Last year, Kobe Bryant suggested a book for Kyrie Irving to read. That is not uncommon. Bryant has a habit of making recommendations to other athletes. They come to him, he says, because of his age, and he’ll reciprocate with a few titles — a Kobe book club, of sorts.
No one, however, is more curious, he says, than Irving, who has fashioned a public persona of capitalistic transcendentalism — floating flat-earth theories and promoting plant-based meat while making a film based off a character he honed for Pepsi commercials. Irving is the one who shows up most in Bryant’s call log.
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Bryant told Irving to read “The Alchemist,” a three-decade-old best-selling novel by Paulo Coelho that examines personal exploration and growth through allegory. Irving, in search of simpler lessons, recoiled at first.
“I was like, ‘Ugh, all right,’” Irving said. “I’m just trying to be a better basketball player, you know what I mean? I’m trying to reach out to you, Kobe, to be a better basketball player, better man, ultimately. What the hell does ‘The Alchemist’ have to do with my life?”
Then Irving started reading. The book tells the story of Santiago, a young Spanish shepherd who dreams that a treasure is waiting for him in the Egyptian desert. He goes on a journey to discover the treasure while pursuing his personal legend, which is ultimately a destiny that some choose not to follow. Heavy on mysticism and self-fulfillment, it has become an international hit and made Coelho a headliner.
It also resonated with Irving. When he finished, he felt tethered to others who also connected with the book on a deeper level. He recognized a pull to complete a journey, and, intuitively, the realization that it may not be headed the right way.
“Basketball has been a vehicle that’s driven me for a long time,” he said. “But I think that the importance of my life outside of that has been something that I’ve been paying attention to a lot more. Basketball, this life, it’s an illusion in terms of certain material things that mean a lot more — I mean like, going after success or accomplishments in this league has been predicated on so many things that you’re here” — Irving raises his arms shoulder high — “based upon what you’ve accomplished or how successful you are or how people perceive you. In actuality, it really doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t really get me up in the morning every single day to want to meditate, to want to read, to want to do things that fulfill my life.”
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And he goes on: “I thought it was interesting in ‘The Alchemist’ how he was looking for the alchemist but the alchemist found him. Found him in the middle of the desert with this and it’s just like, ‘I can’t believe I just met him,’ and in doing so sometimes meeting certain individuals, they embody so much of that wisdom that they want to impart on you. Naturally, sometimes the ego or naturally my personality will get in the way, of pushing people away rather than bringing them closer and learning more about them.”
That the book struck a nerve with Irving wasn’t surprising. It has fans worldwide. Bryant says he’s re-read it about five times. It is popular across the NBA, where it’s served as a guiding text for several players and stars, and has helped turned cliche-happy athletes into verbose philosophy majors.
The spring and summer of 2018 basically served as a league-wide endorsement of the book. LeBron James was spotted reading it during the Eastern Conference finals while he was still with the Cavaliers. Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka read from it a few months later during a news conference debuting the team’s signings, including James. Al Horford has expressed an appreciation for it. Ray Allen turned into a bibliophile because of it.
The book is a small sinew running through the league, passed on from one player to another, through one degree or another. Andre Iguodala heard about it from Tyson Chandler’s brother-in-law and then passed it on to others around the NBA. Sasha Vujacic became a fan of Coelho and moved onto his other work.
For one reason or another, the book has a way of finding its way to players at the right time in their careers. Ekpe Udoh, who’s hopscotched around the NBA, counts it among his favorite reads. He read it as he struggled with injuries and the ups-and-downs of his seasons with the Bucks and found that it put his struggles in perspective.
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Kelly Oubre Jr. read it last season. He was given the book through a friend’s sister who studied numerology and crystals, which made Oubre immediately trust the recommendation. He began it before a midseason trade from Washington to Phoenix, hoping to find his purpose.
“I love it, man,” Oubre said. “It has a deeper meaning, because it’s a story about a kid traveling trying to find his destiny, talking to people. If you put it in my perspective, I travel a lot in different cities all the time. I’m around different people, people who have things to tell me and wisdom to tell me, so I’m really listening. I’m taking the omens and I’m pretty much just trying to learn from it.”
Pelinka started it after a chance encounter with Bryant. After he was offered the Lakers’ GM job in 2017, Pelinka went to Bryant’s office to discuss his new opportunity and saw Bryant had the book on his desk. Because Pelinka was about to go on his journey, Pelinka recalls Bryant saying, he needed to read “The Alchemist.” Pelinka saw James reading it during the 2018 playoffs, and when the superstar signed with Los Angeles, the general manager saw a convergence.
Pelinka now keeps a hard-cover copy at his office in the Lakers’ facility and a soft-cover at home that he flips through for quotes.
“Some people view life as choose your own adventure or you control your own destiny, and I don’t think that’s really the message of truth in this book,” Pelinka said. “I think this book is, there is a good plan and a good path for you if you follow the signs along the way and you dedicate yourself to the right things.”
Iguodala, the three-time NBA champion and 2015 Finals MVP, read the book during a difficult time in his life. He was six seasons into his NBA career during the summer of 2010 but grappling with personal issues and who he was. He had success with the Sixers, becoming one of the most well-rounded players in the league, but believed that something else was desired of him in Philadelphia. He was not perceived as he wanted to be. The media scrutiny wore on him. He grew his hair out as a response to the stress and dealt with “a little bit of depression.”
To cope, he began to read more often. That summer, he joined the U.S. national team in Turkey for the FIBA World Cup. In Istanbul, he found downtime by the pool after practice to read.
