with and against Kobe in Sunday morning pickup games at a y m c A in Center City, Philadelphia, back when Kobe was just thirteen years old. He knew how good the kid was, at least he thought he knew, and he were playing those games and like he won and held his own, but to play against the pros at the level that he did was really surprised. In two story, so we're sitting there, it's Maurice Chiefs, myself

and Harold Cats. Just for the record, Maurice Cheeks was a Hall of Fame point guard who spent eleven of his fifteen NBA seasons with the Sixers. In the summer, he was one of their assistant coaches, and Harold Katz was the team's owner and a total basketball junkie. He would stay up late to watch NBA games then quiz his executives and coaches about players around the league. And Carol Kats is watching Guys scimmage and he says about Kobe, where is he from? And Maurice Cheeks says a Laura Marian.

Harold Katt says to Maurice, well, I don't want to know where he lives, but where is he from? And Maurice says He's from Lower Merion High School and Harold Cats looks at him with his look of surprise, saying huh. And then Maurice goes on to tell him that he's Joe Bryant's son, so even you know, the guy who was the owner of the team was very, very surprised and how skilled Kobe was. At that time. Kobe wasn't

the only Lower Marian player competing in those scrimmages. Emery Dabney, a talented point guard from West Philadelphia who had played summer ball with Kobe and the Aces, was transferring into Lower Marian for his sophomore year. John Lucas had seen him play and invited him to the workouts too. It was crazy. I remember the first couple of days, I was nervous. It was very surreal, to be honest, because as a fifth year on myself and you're playing with

these guys at an NBA. It was surreal. But then after the first couple of workouts, you're like, okay, like I used to playing with these guys. And who were some of the guys in the gym. Richard Dumas, Vernon Maxwell, Jared Stockhouse, a guy who played in North Carolina named Donna Williams. Some pretty good players, uh, some older NBA. I remember Willie Burton, I don't never remember that name played for the six was back in the day. It

was some really good players and Kobe right away. Didn't care who they were, he didn't care what they had done before. He was trying to test to see how good he was. So he was going right at all those guys. And that's how kind of the robbery between him and dark Stackhouse kind of started. Ah, Yes, Jerry Stackhouse. When you hear anyone talk about Kobe's workouts in the

summer of you hear about Jerry Stackhouse. He had been a high school phenom himself just a few years earlier, and he'd become a human highlighted names during his time at North Carolina. He's He's Jaman, Slimming Crab, Jap, slip Little. The Sixers had taken Stackhouse with a third overall pick in NBA Draft. At North Carolina, he'd been Sports Illustrated National Player of the Year and had taken the tar Heels to the Final Four. He was supposed to be

the Sixer savior. Stackhouse was playing in those summer scrimmages and pickup games too, and you would have thought he would dominate them and Kobe, except their battles on the court back then have taken on the aura of myth and legend ever since. In a way that has always put Stackhouse in Kobe shadow. I saw this. I watched those scrimmages. I watched those workouts, and you know, there were some days that Jerry would get the best of Kobe, and there were some days that Kobe would get the

best of Jerry. But Kobe did it in a more spectacular fashion, right. So I witnessed one day we were scrimmaging out Episcopal Bowl and Kobe and Jerry were going head to head with each other as they did, and Maurice Cheeks and I was standing there watching, and if I'm mistaken, Jerry Stackhouse was the second pick that year. He was a third pick. So Maurice Cheeks looks at me and he says, if Jerry Stackhouse is number three,

Kobe has to be three. A Kobe's friend, Jeremy Treatment, who was about to go from covering him to coaching him, went to two of those scrimmages. Listened to his voice as he tells me his impressions of Kobe from those games. And he wasn't backing down anybody. He had a boldness about him. The thing that was so called when Joe Bryant called me and said, I don't even need to go. Sean Bradley calls the house and says, I'll pick up. At seven. They were picking him up. They wounded him

to come. He seemed a little young, but he also seemed like it belonged. It just was like he's sixteen and he's playing with twenty seven year old NBA players. It was It was kind of crazy. But I was not surprised that he held his own I was not surprised that he gave from Stackhouse all he could handle. Stackhouse did not take kindly to these comparisons to Code.

