The former NBA star recently surprised students in Southern California.
Kobe Bryant is giving back to his community!
The former NBA star recently surprised students at Oxford Prep Academy, a tuition-free charter school in Mission Viejo, California, after learning that their teacher, Mr. Andrew Ntzouras, had incorporated his podcast for kids (The Punies) into his lesson plans.
"They have a really, really great teacher, who is completely committed to and passionate about teaching young kids," Bryant, 40, told ET. "He actually built the curriculum around one of the shows I created, and we caught wind of it and decided to pop in for a surprise visit."
"At the end of the day, the most important people that I've found in my life were family and your teachers and coaches," he continued. "I think our responsibility [as teachers and role models] is to always inspire -- to try to take some of the life lessons that we have learned and share those with the next generation, so that they can start their journey with the leg up, right? ... It's extremely important to teach life lessons to these young kids at an early age, but do it in an entertaining way."
Bryant, who shares three kids -- Natalia, 15, Gianna, 12, and Bianka, 2, with wife Vanessa, is also a "teacher" in his own right. After retiring from professional basketball with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2016, he is now coaching daughter Giana's middle school basketball team.
"It's been fun!" he exclaimed. "We've been working together for a year and a half and they've improved tremendously in that time. I've got a group of great parents, a group of really, really intelligent, hardworking girls, and -- they're all seventh graders, they're all 12 years old -- but they've been playing so well!"
"I play 'em up now," he added. "They've been playing eighth and ninth grade, they've been winning tournaments. But the most important thing is they keep improving, keep getting better and they love doing it. They love being around each other."
And Bryant admitted he loves the extra daddy-daughter time with his middle child.
"Gianna's pretty easy to coach," he revealed. "We haven't had any issues of dad-daughter sort of thing. She's very competitive and she's a hard worker, so there haven't been any issues with that."
With the upcoming holidays, Bryant is also excited to spend quality time with his entire family. Their plans this Christmas?
"Every year, we go and watch The Nutcracker. Every single year," he explained. "This year we're fortunate [because] Misty Copeland is dancing, so we're looking forward to seeing her do her thing."
"We also watch Home Alone, Charlie Brown, all the Christmas classics," he added. "So, those are kinda family traditions. We try to make a gingerbread house, but my wife and the kids do a much, much better job than I do! I'll put it that way."
Hear more on the Bryant family in the video below.
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