CHAPTER THREE 1992
CHAPTER THREE Moving back to the United States after being away for eight years was far more difficult for Kobe than moving to Europe had been. He was older and was leaving all his friends behind. He had become comfortable living in Europe. Now, America was almost a foreign land to him.
Kobe had lived abroad for so long that he no longer spoke English very well. And many things that were familiar to most American kids, like the most popular TV shows and musical groups, were almost unknown to him. Kobe didn’t have much in common with other American teenagers.
The Bryants moved to a suburb of Philadelphia, just outside the city limits. They enrolled Kobe in eighth grade at the local middle school.
At first, Kobe was overwhelmed. The school was much different and much, much bigger than the school he had attended in Italy. Although Kobe was a very good student and soon discovered that in many ways his classes were easier than they had been in Italy, he struggled with the language and initially found it hard to make friends.
He was, quite literally, caught between two worlds. As he later remembered, “That made me the odd man out from the jump.” The situation was made even worse by the fact that he was going through adolescence, an awkward stage of growing up that everyone goes through. Many adolescents lose confidence and don’t feel very good about themselves as they struggle to make the transition from child to adult. Kobe had particular difficulty learning how to relate to other African Americans at his school. After all, when he was living in Italy about the only African-American faces he saw were those, of his parents and two sisters. Kobe hadn’t had any close African-American friends since he was a little kid.
The street slang used by many of his peers was particularly hard for Kobe to understand. “Blacks have their own way of talking,” he recalled later, “and I really had to learn two languages in order to fit.”
His situation wasn’t helped by the fact that Kobe already stood well over six feet tall and towered over many of his peers. He often found himself the butt of their pranks and jokes.
But on his very first day of school Kobe discovered that he knew a universal language that could help break down the social barriers he faced. That language was the sport of basketball.
On that first day, as Kobe sat alone in the cafeteria eating his lunch, a classmate sauntered over and stood before him, sizing him up. When Kobe realized the other young man was staring at him, he slowly raised his eyes and looked up.
“I hear you’re a pretty good basketball player,” said his classmate with a sneer. Word had spread rapidly that the new student with the funny accent was the son of Joe Bryant, who was still well known in Philadelphia.
Kobe tried to stay cool. He wasn’t quite sure what the other student was trying to say. He just looked the boy in the eye and slowly nodded.
“Well, to be the man you have to beat the man,” said the student, gesturing to himself. Now Kobe noticed that several of the young man’s friends hovered nearby, awaiting his reaction.
Kobe realized that if he acted as if he was intimidated, they might give him a hard time. He knew he was being challenged, but he also knew that if there was one thing he could do, it was play basketball.
“Okay,” he said confidently, “let’s play.” Kobe and the other young man then made arrangements to play one-on-one after school.
Word quickly spread around the school that the new kid had accepted the challenge to play the best player in the school. When Kobe got to the court there were dozens of students ringing it to watch the matchup. His challenger was already warming up and bragging to his friends about how bad he was going to beat Kobe.
Kobe didn’t quite understand the attitude of his opponent, for as he later admitted, “I didn’t understand the school-yard rules, the trash-talking, the machismo.” But he did understand basketball. He tried to ignore his opponent’s boasting and called for the ball and started to play. The crowd buzzed with anticipation.
For the next twenty minutes or so Kobe and his challenger went at each other, but in a matter of only a few minutes the outcome was obvious. Every time his opponent got the ball, Kobe was all over him, blocking his drive, sticking a hand in his face, and swiping at the ball. The other player could hardly get a shot off. When he did, it either clanged off the rim or missed the rim entirely for an air ball.
When Kobe had the ball, it was another story. He discovered he was much quicker than his opponent was, had better footwork, could jump higher, and was far more skilled. For although his opponent was talented, he had learned to play on the playground and lacked the sound set of basketball fundamentals that Kobe had learned by playing on his club team in Italy, by himself, and with his father.
For example, when his opponent tried to guard him aggressively and bang him away from the basket, Kobe knew better than to try to force up a shot. Instead, he’d throw a fake, spin past him in a blur, and soar to the basket for an easy layup. When the player adjusted and backed off to prevent Kobe from driving past him, Kobe didn’t try to bull his way to the hoop. Instead, he calmly drilled one jump shot after another.
The crowd soon quieted, then started cheering for Kobe as he poured the ball into the hoop over and over again. Then Kobe did something remarkable.
As his frustrated opponent came out to challenge him for the ball, Kobe faked left then drove to his right, soared through the air, and slammed the ball home.
The shocked crowd turned silent for a moment, then erupted in cheers. Kobe Bryant, an eighth-grader, had dunked the ball! As one of his friends said later, “I never saw a player like that. You just don’t see guys in the eighth grade flying through the air and dunking the basketball.”
A few minutes later, exhausted his opponent gave up and the two young men shook hands. “I got my respect right there,” Kobe remembers.