He still doesn't. He's now the head men's basketball coach at Vanderbilt University, and when I reached out to him and Vanderbilt Sports information office to see if he would speak to me from my book about Kobe, he declined. And he kind of has a point. By the time the Sixers drafted him, he had already been compared to Michael Jordan's mostly because both of them had gone to North Carolina and were high flying acrobats when they had the basketball in their hands and a chance to dunk it.

But Michael and Kobe were guards, straight up shooting guards. Stackhouse wasn't Stackhouse had played power forward in high school and at North Carolina. He had never played guard in his life until the Sixers drafted him. He wasn't used to chasing smaller, quicker players around screens or squaring up for twenty ft jump shots. He and Kobe had different sets of skills and were different players, and people thought the teenager was better. It was a total no win

situation for Stackhouse. If he was better than Kobe, well he should be. Kobe was just a high school kid. And if Kobe out played him, what did that say about the guy who was supposed to be the Sixers franchise player. His frustration was growing with every scrimmage. Here's Emery Dabney. Then at one point they Stackhouse started found him hard and they almost got into it. They you know, Stackhouse grabbed them and we had to kind of break them.

Those two up. He was relentless because, like I said, for a guy in high school who's not even is going at the number one overall pick, like going at him relentlessly. It was kind of crazy. And but honestly, Brendon Maxwell, I don't know if you remember les called Mad Max. He he's the one that really instigated it because I remembers meet him and Kovid in the same team.

I forget who the other two players were. But every time he gave Covid a ball and Stackhouse was gardener, he would just go kill him, kill him, like for the whole, the whole possession. And it was like no one else would touch the ball, and Renna Maxwell come down and give him the ball, tell him to kill him. So after a while, you know, Stackhouse wasn't too happy about him. No, Stackhouse wasn't happy. But Kobe had to

be elated. Here he was holding his own against NBA players, and he was just turning seventeen that August, and often he was more than holding his own. In fact, to put it bluntly, Kobe was showing that he already surpassed some of them when it came to the intangibles that were necessary to succeed in the league. When I was talking to Mo Howard about those games, he said something about Kobe that has stuck in my memory ever since. It captured perfectly the player Kobe was then and the

player he would become. What I saw was unique work. Unlike any of the other pros and college players who participated in those open runs. H he was the first one there every day. He was the last one of these every day, every day without fail. I just couldn't believe that he was that highly skilled, like playing against pro guys. He was so highly skilled and motivated that, you know, I was a little surprised. Kobe's workouts didn't

involve just best the ball either. He and Dabney would run on the track at St. Joseph's University too, before heading to the field House to play. A few days that summer, the field House was closed, so the NBA guys would be playing at the gym at Episcopal Academy, which was right across the strungle track. Minds just August and we would get in the car and when you drive over to a pisco, you know, I'm probably not even a two minute drive. It's outfter the workouts, you know.

I get in the car Kobe and it's uh ninety degrees outside, and he pulls the windows up and he turns the heat on, and I'm like, Kobe, like, what are you doing? I might have a heart attack and I can't what are you doing? He's like, I'm about to go play in the stackhouse. I gotta stay warm. I don't want to cool down before before I play. I'm like, all right, what do you I can't do this. I have a heart attack. And he stops at the light and he goes, you can get out, Kobe. Let

him crack the window a little. But I can't think of a better metaphor for who Kobe Bryant was then and where he thought, no, where he knew he was going. If you're with me, if you believe in me, if you're willing to sacrifice like I am, you can come along for the ride. If you're not, you can get out. Hey. This is Mike Selsky, host and writer of I Am Kobe. This podcast project came out of my work on a related book called The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit

of Immortality. If you want to explore other parts of Kobe's story, check out The Rise. It's not just a book version of the podcast. I dive deeper into some of the topics covered in this series, and even some that we don't cover at all. Kobe's upbringing, his family, his identity, his effect on his friends and teammates, his journey into the n b A, and his earliest days with the Lakers. The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit

of Immortality is out now. Just head over to the Rise of Kobe book dot Com and you can buy it from any of your favorite retailers. That's the Rise of Kobe book dot Com. Thanks. When Kobe wasn't running full court with Jerry Stackhouse and the rest of those guys and those uber intense pickup games, he was traveling around the United States on his Amateur Athletic Union teams

