Episode 104: Mike Sielski
Mike Sielski is the author of \u201cThe Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality.\u201d Sielski, a sports columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wanted to tell the basketball superstar\u2019s origin story after Bryant died in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020. That\u2019s a story that takes place mostly in Philadelphia.\n\nSielski interviewed more than 100 people for the book. He was also assisted by long-time friend Jeremy Treatman, who had been an assistant coach and confidant of Bryant\u2019s back in Kobe\u2019s high school days. At one point, Treatman and Bryant were working on a memoir focused on Kobe\u2019s rookie season in the NBA. As a result, Treatman recorded interviews with Bryant on microcassettes during his senior year.\n\nThe book never happened, and then Treatman lost the cassettes. He found them just before Christmas in 2020, just three months before Sielski\u2019s book was due to his publisher. Hearing Kobe\u2019s voice as a teenager helped Sielski get more depth and details that he wouldn\u2019t have had otherwise, strengthening the narrative of the book. \n\n\u201cThe Rise\u201d is Sielski\u2019s third book. In 2005, he co-wrote \u201cHow to Be Like Jackie Robinson\u201d with Pat Williams. His second book, \u201cFading Echoes: A True Story of Rivalry and Brotherhood From the Football Field to Fields of Honor\u201d was published in 2009.\n\nSielski was voted Best Sports Columnist by the Associated Press Sports Editors in 2015. In 2010, his story \u201cDream Derailed\u201d was included in \u201cBest American Sports Writing.\u201d