Rivals Turned Idols: How the '96 NBA Draft Class Changed the Game

For fans of The Last Dance and Hanif Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year, the must-read story of the 1996 NBA Draft class—Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash— that turned the NBA into a global force and changed culture forever.

In Rivals Turned Idols, a legendary class of players—Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Ray Allen, and Stephon Marbury—emerged not just as stars, but as architects of the modern game and the global phenomenon it would become.

This is the story of how athle...