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Kobe Bryant: The Black Mamba's Revenge · DISGRACELAND

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Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
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Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland as
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Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Kobe Bryant
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Speaker 1: are insane. His legendary late game heroics were overshadowed by
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Speaker 1: an arrest for sexual assault. The allegations made him one
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Speaker 1: of the most hated players in the NBA. Hate that
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Speaker 1: was so intense that he had to create an encore
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Speaker 1: alter ego just to withstand it, a cold blooded basketball
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Speaker 1: assassin named the Black Mamba. As the Black Mamba, Kobe
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Speaker 1: Bryant ratted out teammates, sparred with coaches, and fought formidable rivals.
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Speaker 1: He also put up some of the best numbers in
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Speaker 1: league history. Because Kobe Bryant made great music. I'm not
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Speaker 1: talking about that hip hop album that he recorded but
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Speaker 1: never released. I'm talking about great music on the court,
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Speaker 1: figuratively and very much unlike that loop that I played
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Speaker 1: for you at the top of the show. That wasn't
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Speaker 1: great music. That was a preset loop form my mellotron
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Speaker 1: called Mister Chickens Haunted House MK one. I played you
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Speaker 1: that loop because I can't afford the rights to Bad
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Speaker 1: Boys by Beyonce featuring Sean John And why would I
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Speaker 1: play you that specific slice of reggae dancehall fantasy cheese?
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Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
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Speaker 1: song in America on October tenth, two thousand and three,
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Speaker 1: and that was the day that Quentin Tarantino's Revenge Flick
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Speaker 1: Kill Bill was released, introducing Uma Thurman's iconic character The Bride,
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Speaker 1: an assassin code named the Black Mamba, a character that
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Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant would turn to for inspiration during the darkest
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Speaker 1: moments of his career. On this episode Cold Blooded Assassins
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Speaker 1: code names Revenge Flicks and the Black Mamba of the
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Speaker 1: basketball Court, Kobe Bryant, I'm Jake Brennan in This is Disgraceland.
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Speaker 2: He was a professional killer, a warrior trained from birth,
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Speaker 2: a member of the deadliest squad of assassins in the Association.
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Speaker 2: But that was before he tried to go so long,
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Speaker 2: and before they tried to kill him. But they made
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Speaker 2: one mistake. They didn't finish the job. Now the Black
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Speaker 2: Mamba is back for revenge on the ex partner and
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Speaker 2: boss who doublecrossed him, and he won't stop until he's
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Speaker 2: got his hands on the Ultimate Prize, The Assassin's Ring,
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Speaker 2: Starry Kobe Bryant as a Black Mamba, Job Got Finished,
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Speaker 2: Phil Jackson as the zen Master.
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Speaker 3: No man is an nihilist. No man goes his way alone.
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Speaker 3: Shaquille O'Neill as Big barishnakoffby You Can't do without Me,
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Speaker 3: plus Lebron James as the King, how Gasol as the Spaniard,
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Speaker 3: and Paul Pierce as the Truth in the Black Mamba's
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Speaker 3: Revenge Coming Soon.
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Speaker 1: Three vicious uppercuts sent the limp and bloody body crashing
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Speaker 1: to the floor. Five huge men circled their victim and
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Speaker 1: continued the assault. The flat, rhythmic sounds of fists slamming
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Speaker 1: into flesh echoed through the empty palace room, and the
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Speaker 1: frenzy of violence continued for five long minutes before it stopped.
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Speaker 1: Then footsteps clicking across the wooden floor. A mountainous man
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Speaker 1: dressed in red and black approached. He knelt down to
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Speaker 1: look at the barely conscious body below. As he stared
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Speaker 1: into the eyes of the man on the ground, the
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Speaker 1: mountainous man in red and black slowly pulled out a long,
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Speaker 1: double sided blade. He toyed with the knife for a
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Speaker 1: moment before making his next move, and without warning, the
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Speaker 1: man in red and black plunged the blade of the
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Speaker 1: knife deep into the ribs of the man on the ground,
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Speaker 1: giving it a twist for good measure. Then the knife
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Speaker 1: was pulled out and the man in red and black
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Speaker 1: wiped it clean. As the body on the ground below
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Speaker 1: him faded from consciousness, the mountainous man whispered in a
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Speaker 1: deep baritone, you think you can do it without me?
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Speaker 1: Will tell me, Kobe, how does it taste? Looked dead back? There,
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Speaker 1: didn't I? And in a way I was disgraced, double crossed,
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Speaker 1: left to bleed out on a wooden floor somewhere north
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Speaker 1: of Detroit. That kud ha gra out of the ribs
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Speaker 1: didn't quite kill me, but they wiped out any last
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Speaker 1: trace of my old life. Now I'm a man consumed
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Speaker 1: by only one thing, the burning, bloodthirsty desire for vengeance.
