Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.

Stephen "tWitch" Boss and Allison Holker have got the moves.

Boss stepped away from his DJ booth and took the reins as the guest host ofThe Ellen DeGeneres Showon Friday.And, naturally, he kicked things off in trueEllen DeGeneres fashion: By dancing it out. Of course, he added his own spin to the routine, bringing out his wife ofnearly six years, who also happens to beverypregnant.

"My best advice is to find a dance partner that you trust and you love," Boss said to the audience."And for me, that's my beautiful wife Allison. She is nine months pregnant, she is my hero and she is here. And we're about to groove like onlyBosses can do."

The expectant parents proved to be an absolute mood as they rocked out toNormani's "Motivation." Throughout, they both took pride in flauntingHolker's bump. If watchingher dance so joyously while nine months pregnant doesn't motivate you today, nothing will!

TheSo You Think You Can Dancealums will soon welcome a third tiny dancera baby girlto their brood.Holker is mom to daughterWeslie, 11, and theduo share sonMaddox, 3.

"Can't even express all the incredible emotions we are feeling right now!" she wrote on Instagram after their gender reveal. "I am so excited to be bringing in another beautiful baby girl into the world...This baby girl is already surrounded by love and support!"

Check out the video to see Boss and Holkerbrightenup your Friday!

Don't miss E! News every weeknight at 7, only on E!

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Stephen ''tWitch'' Boss & Allison Holker Give Motivation to Dance - E! NEWS

Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young is soaking up the negativity ahead of what he wants to be his first All-Star season.

Young told Yahoo Sports in a story published Thursday that he goes so far as to keep negative tweets on his phone as motivation. Whether it's shots at his 6-foot-2 stature or the 2018 draft-day trade that brought him to Atlanta, it's all fuel for the 21-year-old.

"I remember coming into high school, coming into college, they were saying, 'He's too small.' Coming into the league, 'He's too small. He has bust potential.' The whole trade with Luka Doncic. I don't know that there's just one [slight]," Young told Yahoo Sports. "And whenever they stop talking just about me, they start talking about the organization and talking about how they made the worst decision and how it could be the worst trade in NBA history. That all motivates me, for sure."

He did take one step toward fixing the size question, gaining 11 pounds of muscle during the offseason.

Young said he believes he has a chance to be an All-Star this season -- but only if he can help the Hawks win more. Last season, they finished 29-53.

"I think if we win as many games as I feel like we can and at least be in playoff contention, I think I have a good chance," Young said. "The more we win, the better my odds are of getting into the All-Star Game, and that's my main focus: winning.

"I know my numbers will be there. I'm not worried about my numbers. I feel like the way we play, the fast pace we play, my numbers will be there. For me, it's all about winning. If we're winning, I have a really good chance of being in that All-Star Game."

He will want to work on some of his individual numbers, though. Young had nine turnovers while scoring 18 points with seven rebounds and five assists during a preseason loss to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Trae Young admits hanging on to old tweets for motivation - ESPN

As background, Im a professor of communication and journalism, which means I study how people make meaning through media. This is broad, but this focus on meaning and media poses an intellectual challenge that is tightly tied to practices like journalism, technology design, and policy making. These are the professions that often create the conditions under which people make meaning through media, so they matter to public life.

By making meaning through media, I mean this: how people who will never meet face-to-face discover, argue about, and manage collective life, and the stakes involved in our interconnections how communication make publics.

Publics are not natural. They dont exist in the wild. We make public life through:

I could go on. The point is this: How well we govern ourselves learn about each other, discover shared concerns, encourage or sanction behavior all of this governance depends on how well our communication systems work.

Today, these systems of communication these systems of self-governance that make publics increasingly live within privately controlled infrastructures. These infrastructures create the conditions under which people make meaning. They make some publics more likely than others. These infrastructures are often called platforms.

