Vanessa Bryant, widow to the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant, recently took to Instagram to celebrate the release of the second book of Kobe Bryant’s bestselling Wizenard series, The Wizenard Series: Season One. On March 31, the day of the book’s release, Vanessa shared a promo clip that shows the cover of the book, and the bottom of the clip reads, “SOMETIMES WINNING MEANS DEFEATING YOURSELF.” In the post’s 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. The #Wizenard Series: Season One is OUT NOW.🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡#KobeBryant #GranityStudios #Kobeinc.”
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Created by Kobe Bryant and written by author Wesley King, the Wizenard series combines Kobe Bryant’s love of basketball with magic to teach kids (especially aspiring athletes) valuable lessons. The first book in the series, The Wizenard Series: Training Camp, which follows five young basketball players and their mysterious new coach, Professor Wizenard, was released in 2019 and became a New York Times bestseller.
The newly released followup, The Wizenard Series: Season One, focuses on a young basketball player named Reggie who dreams of basketball greatness. The books were published by Kobe Bryant’s Granity Studios, the company that also produced his 2017 Oscar Award-winning short film, Dear Basketball. In a November 2019 Instagram post, Kobe Bryant shared how important Granity Studios was to him, saying: “I created Granity Studios as a way of teaching valuable life lessons to the next generation. Our stories represent a competitive mindset about being the best at what you do.”
The release of The Wizenard Series: Season One comes two months after Kobe and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant, along with Christina Mauser, Sarah and Payton Chester, John, Keri, and Alyssa Altobelli, and pilot Ara Zobayan were tragically killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California on January 26, 2020. Kobe Bryant was 41 when he died and is survived by his wife Vanessa and their three daughters: 17-year-old Natalia, 3-year-old Bianka, and 9-month-old Capri Bryant.
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The Wizenard Series: Season One shares an inspiring quote from Kobe Bryant after its title page which reads: “To young athletes who commit to doing the hard work. The process always pays off.” In a Twitter post shared on March 31, Wesley King honored Kobe and celebrated the book’s release, writing: “Bittersweet without my collaborator, but grateful to see the words live on.