better known as the a U Circuit. He was up and down the East coast of Las Vegas, all over, going to camps, playing in tournaments with other big time college recruits. Of course, given his plans and goals, it

might not be right to call him a recruit. The highlight of that summer of ninety five was in early July in te Neck, New Jersey, at the prestigious A b c D Camp, which was sponsored by Adidas and sneaker mogul Sonny Vacar Picaro had founded A B c D. In The camp gathered the highest ranked high school players in the country in one place. It was considered the marquee event of the summer in high school hoops. Greg Downer and Mike Egan, Kobe's coaches at Lower Marian, went

up there to see him play. Here's Egan. He was just phenomenal. There he was and were a lot of the kids. And this is where his maturity really came into play, where a lot of these guys were looking at it as fun and show voting and who you know, how many guys sent me? And he was there because at that point he was considered a top five player in the country. In Tim Thomas, Leicester are all Jeremain Neal and sometimes you hollow it was you a little higher than him. And Kobe went up there and never

said of this. Does we know he even up there with a mission. He wants to come out of there being called the number one player in the country. And at the end of that week he was the consensus not a one player in country. Kobe had scored ten eighty out of a possible six on his s A T S. He was a very good student. He had grown particularly close to his tenth grade English teacher, Jeane Mastriano. In fact, she became an intellectual mentor to him. The

two of them remained in touch throughout his life. Mastriano spent a lot of time in her class delving into the concept of the hero's journey. Her students watched Star Wars and class, for example, to understand the symbolism behind Luke Skywalker's path to becoming a Jedi, they read Joseph Campbell's famous book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Mastriano

told me that Kobe loved it all. One of the things that he really soaked up was the hero's journey, which is something I talked about at the beginning of the year, throughout the year. At the end of the year, it kind of followed the arc of the whole year, the whole idea that you're going into an unknown here and you need to take risks. We all need to take risks, and if you don't take risks, then you're not going to happen experience. It's going to be exhilarating.

We need to scare yourself. Do you think he saw himself on that kind of hero's journey. Absolutely. He believed in his number one dream, which was that he was going to realize his life as a basketball player, and that he was going to go in that direction. He was convinced he was going to do that. How could he be so sure though, especially at such an early stage of his life. Where did that confidence come from? I think there's a clue in something Mastriano told me.

I asked her what Kobe was like in class, how he carried himself, how he acted and behaved. You know, the stereotype of the high school jock doesn't care much about his grades, doesn't need to worry about his homework because he's going to get a football scholarship or a basketball scholarship, or a swimming scholarship. That wasn't Kobe. He had this relentless curiosity, and he challenged Mastriano just like she would challenge him, in a good way, not in

a bad way. He was confident that he could go back and forth with her that because of his life experiences and the path he was on, he already existed on her level intellectually and professionally, and she in turn appreciated that quality in him. He wasn't much of a talker, but the energy that he exhumed was palpable. Since I have when I looked back on him, somebody wouldn't hesitate to say, why are we learning this? Not in a terribly antagonistic way, but like, this is just not doing

a thing for me. I don't see where this is going. Could it please justify? And I love that. I love the kid who's edgy, who's argumentative. It's just such wonderful than There was no question that Kobe could get into any college he wanted, but it was becoming obvious to everyone around him how his focus was narrowing to just one thing, basketball, you know. And then here's Mikey when he worked at things so much. His junior year, he

was a student. He was still trying to get his grades up and his s A T s up and make sure there was no issues with college, which there would not have been anyway. But every day he got better and every day he we saw something from him that we'd be lying if we said we knew he could be would be an vy a superstar as a junior. But then between his junior and senior year, that's when his game really elevated. And when he came back as

a senior, it was all basketball. And then we started looking at each other and say, this kid's gonna be really, really something. The expectations for Lower Marian's basketball team Kobe's senior year were just about as high as the expectations for its star player. Anything less than a district championship or state championship or both would be considered a disappointment. But in an early season test at Kobe's old stopping grounds from the summer, the St. Joe's field House, the

