When Kobe Bryant was six years old in 1984, his father, Joe, moved the family to Italy in an attempt to scrape by a few more paychecks following an eight-year NBA career.

Jose “Jellybean” Bryant, a 6-foot-9 forward, has played for the San Diego Clippers, the Houston Rockets, and the Philadelphia 76ers. He has since accepted a contract offer to play for Sebastiani Rieti, a team located in the hilltop town of Rieti, some 50 miles from Rome. Alongside gifting him a new BMW, the club also gifted him a cottage with a garden. For little Kobe’s use, they even constructed a basketball hoop on the exterior wall.

“Dude, it was strange. Man, we were having fun.”

However, Mike Sielski notes in “The Rise — Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality” (St. Martin’s Press), which will be released on Tuesday, that Kobe’s formative years in Italy contributed to his eventual success as a superstar. According to Sielski, the “essence of the man before he truly became a man” is revealed in his interviews with over 100 people who knew Kobe as well as long-hidden interview transcripts with the late star, some of which were taped when he was a teenager.

Kobe would watch his father play for his new Italian team on Sundays, often lending a hand by wiping the perspiration off the court in between plays. Being a bright youngster, he arranged his first sponsorship deal with Olimpia Pistoi, Jose’s second club in Italy, to wear a sweatshirt bearing their company’s name when he cleared the court, provided that they also purchased him a brand-new red bicycle.

After dominating the court, he would frequently grab a basketball and captivate the audience with his own version of the Kobe Show. He would only leave the court when the referees ejected him. Sielski describes him as “a miniature version of Jose, mimicking what he had just watched, dribbling between his legs, practicing his jumper, heaving shots from too far out.” The child was unfazed by the spectators in the arena who would just stand there and gaze. To restart the game, the referees would have to remove him from the court.

With months of going to a new school, Kobe and his elder sisters were proficient in speaking Italian, complete with all of the swear words. Additionally, according to Sielski, the Bryant family was seen as “both curiosities and celebrities” while residing in Europe. Strangers would buy them coffee or pick up their check at a café wherever they went into town, according to Kobe.

“There, people treat each other as equals,” he stated in a Philadelphia Inquirer interview from 1996. They have no mistrust for one another. When they see you in the street, they say hi. Family is also very important there.

According to Sielski, the Bryant family also grew closer and stronger as a family, especially with his mother Pam, who was the real head of the household.

According to the author, it was also there that Jose learned the true meaning of family after a previous controversy almost brought the father’s marriage and professional life to an end.

She was a powerful Black Catholic woman who upheld the union of a married couple. “Explanation ends here,” writes Sielski.

Life was a revelation to Jose back in Italy. The incessant travels and nights spent in hotels far from home were over. He could now play once a week, usually with Kobe joining him away for games, and always return to the Bryant residence afterward.

In 1985, he declared to The New York Times, “I’ve become a family man.” “I was more of a traveling man in the US.”

Kobe was soon chosen to play for his father’s club’s junior teams, where he frequently faced boys who were two or three years older. Throughout the seven years the Bryants were in Italy, Jose was frequently present, courtside, to watch his son succeed.

“In his first game, he scored ten points in a row while dribbling, shooting, and dribbling so much that the other nine players started crying, and their parents started yelling to get this spoiled little scuoro off the court,” says Sielski.

Italy is also where Kobe developed his renowned unwavering work ethic. He not only showed up at the gym at 6 a.m. when the other members of his junior squad did but also frequently played despite discomfort. According to Sielski, Kobe once made a three-point shot with his weaker left hand after breaking his dominant right hand.

Jose Bryant gave up playing hoops in 1992. When Kobe was thirteen years old, the family returned to the United States and settled in Lower Merion, Montgomery County, Philadelphia. Jose clarified that he didn’t want his kids to lose their command of the English language as one of the main motivators for moving back to Philadelphia. However, Kobe had trouble adjusting. He was unable to interact with other teenagers because he was unaware of the new language that they were using, and since there were no common cultural allusions in TV shows or songs.

When he returned to the US at 13, Kobe became an instant standout on his Philadelphia school’s basketball team.

He was mocked even for the clothes he had brought back from Italy. For instance, all eighteen students—everyone except one—wear baseball outfits and are holding mitts in the school baseball team photo. Kobe is pictured on the far right, wearing a colorful sweater over a white dress shirt with a button-up at the top and a thick coat. According to Sielski, “He’s the one who doesn’t quite belong there.”

Nevertheless, Kobe was better influenced by the overseas experience. According to Sielski, he remarked, “I learned to play basketball the right way through a teaching of fundamentals first.” He had grown up in Italy.

Bryant lived in Rieti, Italy, with his family and grew up watching his dad play in the Italian basketball league