Throughout his NBA career, with his drive for excellence, Kobe Bryant made a lot of young hoopers his fans. The Lakers legend even took the mantle of training his daughter Gianna post-retirement. During that time a former teammate was coaching his twins and once again became close to Kobe. Matt Barnes even shared how the 5x NBA Champion even sent a gift not just to the twins but to the entire team before passing away.

“We would see each other a little bit more because he was coaching Gigi and I was coaching the twins.” Matt Barnes spoke to the host, Charlamagne tha God. “We had talked maybe one time after that (the four-year-old interview with All the Smoke) and then he had sent some shoes literally the week, I think he passed on a Sunday, he sent shoes that previous Monday to the twins and their whole team. So they had just got fresh Kobes.”

Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson had Kobe Bryant as their guest on episode 11, four years ago. Then, the All the Smoke podcast was a new venture. Currently, that episode has more than 6 million views. And is the second most-watched video on their channel trailing behind Shannon Sharpe’s interview with 8 million views. Kobe spoke about his retirement, the new-look Lakers, his family life, and his career.

Since Matt Barnes became close, he described the moment of sudden passing away as tough. “We had spoke and then obviously like I said he sent some shoes the week of the actual passing so it was tough man.” The former teammate of Kobe Bryant spoke to The Breakfast Club this week.

The former Champion also chose Kobe Bryant and the Lakers over the Big 3 of the Miami Heat back in 2010. Matt Barnes recalled receiving a call from ‘Black Mamba‘, “And he’s like, ‘Do you want to be a Laker?’” Since Barnes is a California native he couldn’t pass on the opportunity to play for the team and represented them for 2 seasons. From there the two formed a relationship on and off the court. To the point where the former Warriors twins even called Kobe as Uncle.

Exploring the relationship of Matt Barnes’ kids with Kobe Bryant

Recently, Matt Barnes revealed that became a father for the seventh time during the five-year celebration tour of ‘All the Smoke’. His oldest kids are his twins, Carter and Isaiah, with his ex-wife, Gloria Govan. “The twins started being able to move around with me in my last four or five years. So they got to meet Kobe, he was Uncle Kobe because he met them and he started giving them shoes.” 

The 44-year-old continued on his podcast about the relationship with Kobe Bryant. “Then in there 10th birthday I took them to go see Kobe for a surprise birthday and he trained them and I kinda think that lit the fire.” Earlier this year the twins helped Crespi Carmelite High School secure the Section 7 championship finishing 4-0 in their division.

Their Instagram page, ‘thebarnesboys’ has over 36k followers and has a tribute to Kobe Bryant in the form of their profile picture of the Lakers legend and Gianna from 2018. Thus signifying the love and respect they shared for them. In the upcoming year, they will be in their sophomore years and Matt Barnes would be hoping the teachings of Kobe stick with them throughout.