Platform makers often say that they dont create information, that theyre neutral. But we know that they make important decisions about how information is gathered, circulated, analyzed, and sold. They make images of the world with our information. Following Jos van Dijck, Thomas Poell, and Martijn de Waal, we can distinguish between two kinds of platforms. The first is sectoral platforms think Airbnb, Spotify, Netflix, Uber. They connect people who have something with people who want something and they are typically focused in domains, like housing, entertainment, transportation, or news.

But there is a second, more powerful kind of platform I want to focus on: infrastructural platforms. These platforms make the often invisible web through which almost all data today are captured, processed, stored, circulated, and sold. They are typically created by the Big Five technology companies: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon. They are most obviously search engines, browsers, email clients, advertising markets, social networking sites, geolocation and navigation systems.

But they also make and apply rules about what content is allowed to exist and circulate online. They direct vast global workforces of contractors and private algorithms that moderate speech. Facebook is creating its own Supreme Court to judge appeals. Google has tried to create its own artificial intelligence ethics board. Platforms sometimes talk about themselves as governments and, indeed, the government of Denmark has an official ambassador of technology.

They are building a complete stack of experience through custom hardware, software, server farms, data warehouses, private internet networks, undersea cables, and even entire city neighborhoods like Googles Sidewalk project in Toronto. Instead of thinking about platform companies as the next generation of newspapers, radio stations, or TV channels, we should see them as entirely new entities that shapeshift constantly. Sometimes they are like cities, newsrooms, post offices, libraries, or utilities but they are always like advertising firms. Do not forget this: They earn the vast majority of their revenue through advertising. They are primarily driven by advertising priorities.

The scope and scale of these platforms is unprecedented, moving far faster than governments and civil society, often outpacing the very idea of governance. We are usually left anticipating and reacting imagining what these companies might do and coping with what they have done. We and they are now trying to figure out whether we should simply apply existing rules or invent entirely new ones.

In trying to understand public life in these platform societies, I think there are at least 5 ways to see platform power. (There are likely many more but these seem like the most currently pressing.)

Note that I havent asked: Whats the impact of technology on society? Thats the wrong question. Platforms are societies of intertwined people and machines. There is no such thing as online life versus real life. We give massive ground if we pretend that these companies are simply having an effect or impact on some separate society.

I think self-regulation is proving insufficient, and even platforms own requests for regulation need to be viewed skeptically. It would certainly be easier for them to apply global speech standards rather than fuss with different geographies and cultures, but their desires for simplicity and large-scale standards cannot be allowed to collapse human differences. We should lead with public principles grounded in democratic legitimacy and accountability, not let platforms define for themselves the terms of their own regulation.

Flawed as they are (and they often are), we have courts, we have parliaments, we have elections, we have civil societies we have traditions of democratic legitimacy. And lets not forget: Platforms need us our content, out labor, our attention, our money. They are ours to control if we can figure out how to do it.

See the article here:
Tech platforms are where public life is increasingly constructed, and their motivations are far from neutral - Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard

Just six minutes of walking can increase a persons motivation to perform physical activity and improve feelings of energy, fatigue, depression, and confusion, according to research conducted by Clarkson University Associate Professor in Physical Therapy, Ali Boolani.

Boolani recently completed a study where he measured the mood of patients over the age of 65 before and after taking a six minute walk, and found that patients saw decreased mental fatigue and improved physical energy after their walk.

Patients were asked to participate in a three-day study. On the first day, Boolani and his team measured their moods, had them walk around, and measured their moods again. On days two and three, the patients were given cognitive tasks that were meant to make them feel worse, after which their mood was measured. Then, it was time for a walk.

We had them walk for six minutes around a track, and we had them walk at a pace that they felt comfortable with, Boolani said. Even on the days they did cognitive tasks they started feeling better, and they even got up above baseline, which was really cool.

Levels of anxiety in patients were also found to decrease, according to Boolani.

"Feelings of anxiety definitely improved, this is along the lines of most of the studies that have been done that show that physical activity improves feelings of anxiety," he said.

On top of an increase in physical energy and a decrease in mental fatigue, Boolani measured patients motivation levels.

