PHILADELPHIA — David Lasman remembers the first time Kobe Bryant put Michael Jordan in his cross hairs and vowed to join “His Airness” among basketball’s legends.
It was on a school bus when they were 17.
“He would tell me on the bus that Jordan couldn’t stop him,” Lasman, a former high school friend and teammate of Bryant’s, told USA TODAY Sports. “I still think that would be crazy for an NBA player to say right now. But he was always looking for the next challenge.”
Bryant’s remarkable 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers is entering its final days, but the more than 33,000 points, 18 All-Star teams and five NBA titles might never have been if not for his time at Lower Merion High in suburban Philadelphia. It was here that Bryant emerged from science and English classes to become an iconic sports superstar.
“Lower Merion and everything associated with it made me who I am,” Bryant said recently.
High school players had made the leap to the NBA before Bryant did it in 1996. A year earlier, Kevin Garnett was the fifth overall pick and the fourth to make the jump to the pros. However, Garnett and the other players before Bryant were big men, not fleet-footed, sharp-shooting guards.
Without a college to identify with, Lower Merion has continued to be a part of Bryant’s story. Even at Lakers games today, replicas of the school’s maroon jersey can be seen dotted through the audience.
When Bryant arrived as a freshman a year removed from living in Italy, Lower Merion was not a traditional basketball power. Bryant’s attendance there had nothing to do with the institution’s prowess on the hardwood, but simply because the area was where the family settled when Kobe’s father, Joe Bryant, returned from his years playing professionally in Europe.
“We are a relatively small school,” said Bryant’s high school coach, Gregg Downer. “The suburban schools would be labeled soft. The inner-city schools would be labeled gritty and tough. Kobe set the foundation and showed us how to do it.”
It took awhile. Bryant made varsity as a freshman, but the team went 4-20.
Yet even then, his competitive edge was well-honed. Lynne Freedland, a teacher at Lower Merion, often reflects on that time with her daughter Susan, a high school friend of Bryant’s.
On a school outing to Hersheypark, Susan recruited Bryant to win her a pair of giant stuffed toys at a free throw shooting stall.
“There was this big blue huge elephant with lime green tusks or something,” Freedland said. “It was bigger than she was.”
Three shots later, Bryant had claimed the prize. After taking another turn — and winning Susan another toy — the stall attendant told him to get lost, Freedland said.
As his high school career progressed, Bryant’s basketball skills developed through a combination of talent and the insatiable work ethic that would become legendary.
“We definitely hear a lot of different stories about Kobe,” said Eli Needle, a small forward on Lower Merion’s team this year. “He was wearing a face mask before the state championship when he was here and to fire all the guys up he threw it on the ground and pumped all of his teammates up, saying he is indestructible.”
Lower Merion’s current players also get taunted with chants of “You need Kobe” by rival fans whenever they fall behind, but that comes with the territory.
“He is part of the legacy here,” senior guard KJ Helton said, speaking at the school’s Kobe Bryant Gym, paid for by a donation from the Lakers star.
The tributes to Bryant in the arena are subtle. Two pictures of him and his teammates adorn the walls, alongside athletes who have represented the school in other sports.
The 1,000-point banner (Bryant had 2,883 in his career) includes his name but is kept in a safe place rather than being on display.
By Bryant’s senior year he was regarded as the best high school player in the country and was met with a flurry of hype. Scouts attended every game, national media attention was constant and camera crews roamed the hallways and sometimes even attended classes.
“They said to act normal when the cameras were there,” said Bryant’s English teacher, John Osipowicz. “But it is a bit hard when you turn around and bump into a camera.”
Bryant was a student in Osipowicz’s short-story writing class during his senior year.
“He wrote this one story I still remember,” said Osipowicz, who is retired from teaching and the author of several mystery novels. “The hero of the story got up there on the free throw line, a point behind. In Kobe’s story the character missed both free throws. I thought that was so interesting later on in his life. He was so much of a winner, but even at 17 he was aware you could lose.”
Bryant didn’t lose much toward the end of his high school career, leading the school to the state title as a senior.
Those memories are still fresh. “I think about Lower Merion all the time,” he said when he returned to Philadelphia to play the 76ers this season.
Lasman can attest to that. Bryant has thanked him for a pair of clutch free throws he made in the 1996 state final on each of the handful of occasions they have met over the years.
“(Kobe) was a difficult teammate in terms of how demanding he was,” said Downer, who has won two subsequent state titles. “But I think he was a good teammate in the sense that he held people accountable. I just don’t think he had real natural leadership skills at that age. His form of communication was ‘If you’re not giving 110%, you’re going to hear from me.’ ”
Even so, Lasman is adamant that Bryant was just one of the guys, albeit intense, demanding and highly motivated. Well, perhaps not just one of the guys. While Bryant did go to the prom like any other student, his partner for the evening was singer Brandy Norwood, then one of the hottest young entertainers in the country.
Last week, Norwood was asked about her prom dress and told TMZ she had kept it.
Everyone has plenty to say about Bryant, everyone has his favorite tale. Downer has more than most, anecdotes he passes on to each incarnation of the team. Freedland remembers Bryant using the gym for early morning practices after graduation and whispering to her the name of the next NBA team he would visit for a predraft workout.
Current students have heard the Kobe tales so many times they are part of the school’s legend. Osipowicz recalls Bryant’s polished manners. Lasman remembers going to the Bryant household and watching tape with Kobe, not of Jordan or NBA games, but of Joe Bryant playing in Italy.
But there is one thing no one knows, and that is what Bryant will or should do next. Questions on that topic bring a shrug, even from those who have known Bryant the longest. For someone who associated himself so completely with basketball success and the fervent pursuit of it, there is no immediately obvious path.
“I’ve no idea what he’ll do,” Downer said. “But whatever it is, he won’t rest until he’s the best at it.”
Follow Martin Rogers on Twitter @mrogersUSAT.
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