Kobe Bryant lived by one rule: “Winning takes precedence over all.” He wasn’t just up before sunrise—he owned those early hours, sharpening his craft while the world slept. Kobe forged greatness by teaching others. He passed it on, mentoring stars—Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, even Anthony Davis in his youth. And now, yet another story has emerged, adding a new chapter to the ever-growing book of Kobe’s influence.

The Barnes twins, Carter and Isaiah, seemed destined for greatness from the start. With a champion father in Matt Barnes, a former Warrior, and a childhood filled with access to NBA legends, basketball was always in their blood. “Having that little advantage over everyone else, like having a lot of great basketball minds with you and around you, that kind of like put that love in the game,” they admitted. But it wasn’t just the star-studded environment that lit their fire.

That moment came courtesy of Kobe Bryant. Carter and Isaiah Barnes may have grown up around the game, but even all that star power wasn’t what made them really lock in. On a recent episode of Sportsing!, the twins shared they didn’t truly start taking basketball seriously until one intense session with the Black Mamba. “Really started to take serious was after the Kobe workout,” they said. “Cuz he put us through some crazy, crazy drills. Looking back, they weren’t even that crazy, but at the time…”

When pressed on what Kobe actually made them do, the brothers didn’t sugarcoat it. “It’s all on YouTube,” they laughed. “But I think I actually started crying. I’m not gonna lie.” The reason? A classic Kobe move or let’s just say demand. “He told us to go get water, he came back, threw both balls to the side, and I was like, ‘What you doing, bro?’ He was like, ‘Nah, get in shape.’” They couldn’t believe it. They shook their head in denial and said, “Getting in shape at 10. That’s tough.”

But here’s the thing—they weren’t scared of him. Kobe wasn’t yelling or barking orders. He was cool, composed, and sharper than ever. “He was calm,” they remembered. “Just—if you was about to start crying—don’t cry. Mental toughness. We don’t do that stuff.” That moment stuck. Because for the Barnes twins, Kobe didn’t just teach them basketball. He gave them a wake-up call about what greatness actually demands.

The day Kobe Bryant inspired the Barnes boys

Matt Barnes long ago turned NBA road trips into a masterclass for his twins, Carter and Isaiah. He let them tag along through his final five seasons (2010–14) with stops in Memphis, Toronto, and Sacramento. During that time, they rubbed shoulders with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. But it was their dad’s former Laker teammate who earned the “Uncle Kobe” nickname. “The twins started being able to move around with me in my last four or five years,” Barnes told Joakim Noah on All the Smoke. “So they got to meet Kobe… he started giving them shoes… he was around that. They always liked it. But they were kids, so they loved video games.”

For their 10th birthday, Barnes orchestrated what he calls “the ultimate surprise”—a private, hour‑long workout with Kobe at an Orange County facility off the beaten path. “Had a surprise workout for them on their 10th birthday,” Barnes recalled. “When they came into the gym—‘What’s up?’ hug—‘What’s up, Uncle Kobe’”. But instead of cupcakes, Kobe dished out Mamba‑style intensity: suicides, ball‑handling gauntlets, and relentless conditioning. “He wanted us to earn every drop of sweat,” Carter later said when a clip resurfaced online—“I actually started crying, not gonna lie”

Once the drills ended, Kobe leveled up the lesson. “So where you guys wanna go to college?” he asked the twins in unison. “We’re going to UCLA,” they chimed—only to watch Kobe’s famously unfiltered smile vanish. “No, you’re not,” he snapped. Barnes laughed, recounting, “Your dad said you like video games, so you might go to school just to be a student, not to play ball”. That zinger hit harder with time: two years later, the brothers swapped controllers for 6 a.m. gym sessions—an early sign they’d absorbed Kobe’s creed: winning takes precedence over all.

The legacy of Kobe Bryant was never just about his stats—it was about the standards he set. For the Barnes twins, those standards showed up in a birthday workout that would quietly reshape their futures. Years later, they’re not just remembering Kobe—they’re proving him right.