384 pages | Hardcover

The inside look at one of the most captivating and consequential figures in our culture with never-before-seen material.

Kobe Bryants death did more than rattle the worlds of sports and celebrity. That tragic helicopter crash unveiled fully his influence on our culture, and by telling the lesser-known story of his early life,The Risewill provide an insight into Kobe that no other analysis has.

InThe Rise, readers will travel from Philadelphia in the 1960s and 70swhere Kobes father, Joe, became a playground, college, and professional basketball standoutto the Bryant familys isolation in Europe, where Kobe spent his formative years, to the leafy suburbs of Lower Merion, where Kobes legend was born. The narrative will trace his high school career and life, including his teams dramatic underdog pursuit of a state championship, and the run-up to the 1996 NBA draft, where Kobes dreams culminated with his acquisition by the Los Angeles Lakers.

In researchingThe Rise, Mike Sielski has a terrific advantage over other writers who have chronicled Bryants life. Jeremy Treatman, a Kobe confidant, conducted a series of never-before-released interviews with Bryant in the late 1990s, and he has shared these transcripts and tapes with Sielski. They will reveal Bryants in-the-moment thoughts and tell stories, preserved for a quarter-century, that have never been told before.

This will be more than a basketball book. This will be an unforgettable exploration of the identity and making of an iconof the essence of the man before he truly became a man.