A Hard Knox Life: Kobe Knox navigates a family legacy of athletes, NBA namesake at South Carolina

South Carolina guard Kobe Knox was metaphorically born with a basketball in his hand when his father, former Florida State wideout Kevin Knox Sr, named him after NBA legend Kobe Bryant.

His namesake only added more to what became a growing list of standards to live up to within the Knox family. Kobe was already born to a former national champion and a volleyball athlete. Then, as he was starting high school, he watched his older brother, Kevin Knox II, become an NBA lottery pick in 2018.

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More time passed for Kobe. After three years with his hometown Tampa Catholic and a year at Bosco Institute, a prep school in Indiana, the former McDonald’s All-American joined Bryce Drew’s Grand Canyon program.

There, after redshirting as a true freshman, he helped lead the Antelopes to the NCAA Tournament in 2022-23. One year later, his younger brother, Karter Knox, joined the Arkansas Razorbacks in 2024 as a five-star prospect.

While the middle brother has traveled a more winding path than his two former five-star prospect brothers, Kevin II reassures him that everyone’s path is different.

“You know, my path, I did one year in college, highly recruited out of high school, so my path was totally different. But I always used to tell him, that doesn’t mean you can’t get to where I’m at,” Kevin II said.

The reassurance that Kobe receives from his family allows the redshirt senior not to let expectations weigh on him.

Coming from that kind of family, a high work ethic is instilled from birth. The talent extends beyond the boys, too. His younger sister, Ashley Knox, ranks as a four-star prospect and 72nd in the nation, according to ESPN’s 2026 SportsCenter NEXT 100. Ashley committed to the Auburn Tigers on October 24.

“We have a family motto. Nobody works harder than the Knoxs,” Knox Sr. told GamecockCentral. “And so, just really wanted to kind of get that type of mindset grilled into their mind that you’re going to be one of the hardest working individuals.”

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“Nobody works harder than the Knoxs”

For Kobe, the motto means always being prepared for any situation that’s thrown at him. The motto is something that he and his siblings all abide by. When a shot comes, it’s a shot he’s practiced thousands of times.

“Nobody’s going to be in the gym more than us, and you go and show it to everybody every single game,” Kobe told GamecockCentral.

Basketball runs deep in the blood of him and his siblings, but it isn’t where they started. All of the brothers started as two-sport athletes, playing football like their father. While Kevin was a quarterback, Kobe was the only one who played his father’s position.

“He started out (as) a tailback. He was really quick and really fast. And then he literally just went to wide receiver,” Kevin Sr said. ” … Would’ve been a good one too. He’s an athlete. He can do it all.”

On the court growing up, Kevin had a clear advantage over his younger brothers when they’d play. The older brother had already grown into his body while his younger siblings were entering puberty. However, as Kobe grew from 5’9 to 6’4 throughout high school, he started stealing some wins from his older brother.

Having a brother who’s a recent NBA player in Kevin, a former forward for the Golden State Warriors and current member of the NBA G-League’s Windy City Bulls, helps tremendously. It’s even better when you’re able to play pickup ball with him when you’re home, even if it’s rare when they are.

“When they come back home, we’ve got really a two-week stretch that we can get in the gym. It’s tough because our schedules are always different,” Kevin told GamecockCentral.

The elder brother is also someone Kobe can lean on for advice and insight into what NBA scouts are looking for.

“Whenever I’m struggling or something, he’ll give me a call or I’ll give him a call and just talk about different kinds of things,” Kobe said. “He’ll call me after (his games) and be like, ‘Yo, What’d you see out there?’ and He watched my games too, and he’d text me after games like, you could’ve did this better, you could’ve done that better.”

South Florida to South Carolina

Kobe comes to South Carolina by way of South Florida, both as a transfer and as a person. The former USF Bull played 63 games across two years in his hometown of Tampa, F.L., before joining the Gamecocks. As a redshirt junior in 2024-25, he started in 22 of 30 games and averaged career highs in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. 

Kobe’s foray into the SEC marks him as the third brother to play in college basketball’s premier conference. Because of that, he’s been able to lean on his brothers for advice. 

“They just tell me it’s physical,” Kobe told GamecockCentral in June. “The crowds are crazy, and that’s something I’ve been looking forward to going into my last year.” 

While it’s Kobe’s first time playing in the SEC on gamedays, it’s long from his first time playing basketball on an SEC court.

