Sole Influence
Chapter One
Unlike Mike
His hair perfect, smile polished, and wardrobe impeccable, Kobe
Bryant sprang to his feet with the enthusiasm of the
eighteen-year-old kid he was. His name had just been called by
National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern as the
thirteenth pick of the 1996 draft. The Charlotte Hornets had
selected the precocious recent graduate of Lower Merion High School
in suburban Philadelphia, who just weeks before had taken recording
sensation Brandy Norwood to his prom. Now it was time to celebrate
in the recesses of New Jersey's Continental Airlines Arena. Bryant
quickly hugged his father, former NBA player Joe "Jellybean" Bryant.
Then his mother, Pam, and other assorted family and friends.
With TNT television cameras rolling live, he stepped over and
embraced a middle-aged white man named Sonny Vaccaro. It would prove
to be a momentous hug, one ignored by the commentators, the fans,
and the media assembled to cover the draft that night. The hug,
though, wasn't missed by executives at Nike and adidas, shoe
companies sitting just miles apart in Beaverto ... read full excerpt from Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed and the Corruption of America's Youth ebook