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By the time he was able to start “The Alchemist,” he was in a better place, ready to follow the book wherever it took him, clipping onto what he saw as a tale of passion and perseverance.
“The lifestyle we live, because you put so much work into getting somewhere and the lifestyle can pull you away from the reason you’re doing it in the first place,” he said. “It’s easy to lose a sense of self. It’s easy to lose what you were becoming as a person because it’s so self-centered in trying to prove people wrong, trying to accomplish personal goals, the money, fame, all the evils of everything that’s trying to seep into your world as well. You can get lost of who you are as a person. If you don’t catch it, you generally drift to a negative outlet, whether it be alcohol, whether it be drugs, whether it be sex — things that are unhealthy for you.
“I think that’s why you find it in guys like Kobe, like Kyrie, they’re really up here — superstardom — they have, like, cultural followings and sometimes that’s just a lot in itself. It is a lot. It’s bigger than it even sounds, the influence that they have. They try to keep everything in the right perspective, what the bigger thing is. Who knows what that is. Some people know. Some people have a piece of what it is, others don’t. It can be tough.”
Coelho understands why his book has become so beloved around the NBA. He always wanted to write, he says, and he used “The Alchemist” as a way to explain to himself what writing meant to him. He has tried to nurture his inspiration and he believes the principles of alchemy — patience, discipline and inspiration — are just as valuable to athletes.
But the very knowledge that others, including those in the league, admire his books is a simple reward to him.
He may have no bigger admirer in basketball than Bryant. They have spoken by phone — a “magic” moment for Coelho, who says he is an admirer of Bryant’s — with Bryant questioning him about storytelling and where Coelho finds his inspiration. They had plans to meet last summer in Switzerland before hectic schedules got in the way. (Coelho says that Bryant suggested an idea for him, which the author says he will write about when the right moment comes; Bryant, who now runs Granity Studios, a content company, says they will work together in the future.)
“My literature is much more the result of a paradox than that of an implacable logic, typical of police novels,” Coelho told The Athletic. “The paradox is the tension that exists in my soul. Like in archery, the paradox is the bow that can be both tense and relaxed. The same happens in basketball, when you have to combine inspiration with training and esprit de corps.”
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It is common for athletes to take the long view. Nightly reflection in an 82-game season can become myopic. “The Alchemist,” with its winding plot and Santiago’s sinuous path to find his treasure, provides an apt metaphor for NBA players, who find its wisdom particularly appropriate for them.
And then there is the forgotten — that NBA stars, much like everyone else, are looking for personal growth. Emotional maturation is as much an end-game as anything else. This generation of stars may be remembered for their willingness to be introspective like no other before them.
Irving, despite his riches and celebrity, is still seeking, stripping away habits he took a lifetime to form to find time for what brings him fulfillment. He realized that he wasn’t building enough relationships, wasn’t reading enough, wasn’t seeing the world wide enough. It struck him that he needed to feel free to cope with the pressure of playing at the levels expected of him. Basketball had been a safe haven, but he also needed to find time for himself.
“In the NBA you can get swallowed up in this lifestyle in a matter of winning stuff and materialism and you can go way beyond and searching for yourself in a meaningful locker room where you’re around people every single day,” he said. “But the stimulation of knowledge and acquiring knowledge, it doesn’t come as often. I left school eight years ago and I’m still in search of myself. So how the fuck do I find myself and be ready to deal with the NBA and what comes with the pressures of that, this whole little hub of it? Then you separate yourself from it and you’re like, OK, why would I respond that way?
“I was so fucking young when I was doing that. I was saying certain things. I was so young doing that. Now the reflective point of my life is the most beautiful thing. It’s just like talking with you, I’ll reflect on it later but I won’t overthink it if I said the right things or not. It was just like I met another human being, a soulful human being, that just wants to know about something that excites them, a passion that excites you. I just appreciate that a lot more rather than being this face-up guy, nah I don’t want to talk to anybody. There’s so much love in this world.”
In conversations about the book for this story, “The Alchemist” became a vehicle to discuss how the NBA’s lifestyle forces players to negotiate its demands and benefits.
Iguodala, at 35 with 15 years in the league and a reputation as one of its most thoughtful people, is still trying to figure himself out. Discussions about money and houses and families are common, and how much of all that players want, are common, he says, but there isn’t enough accountability. When mistakes are made, he asks, will he grow from them?
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“Most of the time we make apologies because we’re about to get fined or it’s bad for the image. We’re not doing it because we genuinely are sorry because that’s how I truly feel. For me, when I get into situations like that’s how I truly felt. Now I reflect and say it may have been wrong for me to feel that way but that’s how I truly felt. Other guys will be like, whatever, man, fine me and some bullshit, but they don’t understand all the complexities that went within that whole situation. I’m in agreeance with Kyrie as far as we’re all searching.
“I’m still trying to plan out my days when I retire. I’m not one foot out, but I’m in it — but I’m also planning ahead. I struggle with that daily. What’s next? Where’s this going to lead? There’s a fear in that. It’s a healthy fear because I’m doing all the necessary things to be ready for that situation. I’m going full speed ahead and whatever I run into, I run into a bump, I’ll learn from it.
“It’s like the story, I’m trying to be ready for whatever is going to be there when I get there, whenever that is. That could be tomorrow, that could be next year, that could be in five years.”
(Top photos of Bryant, Pelinka, Coelho, Iguodala and Irving from Getty Images)