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Speaker 1: Vengeance against the people who betrayed me, people who made
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Speaker 1: a huge mistake. But they didn't kill me when they
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Speaker 1: had the chance. Now I'm gonna make them pay. Allow
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Speaker 1: me to give you a little backstory to truly understand
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Speaker 1: the events of June fifteenth, two thousand and four, an
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Speaker 1: event the press took to call him the Massacre at
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Speaker 1: Auburn Hills. You have to know some of the players
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Speaker 1: in the game. My name is but in my line
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Speaker 1: of work, it's safer to use code names. It helps
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Speaker 1: to keep the personal separate from the professional. When you're
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Speaker 1: a professional assassin, that's a pretty important line. I'm not
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Speaker 1: just an assassin, though. Some people say I'm the deadliest
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Speaker 1: man in the world, and you know what, they're exactly right.
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Speaker 1: My code name the Black Mamba. I work for an
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Speaker 1: elite crew out of Los Angeles called the Showtime Assassination Squad.
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Speaker 1: The squad is led by Phil. Phil used to be
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Speaker 1: a warrior, but once his hair turned gray, he discovered
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Speaker 1: he had a brilliant mind for battle plans. That, plus
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Speaker 1: his taste for quoting Eastern philosophy, earned him his code name,
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Speaker 1: the Zen Master. And that mountain of a man who
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Speaker 1: stabbed me in the chest and left me for dead,
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Speaker 1: that's my partner, my ex partner.
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Speaker 3: Now.
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Speaker 1: He stands seven feet tall, weighs over three hundred pounds,
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Speaker 1: but he has the quickness and agility of a ballet dancer.
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Speaker 1: That's why his code name is the Big bearishna cough
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Speaker 1: in hand to hand combat, he's unbeatable. Just don't hand
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Speaker 1: him a piece, though, because he can't shoot for shit.
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Speaker 1: The Showtime Assassination Squad was just one crew in a
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Speaker 1: league of assassins called the Association, where we competed for
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Speaker 1: turf money and the ultimate prize, the diamond and jewel
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Speaker 1: encrusted Assassin's Ring and the Association. You judge by how
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Speaker 1: many rings you collect, but if you ever get a ring,
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Speaker 1: you'd better watch your back because once you do, every
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Speaker 1: single assassin in the country will be coming for you.
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Speaker 1: For a while, we didn't worry about all that. With
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Speaker 1: Phil running the Showtime Assassination Squad, we dominated. We collected
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Speaker 1: three of those rings in three years before things started
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Speaker 1: coming apart. First, Barishnikov got cocky, he quit putting in
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Speaker 1: the work to stay sharp, and then the whole crew
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Speaker 1: got sloppy. They were so undependable that I started running
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Speaker 1: missions on my own. Phil accused me of trying to
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Speaker 1: take the squad over, but the hell else was I
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Speaker 1: supposed to do. I kept training like a madman. I
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Speaker 1: was determined to be the number one assassin, not just
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Speaker 1: on the squad but in the entire Association. And the
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Speaker 1: work paid off. On the job, I was bulletproof, but
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Speaker 1: in between jobs I was falling apart. The pressure was insane.
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Speaker 1: Other squads were coming at us constantly, but when I
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Speaker 1: had time off, I started taking comfort in places I
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Speaker 1: shouldn't have. Some accused me of doing even worse, and
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Speaker 1: the whispers it's so loud that the Association investigated me
9:03
Speaker 1: and they decided not to exile me. But the damage
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Speaker 1: was done. Phil iced me out and the squad broke
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Speaker 1: into two factions, Mine and bearishna Coffs. Even with everything
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Speaker 1: falling apart, we knew we were still the deadliest squad
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Speaker 1: in the association. So we decided to do one last
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Speaker 1: job together, snatch a fourth ring, and then go our
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Speaker 1: separate ways. That's how we ended up in Auburn Hills
9:32
Speaker 1: that June. We tracked down the ring to a rugged
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Speaker 1: crew Detroit thugs called the Bad Boys. Our plan was
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Speaker 1: a simple ambush. Barishnikov ran through the front door, gons blazing.
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Speaker 1: I would set up outside as a sniper, take as
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Speaker 1: many long range shots as I could before charging in
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Speaker 1: with the dagger. The night of the mission, Phil aka
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Speaker 1: the zen Master, walked us through the plan one more time.