When the family visited Kevin at Kentucky, Kobe would be on the court working out with Wildcat assistant Kenny Payne on the sideline, their father said. 

That additional training exposed Kobe to SEC conditioning for the first time. Awaiting him in the Wildcats’ training room was a treadmill known as “Big Henry”. Kevin II described the treadmill as something that always scared his fellow Kentucky players.

“Yeah, Big Henry was crazy,” Kobe said. ” … I went up there one time with the trainers, and Kev was giving me a warning about Big Henry. Man, I got on Big Henry (and) my legs were cooked after workouts.”

Kobe’s name had grown by the time he entered the portal a second time. Instead of being the unranked 18-year-old, he’d be a high three-star 21-year-old prospect, according to the On3 Transfer Portal Industry Rating.

It’s in the portal where Lamont Paris saw a player that he thought could thrive in his system, Kobe said. 

“He saw that my length and competitive nature can thrive in this conference,” Kobe said in the summer. “ … And I agreed with him, too. He showed me film and I saw different ways I can definitely affect the game.” 

Kobe himself saw a program that could get back to the NCAA Tournament, Kevin Sr. said.

“He was like, ‘Daddy, go to South Carolina. We’re going to the NCAA tournament. I really want to go back to the NCAA tournament,” Kevin Sr. said.

Kobe reaffirmed to GamecockCentral during the program’s annual media day. He said the vision and system of Paris’ program, alongside the love he got from Columbia, intrigued him as a transfer portal prospect.

He believes the Gamecocks have the guys to make something happen this season following a difficult 2024-25 season.

Kevin Sr. was also complimentary of the Gamecocks’ head coach, who he described as a real “nerd” of the game.

“We saw the success that coach Paris had the year before, where they were top 10 in the country, went to the tournament and had a little falling off,” Kevin Sr. said. “ … So he was like, ‘Dang, I really feel this is a great opportunity for me that (I) can use my leadership, my defensive (skills), my athleticism, and me just being a scorer.”

South Carolina fans already got a taste of what Kobe can bring to the floor for South Carolina in the Gamecocks’ exhibition against North Carolina State.

The redshirt senior had 12 points alongside a team-high five rebounds and two assists. He also had a shot to win the game for South Carolina, scoring the go-ahead basket in the final seconds. However, a heavily contested shot from Paul McNeil Jr over Kobe won the game for the Wolfpack.

Family Conflict

When conference play rolls around, that brotherly competition takes center stage when Karter and Kobe face off for the first time as SEC foes. South Carolina travels to Bud Walton Arena on January 13 for a road contest against Arkansas.

As expected, trash talk for that game has already begun between the brothers. The back-and-forth jawing between the two younger brothers dates back to their childhood when the pair were constantly fighting, Kevin II said.

The father of four loves to see that. When you step on the floor against each other, you’re not brothers, you’re adversaries, he said. 

“I expect that, and they expect that of each other,” Kevin Sr. said. “And then obviously, when the game is over, at the end of the day, our last name was Knoxs, and we’ll come back together as one.”

It’s a lot of trash talk, but at the end of the day, the brothers are each other’s biggest fans.

“We watch each other’s every game, but that’s going to be one game we circle on the calendar,” Kobe said.

Preparing for life after basketball

While success follows the family around, Kevin Sr knows, as an athlete himself, eventually, the ball will stop bouncing. He’s made sure to prepare his kids so that if a professional career in sports isn’t there, they’ll be ready. 

For Kobe, he plans to enter coaching after his playing days are over. Having already received his bachelor’s degree at USF, he’s seeking a master’s in Coaching Education at South Carolina. Playing for coaches like Paris and the late Amir Abdul-Rahim has helped his quest towards that.

“I want to coach specifically at the college level. So, just reading, like I said, I’ve been to three different schools, seen different coaching approaches, and I feel I can add that to my future self,” Kobe said.

Back on the court, Kevin said something Kobe loves is playing on the biggest stage against the best competition.

“He wants to be in the packed houses of sold-out Kentucky, sold-out Missouri, Auburn. Like, he likes those environments,” Kevin II said.

Additionally, Kevin II noted that being able to play Southeastern Conference basketball is something you can’t take for granted. Similar to the ACC, there are primetime games every single night.

“I talk to him every single night, and I think Kobe’s more than ready for it. He’s had a great college career so far, so I think it’s a great time for him to play in a tougher conference,” Kevin II said.

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