Kobe Bryant: How a small basketball court in Italy helped shape an NBA legend

Editor’s note: A new series “Kobe: The Making of a Legend” traces the story of Kobe Bryant from his childhood in Italy to his athletic superstardom and offers an intimate look at his post-NBA aspirations as a storyteller and as a father. The series in three parts premieres on Saturday 25 January at 9:00 PM ET/PT.

CNN
—

Nestled in a peaceful corner of the picturesque Italian town of Reggio Emilia is a small playground with basketball hoops glued to opposite walls. The playing surface is worn, bicycles are propped up around its perimeter and the spire of a small local church juts over the top of the surrounding buildings.

Although beautiful, it is unassuming to begin with and certainly not a place you would link to the glamorous world of the NBA.

But this little playground in an idyllic pocket of Italy was once the second home of one of the greatest basketball players in history, Kobe Bryant.

Bryant spent many of his formative years in Italy when his father Joe decided to take his playing career to Europe after leaving the Houston Rockets in 1983.

Only six at the time, a young Bryant was thrown into a new culture, a new language and a new way of life – but it was a new world he quickly adapted to and eventually fell in love with.

The family’s last stop in Italy, constantly accompanying his father to various teams across the country, was in Reggio Emilia, where Bryant met friend and former teammate Marco Ferraroni.

Ferraroni stars in CNN’s new original film and documentary series “Kobe: The Making of a Legendwhich marks five years since Bryant’s death.

In the first episode, he explains how the pair played together on the local youth team for two years, with Bryant playing with boys a year older because he was already too good for them his own age.

Even when there was no organized team practice, Ferraroni remembers spending “eternal afternoons” playing with Kobe on the small court located next to the church, where the local priest gave them access during the day.

“We spent hours and hours there. One of my memories of Kobe is that he was always there,” Ferraroni said.

“I remember Kobe was always available to play basketball, even for 1v1, just spend the whole afternoon playing 1v1 or a three-point contest. He was always there for basketball.”

Ferraroni remembers a young Bryant who played much like his father and focused on scoring three points, which was “peculiar” for Italian players his age.

But while the future NBA legend was physically smaller than much of his competition, what stood out most to Ferraroni was the American’s mentality, a trait that would later become world famous.

“I remember a very long Saturday afternoon playing with him,” Ferraroni recalled.

“We played all afternoon and it was very difficult to leave because Kobe did not want to leave after losing the last game – I was a year older and it happened that sometimes he lost.

“And it was like, ‘No, no, no, play one more, play one more. I want to win. Play one more.’ So it was kind of an endless afternoon playing with him.”

Obsessed with basketball at a young age, Bryant was not very interested in school while living in Reggio Emilia.

His close childhood friend Giada Maslovaric remembers his first day at his new school – she was tasked with keeping an eye on him and the pair quickly began socializing in their spare time.

Hours would be spent cycling through the city’s cobbled streets, getting its world-famous ice cream and dreaming of the future.

“Kobe didn’t care for gossip, for superficial things, but when he laughed, he would do it sincerely, so he was good company,” Maslovaric told CNN.

Maslovaric never had an interest in sports, let alone basketball, choosing instead to focus his attention on school work. While their focus did not align, Maslovaric believes the pair became such good friends because of their shared passion and drive to achieve.

“He would always say he wanted to play for the NBA,” she said. “When the subject was brought up, he wasn’t kidding.”

“We laughed a lot but that joke wasn’t funny to him, he didn’t want to play along. I was the only one laughing, he simply replied ‘I’ll get there.’

Kobe would be right. After leaving Italy to head back to the US, it wasn’t long before the youngster started making noise, becoming the first guard ever to be drafted straight out of high school by the Charlotte Hornets and joining the Los Angeles Lakers via trade in 1996.

Maslovaric watched from afar as her friend transformed into a global sensation, a world champion, a father and a husband.

However, they would meet again much later in life in 2003.

Bryant visited Reggio Emilia and had been looking for Maslovaric in his mother’s clothing store. Maslovaric’s mother called her and passed the phone to Bryant. The couple agreed to meet two days later.

Speaking in CNN’s documentary, Maslovaric recalls some of the deep conversations she shared with the five-time NBA champion when the pair met again. She was intrigued by what his life was like now and if he was enjoying the fame.

In the documentary, she reveals that it seemed to her that Reggio Emilia was the last place where Bryant could be normal, and the process of becoming a superstar came at a cost.

There was an element of isolation in his life, she said, with Bryant not knowing who he could trust.

But it was a price she believes the boy who used to play on the small court of an Italian playground was willing to pay, all for his love of basketball.

“The description I got was one of a beautiful, fantastic cage, made not of gold, but rather of platinum, of diamond, which was his later life,” she said, referring to a conversation she had with him .

“(It is) the life he chose because that cage allowed him to feel the extremely strong emotions that he felt as soon as he entered the field. And all the bars, despite being beautiful and golden, disappeared in that moment, it was worth it.”

It would be the last time the pair met. Like millions around the world, Maslovaric watched in despair as news spread of Bryant’s death in 2020.

Like her, the city of Reggio Emilia was shaken, its inhabitants left and mourned their adopted son.

In the years that followed, a town square was named in honor of Bryant and his daughter Gianna as the community worked together to heal the “collective wound.”

For Maslovaric, the murals and tributes to Kobe are bittersweet. On the one hand, it serves as a constant reminder that she will never see her childhood friend again. But on the other hand, she understands the desire and need to honor Bryant given his lasting legacy in the city.

“Kobe, I think, left to Reggio the opportunity for every single kid, boy or girl, with a dream and a regular life, to be able to achieve that dream,” added Maslovaric, speaking of Bryant’s legacy.

“And I think that’s something extraordinary.”