Turns out, after six minutes of physical activity, they were more motivated to perform physical tasks, He said. In a real setting if youre having a tough day, you dont feel like working out, maybe six minutes of just walking can make you more motivated to be more physically active.

According to Boolani, similar studies have been conducted in the past, but six minutes is the shortest amount of time anyone has tested the impact of walking.

He also said the pace at which patients walked had an impact on their energy and fatigue levels.

The faster they walked, the more their feelings of energy increased and their feelings of fatigue decreased, Boolani said.

Boolanis research was co-authored by Assistant Professor of Biology Shantanu Sur, Associate Professor of Mathematics Sumona Mondal, Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Chris Towler, Graduate Occupational Therapy Student Abby Avolio, Graduate Engineering Student Da Yang, former Clarkson Undergraduate Student Aurora Goodwin, and Matt Smith, an Associate Professor at Texas A&M.

Excerpt from:
Six Minutes of Walking Can Increase Motivation to Perform Physical Activity, According to Clarkson University Professor's Research - Clarkson...

Note: Inc.'s Ask a 20-Something series offers sage advice for navigating all manner of workplace issues, from the perspective of a young employee.

Q: One of my younger staffers is really becoming a star employee. She's asked for a raise, and my gut says that I need to give it to her or I'll lose her. The problem: There's no money in the budget. How can I keep her motivated without increasing her salary?

A: Let me stop you right there:Yournon-monetary rewardsare insulting. Like,"Eagleton building a Pawnee border wall" level of insulting. (If you haven't seen Parks and Recreation, go watch it as soon as you finish reading this column.)

You see atitle bump without a raise as a tangible reward that doesn't cost money. She sees a big, flashing neon message: Your company can't afford to keep her. She'sgoing to start looking for higher-level jobs elsewhere. Immediately.

I mean, jeez. Is human communication a lost art these days? You can't possibly know what she's thinking unless you ask her, so sit down with her and have an honest conversation. Tell her that she deserves a raise, you simply can't afford it, and she'll be near the top of the list when that money becomes available.

Really explain that second part. I've been in this kind of situation before, and the same thought always lurks in the back of my mind: Is there really no money in the budget? Or are you just trying to placate me? A timeline can help, so if you can, specify when that raise could come.

Ask her about her other career goals. She may want to take on responsibilities that to you seem unrealistic for someone of her age and experience. I beg of you: Please, please, just get over it. Imagine someone with the exact same level of expertise and track record of success, but five to 10 years older. Would you give her that work?

Multiple times, I've lost out on roles to older candidates, despite having a stronger background. I've been told that other people's "life experience" matters more than my industry experience. Still makes me grind my teeth. Denying your young employee high-level work because of her age is a great way to get her eternally pissed off at you. And then she'll definitely want to leave.

Just in case you still aren't buying it, here's a partial solution: Find a way for her to test-drive those responsibilities. She could work with an experienced, trusted colleague on more advanced projects, rather than tackling them solo. You could even mentor her yourself, which would show her that you really do value her talent and contributions.

Most people--young, old, or anywhere in between--are motivated by the challenges they get to embrace every day. If you can't afford her raise, you can at least keep her engaged with new and interesting ones.

If you can't do that, start waving goodbye.

To submit a question for Ask a 20-Something, email calbertdeitch@inc.com. Your query could be featured in a future installment.

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How to Motivate a Rising Star Employee When Raises Are Not an Option - Inc.

The Kansas City Chiefs scored their fewest points in a game with Patrick Mahomes starting, by a lot. Entering Sunday night's tilt K.C. had never scored fewer than 26 points under Mahomes. Against the Indianapolis Colts, they score half that, 13.

The Colts earned the 19-13 victory by playing keep-away on offense, and being physical with the Chiefs skill-position players on the outside. The Chiefs had the ball for 22 minutes, 45 seconds in this game, their lowest time of possession in a game under Patrick Mahomes (0-3 in games with Mahomes in which they had less than 25 minutes of possession).