Aces got stopped by Saint Anthony of Jersey City. St. Anthony was one of the two or three best high school teams in the country, maybe the best, and they were coached by the great Bob Hurley, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. This clip from CBS explains

both Curly's accolades and his dedications to the program. With an unyielding determination and by relentlessly striving for perfection on the floor, Bob Hurley has built the basketball program at St. Anthony's High School into a perennial powerhouse, and we're getting ready for the state tournament. We can't go down and just run nothing. Flawa Marian was never really in the game against St. Anthony. They lost by fifteen points, and

Kobe had twenty eight of those forty seven points. A quarter century later, Curly still remembers that game and Kobe's performance in it very well eight really, and he had no he had no help tony other players. We were able to cheat off them and uh, you know, help against him. And then after the game, he come over to me and asked if we could talk, and we sat down and sat down on the bleachers at St. Joe's and he talked about what things I think he

needed to do to become up at a player. And I remember talking to him about how the first half had ended with we had stolen the ball from him and we scored to end half and I put us up one and he kind of put his chin down and kind of walked off the court. And the second half sought it, and the first four minutes of the

second half he wasn't dominant like he could be. And I talked to him about his reaction to that mistake and how how important erasing that mistake would be with the way he would play early in the second half of the game. Totally understood, thank me so much for it. And then you know, we farther ways, but you know, he just was mature beyond his years. But we played against unbelievable players over the years, and he's the best

player we ever played against. You know you're sek average over thirty game where people got thirty against St. Anthony, say, should have got a trophy. That's no minor compliment from a coach like Bob Hurley, And it was pretty revealing that Kobe would seize the opportunity to sit down with her to pick his brain. Kobe didn't see Hurly as an opposing coach. He saw him as a resource. It was like Kobe was saying to himself, losing the St. Anthony hurts, but I can get better in the long

run because of it. An even bigger test for Kobe and Lower Marion came after the St. Anthony Laws. The last week of December, the team flew down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the Beach Ball Classic. Now usually when you think of Myrtle Beach, you think of golf courses, but the Beach Ball Classic was a major event in high school basketball and eight team tournament that featured some of the best players in America. One of them was Lester Earl, a six ft eight jumping jack who ended

up playing at L s U and Kansas. Another was Mike Bibby, a point guard who was the second pick in the NBA draft in and ended up playing in the league for fourteen years. Here's Scott County High School coach Billie Hicks talking about the Beach Ball Classic in

two thousand four. Team, I'll tell you every time that we're we get a chance to play here, we really feel blessed because you know, there's a lot of great tournaments in America highscrew tournaments, but you know, nothing comes close to the Beach Ball But the biggest star at the Classic wasn't Lester Earl or Mike Biddy. It was Kobe. The Aces played three games in the tournament, and there were so many people flocking to Kobe that it was difficult for him to get to his family after each game.

A couple of times that I started just pulling them back in the in the back room, in the locker room. Start talking to him then, because I think it's unfair for my family. Will wait. I saw all the autographs. I think, I think that's unfair. But when I stopped before, I started wising up and tell him the coming back so I can talk to him there. I came by the locker room and I just saw all these people saying I'm like, oh right, you know, teenagers, teenage boys,

teenage girl. Oh man, it was guys, kind of crazy. But the escort just gave me a seat, so you know, you sit down as sign him if you want to, or you don't have to sign him at all. So show I said, now I have. I just said down that it's an auto autographs what I was doing. Honest, that's how many people about. He sounds like he's already used to all this attention, like this is just par for the course for him. Yes, of course people are going to want my autograph. Well it's a little unfair,

but hey, that's the price of fame. It's one of the things that always strikes me about listening to these tapes of Kobe. He never seems overwhelmed by any of this, the attention, the pressure, the expectations, none of it. It was like this was a business trip, like this is what he was supposed to be doing with his life away from the convention center. Kobe stayed in his room a lot on the trip, sleeping, resting, thinking. He went out a few times at night with friends, but not

that much. I know that you're gonna have options like that you either gonna go out, uh go swimming as an example, UH go party and go play video games and things like that. And for some people that may be relaxing. I know Michael Joyd likes to play golf for a game Magic miss as the music. I just like to sleep. I feel that I played very well. When I'm rested, I got my legs under me and I can run all day. So I just relaxed, turned the TV off and just swept in. But I enjoy thinking. Yeah,

