
The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality
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Narrated by:
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Landon Woodson
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Mike Sielski
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By:
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Mike Sielski
About this listen
Includes a bonus episode from the podcast I Am Kobe.
The inside look at one of the most captivating and consequential figures in our culture - with never-before-heard interviews.
Kobe Bryant’s death in January 2020 did more than rattle the worlds of sports and celebrity. The tragedy of that helicopter crash, which also took the life of his daughter Gianna, unveiled the full breadth and depth of his influence on our culture, and by tracing and telling the oft-forgotten and lesser-known story of his early life, The Rise promises to provide an insight into Kobe that no other analysis has.
In The Rise, listeners will travel from the neighborhood streets of Southwest Philadelphia - where Kobe’s father, Joe, became a local basketball standout - to the Bryant family’s isolation in Italy, where Kobe spent his formative years, to the leafy suburbs of Lower Merion, where Kobe’s legend was born. The story will trace his career and life at Lower Merion - he led the Aces to the 1995-96 Pennsylvania state championship, a dramatic underdog run for a team with just one star player - and the run-up to the 1996 NBA draft, where Kobe’s dream of playing pro basketball culminated in his acquisition by the Los Angeles Lakers.
In researching and writing The Rise, Mike Sielski had a terrific advantage over other writers who have attempted to chronicle Kobe’s life: access to a series of never-before-released interviews with him during his senior season and early days in the NBA. For a quarter century, these tapes and transcripts preserved Kobe’s thoughts, dreams, and goals from his teenage years, and they contained insights into and told stories about him that have never been revealed before.
This is more than a basketball audiobook. This is an exploration of the identity and making of an icon and the effect of his development on those around him - the essence of the man before he truly became a man.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press
©2022 Mike Sielski (P)2022 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Magic in the Air
- The Myth, the Mystery, and the Soul of the Slam Dunk
- By: Mike Sielski
- Narrated by: Landon Woodson
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The evolution of basketball, and much of the social and cultural change in America, can be traced through one powerful act on the court: the slam dunk. The dunk's history is the story of a sport and a country changed by the most dominant act in basketball, and it makes Magic in the Air a rollicking and insightful piece of narrative history and a surefire classic of sports literature.
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Great reading!
- By Amazon Customer on 05-01-25
By: Mike Sielski
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Playing for Keeps
- Michael Jordan and the World He Made
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 20 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In Playing for Keeps, David Halberstam takes the first full measure of Michael Jordan's epic career, one of the great American stories of our time. A narrative of astonishing power and human drama, brimming with revealing anecdotes and penetrating insights, the audiobook chronicles the forces in Jordan's life that have shaped him into history's greatest basketball player and the larger forces that have converged to make him the most famous living human being in the world.
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If You Liked "The Last Dance," You Will Love This
- By John on 06-13-20
By: David Halberstam
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Barkley
- A Biography
- By: Timothy Bella
- Narrated by: Korey Jackson
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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He's one of the most interesting American athletes in the past fifty years. Passionate, candid, iconoclastic, and gifted both on and off the court, Charles Barkley has made a lasting impact on not only the world of basketball but pop culture at large. Yet few people know the real Charles. Informed by over 370 original interviews and painstaking research, Timothy Bella's Barkley is the most comprehensive biography to date of one of the most talked about icons in the world of sports.
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Great insight to the big man’s life.
- By marci rodee on 07-03-23
By: Timothy Bella
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Eleven Rings
- The Soul of Success
- By: Phil Jackson, Hugh Delehanty
- Narrated by: Matt Walton
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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During his storied career as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson won more championships than any coach in the history of professional sports. This is the story of a preacher's kid from North Dakota who grew up to be one of the most innovative leaders of our time. Eleven times, Jackson led his teams to the ultimate goal: the NBA championship - six times with the Chicago Bulls and five times with the Los Angeles Lakers. This book is full of revelations.
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Listener Beware
- By Robert S. Wegener on 07-12-13
By: Phil Jackson, and others
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Ant
- The Incredible Journey of NBA Rising Star Anthony Edwards
- By: Chris Hine
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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From his jaw-dropping dunks to his charismatic personality, Anthony Edwards draws comparisons to the greatest shooting guards of all time like Kobe and Jordan. A portrait in the education of a budding NBA superstar, Ant chronicles Edward’s meteoric rise. The number-one pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, a two-time All-Star, Edwards has, in just a few seasons, become a household name and the face of the Minnesota Timberwolves. And he’s only twenty-three years old.