The Indy D slowed K.C. after the first two drives of the game. First two drives: 10 points, 154 yards; Last eight drives: 3 points, 170 yards.

The Indy secondary deserves credit for overcoming injuries and sticking to K.C. wideouts, eschewing their normal zone-coverage heavy scheme for more man-to-man Sunday night. And the defensive front took advantage of an injured Chiefs O-line, to batter Mahomes in the second half after he tweaked his ankle.

The Colts' defensive effort was particularly special to one veteran: Justin Houston, who played for K.C. for the first eight years of his career before moving to Indy this offseason. Apparently the 30-year-old is a big believer in the #RevengeGame.

"I'd be lying to say there wasn't (extra motivation)," Houston said after the game, via the team's official website. "That's just like your old girlfriend -- you get a new girlfriend, you wanna show off."

Houston finished the win over his old teammates with a sack, four tackles, and two tackles for loss. His biggest play of the game came with just over five minutes left, and the Chiefs going for it on 4th-and-1 from their own 35-yard-line. Mahomes handed the ball to running back Damien Williams, and Houston knifed into the backfield to drag the RB down for a loss. The play allowed Indy to milk more time off the clock and stretch the lead to an insurmountable nine points.

"It was huge," Reich said of Houston's performance. "I mean, even before the game as we break and he was all fired up, he had the whole team goin', gets the sack, great pressure all day, makes the fourth-down stop. I mean, those are massive plays. He is such a great player and such a good leader and such a good person -- obviously I'm happy for all of us -- I'm especially happy (for Justin). You love it when a guy does it the right way like Justin does it and then he gets rewarded with this win as a team and then he played great on top of it."

Houston's play Sunday night typified an entire Colts defense that played better than the sum of its parts, smothering the most exciting passing attack in the NFL.

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Houston: Extra motivation in win over former team - NFL.com

House Democrats have reportedly requested testimony from the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, who questioned President TrumpDonald John TrumpFederal prosecutors investigating Giuliani: report House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman and top Republican to introduce sanctions bill against Turkey Trump lashes out at 2020 Dems, impeachment inquiry MORE's motivations for withholding aid to the country.

Democrats requested to depose diplomat William Taylor as part of their impeachment inquiry, but have not yet scheduled an interview with him or issued a subpoena, multiple sources familiar with the situation told CNN.

In text messages turned over to the House during adeposition from Kurt VolkerKurt VolkerIn testimony, Dems see an ambassador scorned, while GOP defends Trump Cracks emerge in White House strategy as witness testifies Democrats request testimony from US diplomat who questioned Trump motivations on Ukraine MORE, who served as the special envoy to Ukraine, Taylor suggested U.S. military aid was being withheld from Ukraine for political reasons.

Trump had delayed the hundreds of millions in dollars in aid, which had been approved by Congress, just days before he pressed Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky on July 25 to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenFederal prosecutors investigating Giuliani: report Trump lashes out at 2020 Dems, impeachment inquiry In marathon testimony, Dems see an ambassador scorned, while GOP defends Trump MORE, a leading 2020 contender.

Taylor said in a Sept. 9 exchange that the delay of assistance hadshaken [the Ukrainians] faith in us.

As I said on the phone, I think its crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign, he added.

U.S. Ambassador to thethe European Union Gordon Sondland, who had reportedly spoken with Trump on the issue, replied that Taylor was "incorrect about President Trump's intentions" and said he believed Trump had no intention of a "quid pro quo."

Sondland then suggested he and Taylor stop texting on the subject.

Democrats on House committees looking into Trump have also requested that other State Department officials including Sondland testify, but Secretary of State Mike PompeoMichael (Mike) Richard PompeoPompeo: 'I wish the NBA would acknowledge' China's treatment of Uyghur Muslims Dem senator urges Pompeo to fire State official accused of retaliation, harassment Democrats request testimony from US diplomat who questioned Trump motivations on Ukraine MORE has sought to block their testimony.