10:00
Speaker 1: I listened intently, but Verishnikov was cracking jokes and clowning around,
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Speaker 1: and I glared at him to shut him up, but
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Speaker 1: it didn't work. He just smirked and told me to relax,
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Speaker 1: and then he reached one of his big mits over
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Speaker 1: and started rubbing the top of my head like he
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Speaker 1: was my big brother or some shit. I ain't your
10:18
Speaker 1: damn little brother, That's what I said, anyway, when I
10:21
Speaker 1: slapped his hand off me. A few hours later, we
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Speaker 1: set up outside the palace and waited for dark. Just
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Speaker 1: after midnight, we stormed in, but the plan was off
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Speaker 1: from the start. The bad boys had more firepower than
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Speaker 1: we expected. The Barishnikov couldn't break past them in the chaos,
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Speaker 1: I couldn't get off a clean shot from outside. I
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Speaker 1: charged forward into the chaos with my dagger, and that's
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Speaker 1: when I felt it. One of those huge mits knocked
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Speaker 1: me to the ground. I turned around in shock and
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Speaker 1: saw Verishnikov coming toward me, five Detroit bad boys right
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Speaker 1: behind him. I tried to jump back to my feet,
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Speaker 1: but there were too many of them. They beat the
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Speaker 1: piss out of me until I couldn't fight back anymore.
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Speaker 1: Then Barishana cough brought out that fucking knife. You know
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Speaker 1: the rest darkness. I was trapped in a coma for
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Speaker 1: a full year until yesterday. That's when I finally woke
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Speaker 1: up in the hospital bed. It was no ordinary hospital, though,
11:27
Speaker 1: it was more like a prison for wayward assassins. Guards everywhere.
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Speaker 1: I recognized those guys immediately, a savage crew out of
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Speaker 1: Toronto called the Crazy Eighty. You might say it would
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Speaker 1: be impossible for one man to fight through eighty armed guards,
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Speaker 1: and I'd say you were right. That's because I sliced
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Speaker 1: and diced my way through eighty one in total.
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Speaker 4: Day.
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Speaker 1: I guess they weren't so good accounting me. I'm an expert,
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Speaker 1: and I know I've got a score to settle with
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Speaker 1: barishna Cough. I'll get to him soon enough. Right now,
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Speaker 1: I'm flying down a two lane highway and rural Montana
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Speaker 1: behind the wheel of a bright red Ferrari. Far from
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Speaker 1: an inconspicuous ride, but I don't give a fuck about
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Speaker 1: being inconspicuous. I'm headed for the zen Master. We've got
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Speaker 1: some questions, and you better pray he has the right answers,
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Speaker 1: because if I don't like what he has to say,
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna fucking kill Phil. I drive the Ferrari to
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Speaker 1: a gorgeous lakeside cabin and put it in park, and
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Speaker 1: the engine purrs, and I just sit there listening to
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Speaker 1: that glory sound for a moment. It reminds me of home.
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Speaker 1: Not my home now, but back in the day when
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Speaker 1: I was a kid and my father was an assassin
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Speaker 1: in the Association. He worked for a crew out of
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Speaker 1: Philly until he pissed off the wrong people got himself
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Speaker 1: exiled for ten long years. When I was four, we
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Speaker 1: split for the only hideout my father knew, an Italian
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Speaker 1: monastery run by warrior monks that the Association used for
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Speaker 1: off the book's jobs. There the monks treated me like
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Speaker 1: one of their own. That meant training twelve hours a day,
13:35
Speaker 1: that meant speaking only when necessary. And by the time
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Speaker 1: I was fourteen, my people's skills were lacking, but I
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Speaker 1: could already outshoot, outduel and out fight full grown men.
13:47
Speaker 1: My father said it was time to come home and
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Speaker 1: earn back our family's honor. It was time for me
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Speaker 1: to take his place in the Association. All that to say,
13:56
Speaker 1: I've got a thing for Italian sports cars. Okay, I
14:01
Speaker 1: shut the engine off and look at the cabin. On
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Speaker 1: the outside. It seems like any other yuppie vacation home.
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Speaker 1: There's even one of those cheesy Livelove Lake signs hanging
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Speaker 1: on the front porch. You never guess it was the
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Speaker 1: home and one of the most brilliant battlefield tacticians in
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Speaker 1: the world. What can I say? Phil has always been
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Speaker 1: a real laker. I'm not in the mood to be subtle,
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Speaker 1: so I stride up the front walkway and raise my
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Speaker 1: fist to the door. Before I can even knock it
14:30
Speaker 1: swings wide open, perfect timing as usual, fucking guy zen Master.
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Speaker 1: I don't waste time with words. I just lunge forward
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Speaker 1: with my dagger. He slides out of the way just
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Speaker 1: in time, and the old bastard is faster than he looks,
14:46
Speaker 1: but not fast enough. I send him flying backwards with
14:49
Speaker 1: a kick to the chest. He trips over a coffee
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Speaker 1: table in front of his fireplace and smashes into it.
