Mike Sielski is a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the author of The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality which is available everywhere. We discuss the book and how he came to write it, Kobe’s father, if Kobe’s attitude negatively impacted his teammates, the pressures he faced, and Mike ranks some of my hot takes about Kobe (such as he’s not a top 15 player or that Dwyane Wade was better on his first 2 title teams than Kobe was on his.) We then talk about how he became a journalist, Villanova’s 2016 NCAA championship team, the Eagles winning the Super Bowl, & Terrell Owens. The episode finishes with Mike telling us about his time covering Allen Iverson in Philadelphia. We discuss his amazing ability to perform at a high level despite often being fatigued, whether the media treated him fairly, whether Mike will ever write a book about A.I., how intelligent Allen is, who’s a better rapper between him and Kobe, and a painful moment of triumph (for Mark) that Mike regards as an underrated A.I. performance and more. Buy Mike’s book The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality which is out now and available everywhere.

Buy The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality HERE

Read Mike Sielski on The Philadelphia Inquirer HERE