Although Kobe would still experience some awkward moments adjusting to his new school, he had taken an important first step. In addition to his family, basketball was the only other aspect of his life in Italy that was familiar to him in America. Even though he would occasionally have to struggle to make himself understood, he learned that basketball was a language that everyone knew.
Kobe soon found that he was welcome to play on the local playground and began making friends. At first the other players occasionally tried to test him and disrupt his game with trash talk and rough play. But Kobe quickly adjusted, not by adopting the same tactics, but by using his skills to render them ineffective. Kobe responded to trash talk by making his next shot, and he reacted to overly aggressive play by turning his game up a notch.
He also joined the eighth-grade team and quickly became the star, scoring at will. He was already looking forward to playing basketball at his local high school, Lower Merion. Their basketball team, the Aces, was one of the best teams in suburban Philadelphia and would soon finish the season with a stellar record of 20-5.
Aces coach Gregg Downer soon heard rumors about the eighth-grader. Curious about him, he invited Kobe to participate in one of the Aces’ practices. He figured that watching Kobe scrimmage against better, more experienced players would give him an idea of just how good Kobe was and what work he would have to do to play varsity basketball someday.
He saw a youthful, quiet, very thin thirteen-year-old amble into the gym. Nothing about the way he carried himself screamed that he was a basketball player.
He inserted Kobe into a scrimmage and sat back to watch. Within moments, he was stunned.
Kobe didn’t just keep up with the varsity — he dominated them, getting off his shot with ease, stealing the ball, and rebounding. Downer’s team included several players who had already won college scholarships. Yet Kobe already appeared to be the best player on the floor.
Unable to believe his eyes, Downer then asked Kobe to play him one-on-one. Downer himself had played college basketball and still played in a competitive adult league. He had to see for himself if Kobe was really that good.
He was. The coach went down to a quick defeat at the hands of the student.
Downer began to look forward to having Bryant on his team. Four of the five starting players on the Aces were scheduled to graduate. Downer knew he would have to rebuild, and everyone was expecting Lower Merion to slip back in the pack. Despite their current record, the suburban school just didn’t have the reputation of a basketball powerhouse.
Kobe wanted to be part of the rebuilding plan. His goal was not just to make the team, but to become a member of the starting lineup.
Very few freshmen make the varsity team in any high school sport. Most underclassmen have to play a season or two of junior varsity basketball against players of similar skill levels and experience before they can play effectively on the varsity. Basketball great Michael Jordan, for instance, was cut from his team as a freshman and didn’t make the varsity until his junior year. Even fewer freshmen make the starting lineup.
But Kobe wasn’t like most freshmen. He was more mature, both physically and mentally. By playing club basketball in Italy, with its focus on fundamentals and team play, he already knew how to play the game in a system. Most freshmen, despite the skills developed on the playground, have very little concept of team basketball. They have to learn to play an entirely new way.
Kobe worked out long and hard during the offseason, adding weight training to his regimen to become stronger. As the beginning of the basketball season approached, expectations for Kobe Bryant and the Aces were high. As the son of a former NBA player who had been one of the best basketball players ever to come out of the Philadelphia area, everyone expected Kobe to be an immediate star.
In practice, Coach Downer continued to be impressed. “He’s a very talented player,” he told the press at the beginning of the season. “He has the ability to do everything well.”
But he was also cautious with his young star. “I’m not applying a lot of pressure on him,” he insisted. To help with Kobe’s transition, Downer even asked Joe Bryant to serve as an assistant coach.
Kobe, who sprouted to six-foot-four at age fourteen, easily earned a place in the starting lineup as a guard. Now all he had to do was play.
But by their opening game, it became clear that the 1992-93 season would be difficult for the Aces. Their two best returning players, center Matt Sniderland and guard Sultan Shabazz, were injured and wouldn’t be able to play for the first month.
A tough schedule in the Central League, one of the best high school leagues in the state, didn’t help. Time and time again the Aces stayed close only to lose in the final moments.
But Kobe was everything Downer had expected, and then some. He was often the best player on the floor, and always the youngest. Although there were times he could score at will, Downer was even more impressed by his court savvy and willingness to play in a team concept. When the opposition began double-and triple-teaming him, Bryant didn’t force his shot. Instead, he looked to pass and involve his teammates in the game.
Although the Aces finished the season with a dismal 4-20 record, including 3-15 in league play, they played hard all season long and didn’t give up.Bryant led the team in scoring, averaging 18 points per game, despite breaking his kneecap and missing the final games of the season.
Kobe ended the season with a new goal. He told a friend that he wanted to play in the NBA.
That goal itself was no surprise, but when Kobe planned to enter the NBA was. He told his friend he didn’t want to go to college first. He wanted to go straight to the NBA from high school.
His friend just laughed. Only a handful of players had ever entered the NBA directly from high school. Even Michael Jordan hadn’t been good enough to do that.
But Kobe was serious. He and his buddy made a friendly wager over Kobe’s dream, which he kept a secret from his family.
But it wouldn’t remain a secret for very much longer.