14:55
Speaker 1: Broken glass flies in all directions. I jump on him
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Speaker 1: and slam my fists into his face. When I pull
15:01
Speaker 1: back to do it again, he grabs a fire poker
15:03
Speaker 1: and drives it into my ribs, and the pain is intense.
15:06
Speaker 1: I stumble back and he lunges at me, but I
15:08
Speaker 1: slipped to his left and for a second he's off balance.
15:11
Speaker 1: I take the opportunity. I slam my foot into his
15:13
Speaker 1: knee and he falls to the ground. I'm on him
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Speaker 1: like that with my blade to his throat. Relaxed Phil,
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Speaker 1: I say, I'm not going to kill you yet, with
15:24
Speaker 1: my knife to his neck. I ask my questions. He
15:28
Speaker 1: swears he didn't know about the setup. He says Verishnikov
15:31
Speaker 1: turned on him, that the Showtime Assassination Squad gave him
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Speaker 1: the boot. But Phil says, the bosses aren't too happy
15:37
Speaker 1: with the new guys running the show, but maybe there's
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Speaker 1: a chance we could run the squad again together. Despite everything,
15:46
Speaker 1: the offer is pretty damn tempting. We're talking about one
15:49
Speaker 1: of the greatest battle planners in the history of battle.
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Speaker 1: Do I trust him? Hell no, But he is my
15:56
Speaker 1: best chance to beat Barishnikov. So it looks like the
15:59
Speaker 1: Showtimes Squad is about to ride again. And this is
16:02
Speaker 1: just one more thing. Mamba, he says, and looks me
16:06
Speaker 1: in the eyes. We have to talk about the Aurora Phile.
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Speaker 3: The case.
16:14
Speaker 4: The whole country is watching new details and new questions,
16:18
Speaker 4: is about the accuser of NBA star Kobe Bryant war What.
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Speaker 1: This young woman does, has her private life, has nothing
16:26
Speaker 1: to do you with an allegation of ra.
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Speaker 3: The latest of the case against Kobe.
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Speaker 1: Mamba Phil says, I know what happened. I shake my head. No,
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Speaker 1: Phil doesn't, no shit, nobody does. I swear to him,
16:46
Speaker 1: I didn't do what they accused me of. He says
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Speaker 1: he doesn't believe me, and then he says something that
16:51
Speaker 1: stops me cold. There's more, Mamba, I know you did
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Speaker 1: the bearishion of cough.
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Speaker 4: Part of the problem is Kobe at least is a
17:00
Speaker 4: relationship with Shaquille and Eel. Go back to your court case,
17:04
Speaker 4: or was revealed that you had suggested that Shaquille and
17:06
Speaker 4: Eel maybe has paid off of women in the past.
17:10
Speaker 4: When's the last time you talked to Shakan. Did you
17:13
Speaker 4: ever apologize those statements?
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Speaker 1: How can you know about that? That wasn't even in
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Speaker 1: the file. That was the worst night of my life
17:24
Speaker 1: because no matter how many times I tried to explain,
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Speaker 1: I know that I still brought dishonor to my family,
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Speaker 1: to my father, to my squad, and to my partner
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Speaker 1: because after I made the worst mistake of my life,
17:36
Speaker 1: I did something to make it even worse, something I
17:39
Speaker 1: thought no one would ever find out about. I tried
17:43
Speaker 1: to blame it on provision of cough. I stared down
17:48
Speaker 1: at my hands. Shame washes over me. I don't know
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Speaker 1: what to say. The zen Master reaches out his hand
17:55
Speaker 1: to my shoulder. He tells me that the Buddha has
17:58
Speaker 1: a quote that says we can can't dwell on the past.
18:01
Speaker 1: We can't dream of the future. All we have is
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Speaker 1: the moment and what we make of it. He tells
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Speaker 1: me that I'm a great warrior, one of the best ever,
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Speaker 1: but he sees more in me. It's not too late.
18:15
Speaker 1: No matter what I have or haven't done, I could
18:18
Speaker 1: be more than just a great warrior. I could be
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Speaker 1: a great leader too. I tell him one more time
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Speaker 1: that I didn't do it. He reminds me not to
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Speaker 1: dwell in the past. I can't make him believe me.
18:32
Speaker 1: All I can do is live in the moment. If
18:34
Speaker 1: I can learn to do that, there's still a hope
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Speaker 1: for me. We sit in silence for a long time afterward,
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Speaker 1: and then, like the buddhast suggests, we move on. We
18:44
Speaker 1: don't look back. After all, we get to get the
18:47
Speaker 1: squad back together. It's showtime. Phil heads to Los Angeles
18:54
Speaker 1: to assemble the rest of the team, and I had
18:57
Speaker 1: east to track down Barishnikov before we split up up.
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Speaker 1: Phil tells me he's got a new addition in mind
19:02
Speaker 1: for the squad, someone who could be my new partner.
