The evolution of Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant shared the SI cover with Magic Johnson before the playoffs in 1998, his second NBA season. Walter Iooss Jr./SI Lakers vs. Celtics   Game 6 Recap: Celtics clobber Lakers, win title Phil denied | Kobe fizzles| Big 3 delivers Ian Thomsen: Celtics are unique champs Steve Aschburner: KG's weight is over Jack McCallum: Lakers have their issues Chris Mannix: Rondo responds in clincher Report Card | Fast Breaks | Photo Gallery Steve Aschburner: Pierce's growth spurt Marty Burns: Five lasting Finals memories React: Your thoughts on the Celtics' title? Game 5 Recap: Lakers stave off elimination Ian Thomsen: Will Kobe ever erupt? Chris Mannix: Lakers not soft this night Report Card | Fast Breaks| Photo Gallery Game 4 Recap: Celtics' historic rally stuns Lakers Ian Thomsen: Celtics have the urgency Ian Thomsen: Finals lessons learned Report Card | Fast Breaks| Photo Gallery Game 3 Recap: Lakers win behind Kobe's 36 Chris Mannix: Gasol, Odom playing soft Ian Thomsen: Donaghy casts a shadow Report Card | Fast Breaks| Photo Gallery Game 2 Recap: Celtics withstand Lakers' big rally Ian Thomsen: Don't count out Kobe yet Report Card | Fast Breaks| Photo Gallery Game 1 Recap: Pierce, Celtics rally past Lakers Ian Thomsen: Pierce's defining moment Report Card | Fast Breaks | Photo Gallery

Now that Kobe Bryant stands on the verge of winning an NBA championship as the best player in the world, I find myself remembering the first time I met him. Ten years ago. He was 19 and in his second year with the Lakers. He lived with his parents in a home overlooking the ocean.

I was preparing my first story as a writer for Sports Illustrated and he was my first subject. We spoke for hours at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles, at a hotel lobby in Toronto, at an outdoor café in Santa Monica. Every time we met, he would ask about my children and tell me to say hello from him. It was a different time.

Bryant has developed his own voice now, but 10 years ago he sounded in all ways as if he was performing an impression of Michael Jordan as he spoke of his own future in basketball. He was obsessed with winners like Jordan and Magic Johnson. He knew how many rings they had and he wanted to win more than either of them.

Now he is four victories away from winning his fourth title at 29, the age when Jordan had two (of the six he would win) and Johnson had won all five of his. By vanquishing Magic's old nemesis, the Boston Celtics, Bryant can earn his first championship as leader of the Lakers following the 2004 departure of Shaquille O'Neal, who was the league's dominant player alongside Bryant. O'Neal admits now to a share of blame in his divorce from the Lakers and Bryant.

"Here's why me and Kobe had problems,'' O'Neal told me last year. "Because it was two young guys going at it, and I wasn't going to lessen my game for him just because he was younger. I just wasn't going to do it.''

The biggest storyline of these Finals is going to be Bryant's coming of age, his ability to create offense for teammates as well as for himself. The truer part of this equation is that he has been given teammates capable of helping him. For the previous three years, he was given a Hobson's choice of trying to win by himself, because neither he nor anyone else believed his fellow Lakers were capable of contention. Now that the young reserves have become useful players, Derek Fisher has returned to Los Angeles and Pau Gasol has been delivered almost miraculously, Bryant is credited with having finally grown up.

It's also true Bryant has matured as a player thanks to (or in spite of ) a variety of unusual experiences. Since the Lakers traded Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for the No. 13 pick to draft him in 1996, a suspicious community of coaches, teammates and observers has had reason to accuse him of selfish behavior. Months before winning his third championship with the Lakers, Bryant told me he had grown hesitant to seek advice or help from teammates.

"There was a lot of criticism going on around me,'' Bryant said of his relationship with teammates. "I didn't know who I could trust. I didn't know if I could trust so-and-so, or talk to this person.''

He has always believed his controversial decision to become the first guard to enter the NBA without playing in college was held against him. Had he gone to North Carolina as Jordan did, he could have turned pro with an unofficial degree in team basketball.

"For me to get the recognition other players get, I have to do double what they do,'' he told me in 2000. "I think it started back when I decided to skip college. That rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. A lot of experienced people were telling me I'd made a mistake. By playing well, I'm pretty much telling them they don't know what they're talking about.''

Bryant was 17 when he was drafted, and his parents were still editing his entertainment shortly before he joined the Lakers. Not until his rookie year did he see The Godfather, which instantly became his favorite movie.

"It reminds me of my family,'' he said a decade ago. "Not because of the violence, but because of the way they all pulled for each other no matter what.''

Forgotten now are the unique circumstances of Bryant's instruction in basketball, and how it helped define his ascension to the NBA. His father, Joe (Jelly Bean) Bryant, was a 6-9 forward with the sensibilities of Magic, though Joe rarely was allowed to express those skills in the open floor. In 1984, after eight years with three NBA teams, Bryant moved his young family of five to resume his playing career in the Italian league (Kobe was 6 at the time and his sisters, Shaya, and Sharia, were 7 and 8, respectively). During his eight formative years in Italy, Kobe's prodigious talent for basketball would receive little respect.

"In Italy they told me, 'You're a great player over here, but when you get over to America, it won't be like that,' '' he recalled.