Kobe Bryant’s new book has been released, and Vanessa Bryant paid tribute to him on social media. Vanessa went to Instagram to announce the release of the book, which is called The Wizenard Series: Season One. It’s a sequel to the New York Times best-seller, The Wizenard Series: Training Camp. Bryant created the book and it was written by Wesley King.
View this post on Instagram
In the caption, Vanessa wrote, “Welcome back to Dren! We hope you are all ready to catch up with the West Bottom Badgers for another magical basketball season.” On Twitter King wrote, “Official release day. Bittersweet without my collaborator, but grateful to see the words live on. This is a book about chasing your dreams.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
The Wizenard Series: Training Camp was released last year, and Kobe Bryant talked about the book to Rachel Sarah of Barnes and Noble. He revealed he got the idea to create the book by being a fan of the Harry Potter book series.
“Sports/fantasy is a blend of two of my passions: sports and fantasy storytelling,” Bryant said. I’m a voracious reader and huge Harry Potter fan. So, it was a natural fit for me from that perspective. And, I think kids respond to lessons they learn while being entertained. It connects back to my desire to want to bring joy back to youth sports, while teaching important life lessons. Fantasy and magic draw people in—especially kids.
“And in sports, the magic is inherently there—good and bad. If I’m feeling great, if I feel like: I can’t miss! That basket looks massive! But then conversely, if I’m feeling bad, the basket looks like it’s the size of a keyhole. I can’t make anything. That’s emotional magic. So I wanted to take emotion and use that as magic in our world to teach these very complicated methods to our children in an entertaining way.”
Creating books is one of the few things Bryant was doing post-retirement from the NBA. Another notable thing Bryant accomplished is winning an Academy Award for his animated short film Dear Basketball. He also worked on the ESPN show Detail with NFL legend Peyton Manning.