19:05
Speaker 1: I believe it when I see it. I slice through
19:08
Speaker 1: the entire Crazy eighty by myself, and I got more
19:11
Speaker 1: than enough firepower to slice through anyone who gets in
19:13
Speaker 1: between me and Parishnikov. I'm sure of it. June two
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Speaker 1: thousand and eight, almost four years since the bastard knife me.
19:25
Speaker 1: I tracked Barishnikov down to a safe house in Boston's
19:28
Speaker 1: North End. But while I was floating in that coma,
19:31
Speaker 1: I heard that the big man picked up another ring.
19:34
Speaker 1: But these days he's getting sloppy. He's got bad habits,
19:39
Speaker 1: like going to the same wine bar every night, like
19:42
Speaker 1: not looking over his shoulder. That's about to get him killed.
19:47
Speaker 1: Just after one am, he stumbles out of the bar
19:49
Speaker 1: as usual. I follow from a distance, and he cuts
19:53
Speaker 1: through the garden, then slips up the front steps into
19:55
Speaker 1: his safe house. Outside. I hide in the darkness and
19:59
Speaker 1: watch him through a window. It's clear he's put on weight.
20:03
Speaker 1: His days of moving like a ballet dancer are long gone.
20:07
Speaker 1: Tonight he collapses into a chair and pulls a ring
20:09
Speaker 1: from his pocket. He stares at it for a moment
20:13
Speaker 1: and then looks out the window, almost like he sees something.
20:17
Speaker 1: But then he drops the ring on the table, sits
20:20
Speaker 1: back in the chair, and flips off the light. This
20:24
Speaker 1: shouldn't be much of a battle. I creep forward in
20:28
Speaker 1: the darkness and pull out my dagger. It's taken me
20:30
Speaker 1: four long years to get here, and now revenge is
20:34
Speaker 1: about to be mine. I glide up the steps without
20:38
Speaker 1: making a sound. Slowly, I reach for the door knob,
20:41
Speaker 1: when suddenly, from out of nowhere, I hear someone step
20:44
Speaker 1: behind me and cack a shotgun. The gun fires, and
20:48
Speaker 1: I feel something ripped through my legs. God, the pain
20:51
Speaker 1: is unbearable. My legs are on fire. I try to
20:55
Speaker 1: crawl forward. I'm inches away from revenge, but I can
20:58
Speaker 1: barely move, I can barely breathe. He's inside. Barishnikov stands
21:03
Speaker 1: up and turns on the light switch. And the bastard
21:06
Speaker 1: was playing possum the whole time. From behind me. I
21:09
Speaker 1: hear a voice chuckling, and the voice asks how I
21:11
Speaker 1: like the load of rock salt he just blasted through
21:13
Speaker 1: my legs. And Barishnikov opens the front door and bumps
21:17
Speaker 1: fists with the shooter, and then he looks down at
21:20
Speaker 1: me and says, write this down, Paul Pierce is the
21:24
Speaker 1: motherfucking truth. The Truth just stands there holding the shotgun
21:30
Speaker 1: and laughs. He tells me I should really get a partner,
21:33
Speaker 1: somebody to watch my back. Then he grabs the ring
21:36
Speaker 1: from the table and holds it up and I tell
21:39
Speaker 1: him he must feel good to hold his first one,
21:42
Speaker 1: and the fucker kicks me straight in the teeth, and
21:44
Speaker 1: then he asks Barishnikov what he's gonna do with me,
21:47
Speaker 1: and Barishnikov pulls a knife out of his pocket. It's
21:50
Speaker 1: the same morning he stabbed me with before, and he
21:53
Speaker 1: holds it up to his mouth like a microphone and
21:55
Speaker 1: spits out a rime as he looks down at me.
21:58
Speaker 1: You can't do it without me. It's no lie. You
22:02
Speaker 1: rated me up, bitch. Now I'm gonna bury you a lie.
22:08
Speaker 3: We'll be right back after this.
22:10
Speaker 4: We were were.
22:20
Speaker 1: Panic rises in my throat as I listen to the
22:22
Speaker 1: dirt pouring down on top of me. I'm trapped in
22:25
Speaker 1: a pine box barely wider than my shoulders. I'd never
22:28
Speaker 1: been claustrophobic, but the darkness is terrifying. I can feel
22:32
Speaker 1: my heart pounding. I'm breathing in huge gulps until I
22:35
Speaker 1: remember that oxygen is a limited resource down here, so
22:38
Speaker 1: I better start conserving it. I close my eyes and
22:41
Speaker 1: I will myself to relax. My pulse drops a bit,
22:45
Speaker 1: and I start digging for a memory, something, anything to
22:49
Speaker 1: give me hope in this hopeless situation. I was fourteen
22:56
Speaker 1: that summer. My father, fresh off of a decade and
22:59
Speaker 1: ne egg, finally brought us back home to Philadelphia, and
23:04
Speaker 1: after ten years in a monastery, he told me I
23:06
Speaker 1: was ready to train in the American style. So he
23:09
Speaker 1: drove me to a black top jungle in the heart
23:11
Speaker 1: of our new city and left me with my cousin, Sharif.