The House has subpoenaed Sondland and he said in a statement Friday that he plans to testify next week in light of that development. It is possible Pompeo will try again to prevent Taylor from testifying.

The Hill has reached out to the House committees and the State Department for comment.

Taylor is the charg daffaires of the embassy in Kiev. He served as ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009.

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Democrats request testimony from US diplomat who questioned Trump motivations on Ukraine | TheHill - The Hill

With Mr. Robot on its way out, Rami Malek is one of those actors that seems to have blown up overnight. As the lead in last years award-winning film, Bohemian Rhapsody, Malik quickly became one of Americas sweethearts. But, his overnight success story is actually a long time in the making.

Way back in 2004, Maleks first acting credit was as Andy on the long-running show, Gilmore Girls (yep the one that also starred This Is Us heartthrob, Milo Ventimiglia).

It was a one-time gig so if you blink, you may have missed him. Youve got to start somewhere and this wasnt a bad place to start. Once the acting ball got rolling, Malik found himself in projects like Night at the Museum, 24, The Pacific, and BoJack Horseman before landing the ultimate gig as Elliot Alderson on Mr. Robot.

All in all, Maliks resume covers many more areas that recent success will have you believe.

Its been a very slow burn for me career-wise and I think thats kept me very steady, Malek told E! News ahead of Mr. Robots fourth and final season premiere. He credits his family and co-stars for keeping him humble, particularly Carly Chaikin who plays his Mr. Robot on-screen sister.

From the beginning, we became very close and very brother and sister, Chaikin said. He is still him and I always tell him he knows, I dont give a s**t if you won an Oscar. I think its nice for him to have us around, that have known him before that, that just see him for him.

As far as Malik becoming a household name, you can thank his epic performance as Queen frontman, Freddy Mercury, for that. While Bohemian Rhapsody was his breakout role in terms of major accolades, Malik laid the groundwork with his talents for years.

The Emmy, Oscar, and Golden Globe winner may not think of himself as anything more than a working actor, but to watch him in action is an experience in and of itself. That slow burn a Malik calls it set the stage for all his successes now.

On USAs Mr. Robot, Maliks character, Elliot, is a cybersecurity engineer and hacker who battles with a social anxiety disorder and clinical depression. Not only that, but Elliot also suffers from dissociative identity disorderand was a drug addict.

His voiceovers may be unreliable at times, as he becomes an important player in a game of global dominance. Elliot and his allies work in the shadows to take down the corrupt corporation they work for.

The Sam Esmail creation took off in 2015 and the buzz remains as solid as it was when the series began. With Mr. Robots fourth and final season airing Oct. 6 on USA, Malek reflected on his time as Elliot.

Its a been a phenomenal time in my life, Malik said in the same E! News interview. I mean, I dont even know how you can properly articulate whats happened, but its extraordinary.

He continued: Just to have a moment right now where you see where it all began about five years ago, beginning this show, not knowing quite how it would be received by the audience, by America, by the world at large.

Malek concluded the response has been astonishing, and honestly, hes not wrong.

Oftentimes, a name suddenly catapulted into the limelight has been working behind the scenes for years like Malek. As for why he took on the iconic Freddy Mercury role, he felt a make or break scenario in his career.

Kind of the gun-to-the-head moment, he told The Guardian ahead of Bohemian Rhapsodys release. What do you do? And I like to think if its a fight or flight situation, Im going tofight. The scariest endeavors that Ive chosen to take in my life have been the most fulfilling and rewarding. And this has proven to defend that equation.

In Maleks winning Oscar speech for Bohemian Rhapsody, he acknowledged he wasnt the obvious choice but added hes forever in their debt.

In that same speech, Malek spoke of his humble beginnings, confessing his lifelong struggle with identity as the son of immigrants from Egypt. Im a first-generation American. But my story is being written right now and I could not be more grateful to each and every one of you and everyone who believed in me.

Maleks rise was not overnight, just as most top-earning celebrities werent. If anything, his story of perseverance and taking chances is the one thing you might need today to make your own dreams a reality. Heres to you, Rami Malek.