By: Chris Hine
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The TB12 Method
- How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance
- By: Tom Brady
- Narrated by: Tom Brady, Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In this new edition of The TB12 Method, Tom Brady further explains and details the revolutionary training, conditioning, and wellness system that has kept him atop the NFL at an age when most players are deep into retirement. Brady - along with the expert Body Coaches at TB12, the performance lifestyle brand he cofounded in 2013 with Alex Guerrero - explain the principles and philosophies of pliability, a paradigm-shifting fitness concept that focuses on a more natural, healthier way of exercising, training, and living.
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It Works
- By scott on 11-26-17
By: Tom Brady
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Return of the King
- LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Greatest Comeback in NBA History
- By: Brian Windhorst, Dave McMenamin
- Narrated by: Brian Windhorst, Dave McMenamin
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In this New York Times best-seller, get the inside scoop into LeBron James's return - and ultimate triumph - in Cleveland. What really happened when LeBron James stunned the NBA by leaving a potential dynasty in Miami to come home to play with the Cleveland Cavaliers? How did the Cavs use secret meetings to put together the deal to add star Kevin Love? Who really made the controversial decision to fire coach David Blatt when the team was in first place? Where did the greatest comeback in NBA history truly begin-and end?
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Waste of Time
- By Kurt Kautman on 06-08-17
By: Brian Windhorst, and others
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Blood in the Garden
- The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks
- By: Chris Herring
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The definitive history of the 1990s New York Knicks, illustrating how Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Anthony Mason resurrected the iconic franchise through oppressive physicality and unmatched grit. Blood in the Garden is a portrait filled with eye-opening details that have never been shared before, revealing the full story of the franchise in the midst of the NBA’s golden era. And rest assured, no punches will be pulled. Which is just how those rough-and-tumble Knicks would like it.
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Great book, horrible performance.
- By Sean Conway on 07-21-22
By: Chris Herring
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Three Ring Circus
- Kobe, Shaq, Phil and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In the history of modern sport, there have never been two high-level teammates who loathed each other the way Shaquille O’Neal loathed Kobe Bryant and Kobe Bryant loathed Shaquille O’Neal. From public sniping and sparring, to physical altercations and the repeated threats of trade, it was warfare. And yet, despite eight years of infighting and hostility, by turns mediated and encouraged by coach Phil Jackson, the Shaq-Kobe duo resulted in one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history.
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Ok I've finished it and have more thoughts
- By Bobby S on 09-24-20
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Showtime
- Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost 300 interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era. A dazzling account of one of America’s greatest sports sagas, Showtime is packed with indelible characters, vicious rivalries, and jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes stories of the players’ decadent Hollywood lifestyles. From the Showtime era’s remarkable rise to its tragic end - marked by Magic Johnson’s 1991 announcement that he had contracted HIV - Showtime is a gripping narrative of sports, celebrity, and 1980s-style excess.
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Offended at the style used to voice black characters.
- By NP on 01-15-22
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Steve Kerr
- A Life
- By: Scott Howard-Cooper
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning sports journalist Scott Howard-Cooper uncovers the fascinating life story of a basketball legend. Kerr did not follow a traditional path to the NBA. He was born in Beirut to two academics and split his childhood between California and the Middle East. Though he was an impressive shooter, the undersized Kerr garnered almost no attention from major college programs, managing only at the last moment to snag the final scholarship at the University of Arizona.
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Great NBA biography
- By Dan Harris on 07-04-21
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Tiger Woods
- By: Jeff Benedict, Armen Keteyian
- Narrated by: Roger Casey
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2009, Tiger Woods was the most famous athlete on the planet, a transcendent star of almost unfathomable fame and fortune living what appeared to be the perfect life - married to a Swedish beauty and the father of two young children. Winner of 14 major golf championships and 79 PGA Tour events, Woods was the first billion-dollar athlete, earning more than $100 million a year in endorsements from the likes of Nike, Gillette, AT&T, and Gatorade. But it was all a carefully crafted illusion. As it turned out, Woods had been living a double life for years.
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Schadenfreude For Non-Fans
- By Dubi on 02-16-19
By: Jeff Benedict, and others
Canvas on the wires
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Amazing book
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Really good book!
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Impressive detail
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Wooww great bookkk
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Loves this as a father of athletes
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I wish I could’ve listened to this as a child. Thank you Mr Treatmen, Mike and Coach G. We will always miss Kobe, and this book for a few hours, is a wonderful reminder of an amazing person.#Mambaforever
Amazing
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Mathew
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Unexpected but great insight.
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Amazing insights of young star before stardom
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