I thinking about the game. I was thinking about the moves I was gonna make. I was gonna tap the team. I'm gonna come out shooting and come out passing type moves I was gonna make. Can you see every game seems different for me. One game I'll come out and I feel like crossover move it was the best, and I feel maybe it's to pull up jump shot and fade away three. So I really got focused in it. We tried to think and and say, well, how do I feel now. I really thought about the game a lot,

and I've also also thought about the future. It was no wonder so many people wanted Kobe's autograph and Laura Marion's first game at the Beach Ball Classic, a victory over a school from Ohio. He scored forty three points. It was a spectacular performance and Kobe was on his

way to another one in the Aces. Next game, they were rolling against Jenks High School from Oklahoma, and Kobe had thirty one points when he made one bad decision and everything about the game and lower Marian's season changed. So I think we're on like ten twelve and he just growed in one against four and ah, he just he made a rare, really bad decision and guy jowing off, they drew the offensive foul, and he sat right next to me on the bench. Game went into overtime. We

might have lost sixteen the two in the overtime. I don't know exactly what I think he was seventeen the two. I was close watching his teammates melt down in overtime. Kobe kept muttering the same phrase over and over again, just no goddamn independence, no goddamn independency to skip. Mike Egan described Kobe's reaction to the lowest It was after that game, one of the few times I saw Kobe really really lose his temper um. Where we sat in the locker room, and I said something again, guys, you

you have to get better. You're not as good as you think you are. And the other coach is all. He says some more things, and Greg said, does anyone on the team have anything to say? And Kobe absolutely went off, screaming, yelling, you can't back down. He used foul language. He kept saying, you can't back down, you can't back down. You can't at him back down. Later that night, Greg Downer gathered the entire team in his hotel room and delivered a speech calling out each of

the players, including Kobe. It sounds weird what could he possibly have complained about with respect to Kobe, But according to Treatment, he found something. You gotta understand the pressure of your teammates are feeling to playing with you, and you gotta bring the best out of them, and you gotta trust in them too. This to me, is an interesting moment in Kobe's development. All his life when it comes to basketball, the person he has listened to most

is his father. Joe has been the biggest influence on him. But now out Greg Downer is challenging him in a way he's never been challenged before. Downer isn't saying Kobe, you have to make yourself better. He's saying, Kobe, you have to make your teammates better. As we know from the rest of Kobe's career, that wasn't necessarily the easiest thing for him to do, But Downer is telling him, we won't win if you don't do it. The approach

worked right away. Inspired by downer speech, the Aces went out and won their third and final game in the tournament. Kobe scored forty three points in that one, took the Dunk Contest capped the Beach Ball Classic. It was the last event and Kobe desperately wanted to participate. There was one problem, though. Sometime during the tournament, he had injured

his right wrist. It hadn't hurt badly enough that he couldn't play in the games, but much of his arm was wrapped in a big white bandage, like his arm belonged to a mummy. Tell me about the Dunk Contest, Well, there's all kinds of theories, conspiracy theories on white Kobe's risk was hurting them. Greg Simples to this day was from signing autographs. I thought he got hurt. I can't remember. It was probably a commodation. Lester Earl was going to

be Kobe's biggest rival in the dunk contest. If Kobe could actually compete Shariah and Shaya, Kobe's sisters didn't want him to. They thought it was too risky. And I just remember sisters founding the door and I'm leading with Kobe, you're not dunking, You're not dunk here, and I'm like, hope, you don't need to do this. I remember saying like

it's like I got this. What are you're kidding? Because I'm dunking And we've seen him dunk in a game, We've seen him dunk into practice, but we've never like seen him talk. No, no, Greg and no, nobody had seen this contest starts this Lester Earls doing ship that I've never seen from NBA players, and Kobe matches leading that the harder Lester all makes something because he was going first, then Kobe would do. For his last dunk, Earl jumped over a ball RADI. Each of the judges

gave him a perfect tent. Technically, the best Kobe could do was tiring. No matter how good his final dunk was didn't matter. He asked three of his lower Marian teammates to stay in the lane just in front of the basket and duck their heads. And I remember looking at his sister's faces, like don't do it, don't do it, and he just jumped right over him dunk and he went. So yeah. Technically the contest was a tie, but everyone there in the Myrtle Beach Convention Center that night knew

who had really want. I'm pretty sure he saw me. He winked. I mean that was just magic. Like God, this guy just can live up the hype on anything. It's like like he was hurt, he had no business dunk in, and he just goes and has a performance at lifetime. And that's why when I when I leave the very next year, when he entered in the in the dunk conscience is a rookie, NBA said, you've got this. I didn't even need to watch. I knew who's gonna in. As Jeremy and I sat by the bay on Long