23:15
Speaker 1: Sharif was older, it was taller, and it was mean
23:19
Speaker 1: as hell. As he stood glaring down at me, he
23:22
Speaker 1: asked what weapon I trained with. I pulled up my dagger,
23:25
Speaker 1: but he just laughed. He said that wasn't a weapon,
23:29
Speaker 1: It's just some child's toy. And he reached out with
23:32
Speaker 1: his bare hand and slapped me across the face. Jesus,
23:36
Speaker 1: that stunt. I just glared at him, and then then
23:40
Speaker 1: he reached up and slapped me with the other hand,
23:42
Speaker 1: and my ears were ringing, I saw red, and he
23:45
Speaker 1: pushed me in the chest. I felt the anger well
23:48
Speaker 1: up inside me, and I slashed at him with my knife,
23:50
Speaker 1: but he dodged it easily and slapped me again, knocking
23:53
Speaker 1: me to the ground, this time now. While I was
23:56
Speaker 1: laying there, he calmly pulled out five twenty dollars bills
24:00
Speaker 1: and fanned them out in front of me, a fortune
24:03
Speaker 1: for a fourteen year old. Touched me with the blade
24:06
Speaker 1: even one time, he said, and I'll give you everything
24:09
Speaker 1: I got. I got to my feet and ran four,
24:12
Speaker 1: but again he jumped easily out of the way. I
24:15
Speaker 1: turned around to face him, but he knocked me to
24:17
Speaker 1: the ground with a flying tackle. He grabbed my wrist
24:20
Speaker 1: and wrenched it up in the air. Pain was excruciating,
24:23
Speaker 1: though there was nothing I could do. I was helpless
24:26
Speaker 1: against him. Every day we met at the black Top,
24:29
Speaker 1: and every day he found out the money in front
24:32
Speaker 1: of me, and every day I went home empty handed.
24:36
Speaker 1: For more than a year. I never landed a single blow,
24:40
Speaker 1: not even once. But he wouldn't let me quit. He said,
24:44
Speaker 1: no matter how many times he's beaten, the true warrior
24:47
Speaker 1: never loses because he gets back up every time until
24:51
Speaker 1: he wins. For two years we trained. I grew up bigger, faster, meaner.
24:59
Speaker 1: Still I couldn't land a blow until one day, I'll
25:03
Speaker 1: never forget it. He took a swing and I blocked
25:06
Speaker 1: it instant kicked in and I counterattacked. Nothing much, just
25:10
Speaker 1: a weak blow to the side of his face, But
25:13
Speaker 1: I hit that motherfucker, and the next day I did
25:16
Speaker 1: it again. Slowly, it happened more and more, and by
25:20
Speaker 1: the third year, he no longer showed up on the
25:22
Speaker 1: black top to fight me. I was seventeen years old,
25:26
Speaker 1: and I was ready for the association. As the memory
25:33
Speaker 1: washes over me, I feel the smallest glimmer of hope.
25:37
Speaker 1: I smashed my fist into the lid of the pine
25:39
Speaker 1: box inches above me, and I do it again, and
25:41
Speaker 1: again and again. An hour later, a small crack appears
25:46
Speaker 1: in the wood. My knuckles are busted and bloody, but
25:49
Speaker 1: I'm getting the fuck out of here, and this time
25:52
Speaker 1: nothing is going to stop me. So that's what I do,
25:57
Speaker 1: and two days later I catch up to the zen
25:59
Speaker 1: mast Or at his pad in La. It gives me
26:02
Speaker 1: a look when I show up, beating a hell. I
26:05
Speaker 1: shake my head as in, don't ask. He doesn't. He
26:08
Speaker 1: just launches into a plan, a plan that sounds crazy,
26:13
Speaker 1: but if we can pull it off, we'll net not
26:15
Speaker 1: just one ring but two to make it work. Though,
26:19
Speaker 1: I'm going to need a new partner Before I can
26:23
Speaker 1: even shake my head.
26:24
Speaker 3: No.
26:25
Speaker 1: Phil calls out to the hallway and then walks some tall,
26:29
Speaker 1: curly hair kid. But when he says hello, there's an
26:32
Speaker 1: accent that takes me a moment in place. It's not Italian.
26:36
Speaker 1: Phil says, Mamba, meet your new partner, codename the Spaniard,
26:43
Speaker 1: a European assassin. Phil certainly knows how to pull the heartstrings,
26:49
Speaker 1: but I want to see how he can handle himself.
