Ep336 - Mike Sielski, Author ‘The Rise Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality’

Mike Sielski began his career following the woman’s basketball team as a sports writer at La Salle University. As a sophomore, he realized he could write a sports story in the same way he wrote his English papers, and he was hooked. Currently, Mike works for the Philadelphia Inquirer and has published books such as ‘How to Be Like Jackie Robinson,’ ‘Fading Echoes,’ and most recently, ‘The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality’ In his latest book, the story follows Kobe Bryant’s origin story which actually began in Philadelphia. With a focus on Kobe’s early life, Mike pitched the book as “Batman Begins for The Black Mamba.” In this interview, Mike talks about structuring sports stories for the newspaper, his lucky encounter with a mentor early in his career, how he uncovered never-before-heard interviews with a 17-year-old Kobe Bryant, and three pieces of advice for novice writers. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!