See the article here:
Rami Malek's 'Overnight' Success Story Is All the Motivation You Need Right Now - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

At the end of yet another week when the prevailing rugby mood was a bit on the glum side the postmortem on Thursdays narrow 35-0 win over Russia not making for mood-lifting reading James Slipper reminded us that there is always hope of a brighter day.

After scoring his first try for Australia in his 94th appearance, against Uruguay at the crack of dawn on Saturday, his beam was almost as broad as the gap between the teams. Hopefully the floodgates will open now, he said.

They might too now that hes finally cracked the try-scoring code. But it brought to mind that horrendously cruel terrace chant of old: If Emile Heskey can play for England, so can I.

Maybe we need something similar for our journey in Japan, something like: If James Slipper can score a try for Australia, Ireland can find their World Cup mojo. Its not as catchy, admittedly, but weve heard less inspirational things.

Like, for example, on ITV on Saturday when Mark Pougatch showed Lawrence Dallaglio some dressing-room footage from his days as England captain when he told his underlings before a highly important game that if they didnt win theyd not only be letting their living family down, theyd be failing their dead relations too.

This, we thought, was a rather extreme approach to the art of motivation, sort of your deceased loved ones will spin in their graves if you dont go out and do the job and on your consciences be it if you fail, but Lawrence was evidently very proud of the speech, his nostrils flaring quite violently as he reviewed the clip.

All you could hope was that Johan Deysel didnt impart the same class of message to his Namibian colleagues ahead of their Sunday meeting with New Zealand, because no matter how plucky they proved to be, it was never going to end well. Nor did it.

Plucky they were, though, even surviving the Haka, the performance of which by the All Blacks in front of Namibia being akin to Conor McGregor bullying a five-year-old in the school playground and threatening to knock the living daylights out of him if he didnt hand over his bubble-gum before running for the hills.

Incidentally, the kick-off time in the New Zealand v Namibia game was 5:45am, and if you werent up in time youre only a World Cup fly-by-night. Looking at you, Tommy Bowe, not a sign of him and his Eir Sport crew for the game, himself, Eimear Considine and James Lowe only turning up for the 8:45am clash of France and Tonga.

By then we had a choice of Eir, RT and ITV, all three of them showing this particular game, until now RT only airing Irelands fixtures. Daire OBrien suggested to Bernard Jackman and Fiona Coghlan that it was an almighty relief to get a break from covering our lads games, the pairs heads nodding so hard they nigh on fell off their shoulders.

A more than decent game it was too, although there was a stressful moment for ITV commentator Martin Gillingham, already worn out from apologising for audible fruity language, especially from those uncouth backs, when Tonga brought on Leon Fukofuka as a sub.

Thankfully, were on first name terms with Leon, he said, although over on Eir, Eddie Butler was having no such problems, him displaying his legendary and unrivalled powers of pronunciation, somehow turning Fukofuka into something that sounded like a fragrant flower.

France prevailed, but just. They havent brought their je ne sais quoi to this World Cup, more their je ne sais pas, Pougatch said to Paul OConnell, who asked him to translate because, he intimated, he wasnt taught the language in Ardscoil Rs.

No translation was needed for Le Relief of Le French when they performed the Icelandic thunderclap in Japan after beating Tonga, while a gaggle of supporters in Italian shirts looked on, lest you hadnt grasped the Worldly Cup nature of this adventure.

Back on RT, Daire OBrien was finding his inner Karl ...its too early on a Sunday for a Marxist rant, but at the same time theres such global inequality, theres not much between France and Tonga, only money... a discussion that was not being had at all over on ITV.

The Pougatch man was too busy focusing on all things England. The day the World Cup got serious, he said of Blightys tussle with Argentina.

Irish, Scottish and Welsh fans might well have said Fukofuka you.

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TV view: Dallaglio shows he is deadly when it comes to motivation - The Irish Times

CINCINNATI, Ohio - Former Ohio State safety Christian Bryant managed to exhale as the seconds expired to give the University of Cincinnati a 27-24 upset victory over then-No. 18 Central Florida last Friday night.