26:51
Speaker 1: So Phil tells the Spaniard to show me what he's got.
26:56
Speaker 1: We walk to the backyard and the Spaniard tells me
26:58
Speaker 1: to grab two beer bottles from the track. Then he
27:01
Speaker 1: tells me to walk twenty feet out into the yard
27:02
Speaker 1: and whenever I'm ready to throw both bottles in the air.
27:06
Speaker 1: I let them fly and the Spaniard aims and fires
27:09
Speaker 1: a shot that smashes the first bottle to pieces, and
27:12
Speaker 1: before the second one can hit the ground, he tosses
27:14
Speaker 1: the gun to his left hand and fires another shot.
27:17
Speaker 1: The glass explodes. Shit looks like I got a new
27:21
Speaker 1: partner and he's ambidextrous. With the Spaniard on the team,
27:28
Speaker 1: the Showtime Assassination Squad is back on top of the Association.
27:32
Speaker 1: In no time, we dropkick a crew out of Florida
27:35
Speaker 1: and take our fourth ring. And that's the easy part
27:37
Speaker 1: of the plan. We need the ring for bait. We
27:40
Speaker 1: need to put a target on our backs that will
27:42
Speaker 1: send every assassin in the country coming for us, including
27:46
Speaker 1: Barishna Cough, including the Truth. June twenty ten, we hole
27:55
Speaker 1: up at the Showtime Assassination Squad headquarters. Phil walks us
27:59
Speaker 1: through the plane one more time. The Spaniard and I
28:03
Speaker 1: listen intently and then guide the rest of the team
28:05
Speaker 1: into position. As night falls, assassins are lining up outside
28:09
Speaker 1: our gates and there will be no ambush. This is
28:13
Speaker 1: all out. Wore three am, a full moon shines down
28:20
Speaker 1: enough light for a group of assassins to slice each
28:22
Speaker 1: other to ribbons and we weighed in the darkness, weapons
28:25
Speaker 1: in hand, wondering who will make the first move. Finally,
28:30
Speaker 1: the original cough charges forward, but the Spaniard trips him
28:33
Speaker 1: and sends him flying to the ground, and I pull
28:35
Speaker 1: my dagger from my belt to finish him off. When
28:38
Speaker 1: someone steps forward to stop me, That's when I realize
28:41
Speaker 1: that I'm not the only one with a new partner.
28:44
Speaker 1: Standing opposite me is a towering linebacker of a man.
28:48
Speaker 1: He's holding a giant hammer in one hand and tapping
28:51
Speaker 1: it softly against his other back up mamba. He says,
28:56
Speaker 1: there's a new king in town. I can tell by
28:59
Speaker 1: his that this so called thing thinks he's a top
29:02
Speaker 1: assassin and the association. He's big, he's strong, but his
29:07
Speaker 1: head's not fully in the game. He's not in the zone.
29:11
Speaker 1: There's no way he's put in more work than me,
29:14
Speaker 1: and how could he. He's had a cell phone since
29:16
Speaker 1: he was a kid. Hell, he probably spends three hours
29:20
Speaker 1: every day staring at a screen, at least three hours
29:24
Speaker 1: every day that I've been working on killing motherfucker's just
29:27
Speaker 1: like him. I raised my dagger over my head and
29:31
Speaker 1: charge forward. He swings his hammer and does the same,
29:35
Speaker 1: and we're about to meet when all of a sudden,
29:38
Speaker 1: I hear a shot ring out, and the King falls
29:40
Speaker 1: forward to the ground, well, all of them, except the
29:44
Speaker 1: half of his brain that's now splattered against the wall.
29:48
Speaker 1: The Truth steps out of the darkness. His gun is
29:51
Speaker 1: raised and he's got me clean in his sights. I
29:54
Speaker 1: flinch and wait for the bullet to rip through me.
29:57
Speaker 1: I hear a gunfire. Oh nothing. I opened my eyes,
30:03
Speaker 1: and the Truth is laying on the ground, shot dead
30:05
Speaker 1: by my new partner, the Spaniard. It looks like the
30:10
Speaker 1: Truth was right. It's good to have somebody to watch
30:13
Speaker 1: it back. I walk over to him and snatch the
30:16
Speaker 1: ring off his finger, the same one he stole from me.
30:19
Speaker 1: It's my fifth I watched Barishnikov crawl away. I don't
30:24
Speaker 1: even care. It's clear that he's been beaten. This ring
30:29
Speaker 1: is all the revenge I need. I slid it onto
30:32
Speaker 1: my finger. But with my quest complete, I have just
30:35
Speaker 1: one question.
30:37
Speaker 3: What now?
30:46
Speaker 5: I slower siller I seller, I saller, s ser i smaller.
