Most children grow up idolizing beloved musicians, Hollywood starlets, or athletes who have impacted their lives in an extraordinary way, but it’s not every day one has the opportunity to engage with their role model in the actual world. An entrepreneur of American-Armenian descent, Andy Treys grew up in the suburbs of a quaint Pasadena neighborhood, the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley and a city famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl college football game and Tournament of Roses Parade. Striving to pursue his dream of playing college basketball, Treys not only trained every day with his father, but he also looked up to Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, an esteemed sports figure that influenced both his life and overall career in a very real way.

“I didn’t come from a wealthy family, but they always supported me,” says Treys. “My dad always made sure I had everything I needed to be a better player. He built our entire backyard into a big basketball court with a shooting machine that rebounds for you, things that college teams are just recently getting. I had everything I needed to thrive and it showed.” But Treys wasn’t only honing his craft and attending Lakers games from afar as a die-hard admirer. He also befriended the star player during the Kobe Academy basketball camp, a skills camp teaching children the intricacies of the sport and the magnitude of solid teamwork. Treys accredits both his athletic abilities and resilient work ethic to Bryant, someone he will always consider family. 

“Kobe Bryant meant the world to me,” says Treys. “Anyone who knows me can tell you that. I never missed a game and I would cry when the Lakers would lose. A lot of my hard work also came from him.” When Treys reminisces about his initial meet-and-greet with Bryant, a kind smile stretches across his face, but there is still a meek sadness behind his eyes.

“It’s a funny story,” he says. “It was 2010, the second year of Kobe Camp in Santa Barbara. On one of the nights, Kobe came and he was picking campers to come up and play with him. When I saw him pointing at me, I was so happy. I got up, he explained the game in front of hundreds of kids and parents in the stands, and then he turns around and says, ‘I didn’t pick you. Sit your ass down.’ My heart literally broke right there in that moment.”

Being the adamant fan he was, Treys and his parents were staying at the same hotel as Bryant, but Treys was so devastated that he didn’t want to attend camp the following day. “I only went back because my parents told me to go,” says Treys. “That same morning, we saw Kobe at breakfast and my mom, being the in your face, unapologetic Armenian she was, walked up to Kobe and was like, ‘You know, you really hurt my son.’ Kobe apologized and said that he wanted to make it up to me, but we had no idea what he planned to do. That night, he surprised the camp by coming and told us he was going to pick three lucky campers to play a game with him and that someone was also going to win a pair of signed shoes. He ends up picking my best friend who was sitting right next to me. We are both Armenian, we both had afros, and we looked alike. My friend got up and played amazing. Everyone was stunned and Kobe ends up giving him the signed shoes. Later, he goes up to my dad and tells him how good I played and that he couldn’t believe how well I hooped. My dad, of course, was like, ‘That wasn’t my son’ and I remember just watching the two of them laughing at the situation.”

While Treys experienced professional success early on in life by building niche social media networks via Ning and executing an array of impressive projects, including Android apps and a full court buzzer beater that was featured on ESPN SportsCenter, he knew he was destined to do more. Committed to his career, Treys eventually made the difficult decision to drop out of college and focus on creating a social media empire, but from basketball to business, Bryant will always be someone who shaped him as a person. “When he passed away, it was really hard,” says Treys. “He was probably the closest person I’ve lost. I have all my family and cousins, thank God, and never experienced loss like that before.”

Today, Treys continues to flourish with his Mamba mentality and relentless perseverance. From the launch of his social media agency Getmefamous (2016) and substantial celebrity partnerships with Alissa Violet and Bella Thorne to the opening of Muscle Lab recovery and wellness lounge and his most recent plunge into the NFT world with the much-anticipated Cereal Club collection, Treys is on fire and has no plans on stopping anytime soon.

“As cliché as this sounds, never give up,” says Treys. “No matter what happens. It’s not always one way. You can find different ways to reach your goals. I think having perseverance is one of the most important things. I’ve literally lost everything and got it back and I think that’s an experience everyone should have. I remember when I was younger, someone had asked me if I had lost everything yet. When I said no, he told me to come back and talk to him when I do. He said if I can get it back, it’s more than luck. It means I actually have something special.”

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