It was the Bearcats first victory over a ranked opponent in 10 years. And, more impressively, the defense snapped Central Floridas scoring streak of 30 points per game, the longest streak among any major college team in the poll era (since 1936). The streak ended at 31.

The defense, in part, received a boost from Christians younger brother, cornerback Coby Bryant, a Glenville grad. Against Central Floridas explosive offense, Coby Bryants six tackles were tied for third best on the team.

Big brother, who also played for Glenville High School, was pleased with the outcome but continued his ongoing critique.

Were proud of him, said Christian, a former NFL player drafted by the Rams in 2014. But he has to keep going and make plays on the football.

The relationship between Christian and Coby has been a mix of tough love and instruction since Coby was born when Christian was seven years old. It was Coby who tagged along when his brother played pee wee football and Coby who imitated his brothers drills while he prepared for high school and college football.

Cobys earliest football memories are all about Christian.

Hes been the best big brother I could ever ask for, said Coby, whos 6-1, 190. Christian taught and still teaches me a lot. Each week Im asking him something about school or about something on the field. Im so grateful for my brother.

The bond between the Bryant brothers actually dates back before Coby was born, and it relates to the debate on which family member first suggested his name.

Coby, who was named after NBA great Kobe Bryant, says his parents gave him the name because they were fans of the basketball legend.

Christian says otherwise.

My dad and I still disagree with this story, but Im the one who said he should be named Coby, said Christian, who is involved in real estate in Columbus. Im also a fan and what better name can you name a boy, especially since the plan was already laid out that he was going to have that sports killer mentality like Kobe.

But Coby did not have to watch the great NBA player for his sports example. Coby lived in the same house with his idol.

I always stressed to Coby to duplicate what he sees, said Ronnie Bryant, their father. Hes always seen Christians work ethic and hes benefited from it.

Coby sucked in all of those benefits when he traveled along with his father to all of Christians high school games and during his camps in the summer. Coby continued to tag along with the family when Christian played at Ohio State, under defensive coordinator and one-year head coach Luke Fickell.

Coby would make his own name at Glenville, but unlike his highly-recruited brother, his college choices were limited. But Fickell became head coach at UC and a call was made.

I expected more [calls] but I was grateful for the ones I received, said Coby, a communications major. I was excited coach Fickell wanted me and I took the opportunity and ran with it.

But Fickell didnt take his familiarly with Coby for granted. He still put on the full-court press in his recruitment.

I told Coby that I didnt want him settling for us because I knew he had dreams of being just like his brother and following in his footsteps [at Ohio State], Fickell said. I told him that it was a different opportunity for his brother and this would be an opportunity for him, and wed have a great relationship and have a great time doing this.

The Bearcats are having an especially great time in Cobys junior year. After suffering a blowout loss to Ohio State, the Bearcats (4-1) have won three straight and are ranked No. 25 in the country.

Fickell credits Coby with the teams resolve.

That loss to Ohio State was tough and we kind of loss a little of our mojo, Fickell said. But guys like Coby, who are competitive, challenged the locker room, not so much by what they said, but by their actions and how they went about doing things.

In five games, Coby leads the team with four passes defended. Hes tied for fourth on the team with 22 tackles.

The Bearcats play 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Houston on ESPN2, which could possibly give Houston an upset opportunity given last weeks emotional victory by UC.

Coby said the team doesnt overlook anyone.

Weve come into this week like we do every week - by attacking it, Coby said. Well play our style of football and improve everyday in practice so we can play at our best in the game.

And just in case Coby forgets, Christian will remind him.

We always talk over the phone and when I call him today hell ask me how can I improve from how I played last week, Coby said. He tells me theres always room for improvement and to stay hunger. My brother will never allow me to forget [how to get better].

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Big brother is watching and helping: Glenville grad Coby Bryant motivated by Christian Bryants career - cleveland.com