31:08
Speaker 1: The morning was foggy. Gray clouds blocked out the sun,
31:13
Speaker 1: and light. Rain pattered on the roof. Inside, a man
31:17
Speaker 1: lay fast asleep in a dark room, a man who
31:20
Speaker 1: used to be a warrior, one of the deadliest in
31:23
Speaker 1: the world, a man named Kobe Bryant. Suddenly, his eyes
31:29
Speaker 1: snapped open up footsteps. He lay still and listened carefully.
31:37
Speaker 1: He heard another movement. Someone was creeping closer. Slowly, quietly,
31:44
Speaker 1: he reached under the mattress, where he still kept a
31:47
Speaker 1: blade hidden just in case. His fingertips grazed the edge
31:51
Speaker 1: of his handle, when suddenly he felt something land on
31:53
Speaker 1: his back, knocking the breath out of him. Daddy, a
31:59
Speaker 1: small voice. A four year old girl wrapped her arms
32:04
Speaker 1: around him. He relaxed his grip on the knife, rolled
32:08
Speaker 1: over in bed, and put his arm around his daughter.
32:11
Speaker 1: Then the girl beamed at him. Behind her, he could
32:14
Speaker 1: see his older daughter standing in the doorway, telling him
32:18
Speaker 1: to wake up. It was almost time to go. It
32:24
Speaker 1: had been nearly four years since the Black mom but
32:26
Speaker 1: laid down his dagger for the final time. He left
32:29
Speaker 1: an incredible legacy three consecutive NBA championships with his feuding
32:34
Speaker 1: teammate Shaquille O'Neill. Five championships total league MVP eighty one
32:39
Speaker 1: points scored in a single game, an achievement that to
32:43
Speaker 1: this day remained second only to Wilt Chamberlain's legendary one
32:46
Speaker 1: hundred point game that that happened in an entirely different generation.
32:51
Speaker 1: But just as the zen Master predicted, Kobe Bryant became
32:54
Speaker 1: more than a great legend and more than a great warrior.
32:58
Speaker 1: He became a leader, build schools, He trained other warriors,
33:02
Speaker 1: He wrote poetry, and especially as a father to four daughters,
33:06
Speaker 1: he relaxed that famous killer instinct and allowed himself to
33:10
Speaker 1: soften just a little bit while he fulfilled his purpose.
33:14
Speaker 1: And if this were a movie, that's exactly where our
33:17
Speaker 1: story would end. Our hero at peace, his arms wrapped
33:21
Speaker 1: around his family, something like the ending of Quentin Tarantinos
33:25
Speaker 1: Killed Bill Volume two.
33:28
Speaker 4: I roared, I ram paged, and I got bloody satisfaction.
33:33
Speaker 1: But life is not a movie. On the morning of
33:42
Speaker 1: January twenty sixth, twenty twenty, Kobe Bryant and his daughter
33:46
Speaker 1: Gianna left the house for a basketball game at the
33:50
Speaker 1: John Wayne Airport in Orange County. The helicopter took off
33:54
Speaker 1: despite poor weather conditions. We all know what happened next.
34:00
Speaker 1: We can all agree on that because outside of the crash,
34:04
Speaker 1: there isn't much about Kobe Bryant that people can agree on.
34:07
Speaker 1: Going to any sports bar and ask around, some people
34:11
Speaker 1: will tell you he was a hero and one of
34:12
Speaker 1: the greatest late game assassins in basketball history. Others will
34:17
Speaker 1: tell you he was a ballhog whose bad attitude broke
34:19
Speaker 1: up one of the all time great dynasties. Some point
34:23
Speaker 1: to his work ethic on the court and call my hero.
34:26
Speaker 1: Others talk about the off court accusations in call ma villain.
34:30
Speaker 1: Like all great sports debates, it's one that'll play out
34:33
Speaker 1: in sports bars and living rooms across the country and
34:36
Speaker 1: online for decades to come. But one thing that won't
34:40
Speaker 1: be debated is Kobe Bryant's place in basketball history. He'll
34:44
Speaker 1: go down as one of the greatest of all time.
34:48
Speaker 1: As for the legacy of Kobe Bryant the Man, it's
34:51
Speaker 1: a legacy that feels incomplete. It's one that was just
34:55
Speaker 1: getting started. It's a hanging question what happens to the
34:59
Speaker 1: worl after his quest is complete. What would Kobe Bryant
35:04
Speaker 1: be doing now if he were still alive. It's a
35:08
Speaker 1: question that has no answer, and that's a disgrace. I'm
35:16
Speaker 1: Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by
35:41
Speaker 1: Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
35:45
Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
35:47
Speaker 1: notes page at disgracelamppod dot com. If you're listening as
35:51
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36:30
Speaker 1: Rock a Roller He the bed Don Man