Beach Island and talked about Kobe. Almost twenty five years later, a few hundred yards away, at a house two doors down, three kids were playing in a small swimming pool. You probably heard their voices in the background while Jeremy was talking. They were playing right when we were talking about Kobe and Myrtle Beach, Kobe with the NBA plans, Kobe flying over his teammates despite a sore wrist to throw down an incredible dunk. Those voices were a nice reminder of

the person Jeremy and I were talking about. We were talking about Kobe Bryant before he had played his first game with the Lakers, before he had even met Shaquille O'Neil or Phil Jackson or Pau Gasol, before he'd won five NBA championships and been a league MVP, before the battles and controversies with Shack and Phil, before he had become a husband and a father, before Eagle Colorado, before he had even accomplished everything he was going to accomplish

in high school. We were talking about Kobe Bryant when he was just seventeen years old. We were talking about a kid. In the next episode, I'm going to tell you the story of how that kid pulled off one of his greatest feats as a high school basketball star. I saw it a message, so we be a championship day. How could player like this got stepping up with other bands. We knew that the is our time every week game you stepped up on the quarter That's next week on

I Am Code. I Am Kobe is a production of The Version Podcasts, an association with I Heart Radio. This season is written and hosted by me Mike Sealskier. It's produced by Jacob Bronstein and directed by Mark Francis. Story editing by Jacob Bronstein with editorial direction from Scott Waxman, Editing, mixing and sound design by Mark Francis. Stephen Tompkins is our production assistant. Our theme music is Create Yourself by Grover Brown featuring Justin Starling. Find create Yourself wherever you

stream music. Music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freesan Sinc. Executive producers are Mark Francis and Scott Waxman. Join the conversation about I Am Kobe on social media on Twitter and Instagram. It's at Diversion Pods thanks to Oran Rosenbaum, Susan Cannavan and Jeremy Treatment. The brisby Flo the Son and they don't want to stand when I say the blinds fall, and never clock you out even when my work is done. If they're trying to block me. I

might hurt someone through the blood, sweat and tends. We perseveit, stay tilling it, let it keep the horses, and then if they don't believe in themselves, gave a vert to find now the tampons heads. So I'm telling them, ask my a, this the reason why my work so damn different to the negatives. I can't listen see me at the time, you can't listen for where I'm anna mote to play like cashes see I pay my dudes because taxes gotta work that they can grind ahead of his time.

So I'm gonna saying that they made you. Don't tell them you create yourself the best Finn watch us, but by that time you gotta sneak clock, then break clock, break we create ourselves. Watch me quack, watch create myself. SAI signs up and create yourself. Stay nice, go hard, create yourself. You gotta learn from the great minds. So we ain't lying to tell them next get any time. This talent wasn't given. It was made. If future any time I can change better tell them that I made it.

Back home, as I walked through the hearts of the fame, I came from the Valley of the Shadow with death waiting for us. Spoons, don't hold your breath, sat Town, sat Train. But I did it with less. I know one at the beach, so there's nothing to guess. Yeah, there's nothing to guess. It's our times. Tell them we up next. We don't got any regrets. I did it with my soul hands and we never forget as my an. This the reason why my work so damn different to

the negatives. I can't listen see me at the time. You can't listen for where red build, reach shape, give me your eye. You got to risk take do it now. When I'm saying why waves, I was saying that they made You'll tell them you create yourself the best you finn watch us, but it's bad that time. You gotta stay clock then break clock break. We create ourselves. I sweep quest right, sweeping to create myself. Exacts like that, sim self, create yourself, say nice and nain, go on,

create yourself. You gotta learn from the great minds. But we ain't lying telling this game time Ye Diversion Podcasts