Kids

A special moment for Kobe Bryant's family ... when Vanessa and their children visited the NBA legend's exhibit at the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday ... and it's a pretty emotional sight.

Bryant -- who is being inducted into the Hoops Hall on Saturday -- got his very own stand-alone tribute called "Kobe: A Basketball Life" in Springfield ... the first since Michael Jordan's exhibit in 2009.

The 600-ft. display -- co-designed by Vanessa -- features incredible memorabilia from Bryant's career ... including a piece of the Lower Merion H.S. basketball court, the shoes from his 81-point game, game-worn jerseys, and a video screen showing his Oscar-winning short film, "Dear Basketball."

The Bryant family got a personal tour of the exhibit minutes ago ... and Vanessa captured pics of 1-year-old Capri and 4-year-old Bianka smiling from ear to ear as they get to see their dad's accomplishments up close.

Vanessa also posted a snap alongside Kobe ... saying, "Love you always."

Of course, this year's induction is going to be incredibly tough following Bryant's death in January 2020 ... as fellow inductee Kevin Garnett told reporters earlier today, "I don't think I'm the only one in here that thinks that Kobe Bryant is fairly missed."

"Miss him everyday and what he brought not just to the game of basketball but to sports period."

The ceremony is set to kick off on Saturday at 2:30 PM PT ... with Kobe, Garnett and Tim Duncan receiving the honors.

Michael Jordan is slated to do the presentation honors for Kobe ... with Vanessa giving a speech.

A classic childhood show from Nickelodeon's heyday is getting fresh blood in the form of a reboot, and the guy who hosted it has some nuggets of gold for us before cameras roll.

We talked to Kirk Fogg Wednesday in L.A. about the big news ... namely, that "Legends of the Hidden Temple" is being revived -- only this time, it'll be made for adults instead of kids. And, of course, because of that, it ain't gonna be airing on Nick ... but rather The CW.

You might recall ... Kirk headed up hosting duties when 'Legends' originally ran for 3 seasons in the mid-'90s. So, with that in mind, we had to ask the man himself if he was coming back to pick up the baton again. Check out his answer ... he didn't say no!

It doesn't sound like he'll necessarily be hosting this new version, but he says he's in talks with the network and aiming to be involved in some capacity.

Now, for the good stuff ... like what the arena will look like. Kirk might have spilled more than he's allowed to by revealing it's gonna be WAY bigger than the OG one pre-teens were running back in the day -- but still faithful to Olmec's original labyrinths.

And, as far as potential contestants ... well, our photog actually pitched an idea Kirk was digging. The failed contenders from once upon a time could get a redo!

Heartwarming moment in the NBA on Tuesday ... Giannis Antetokounmpo hand-delivered his kicks to an 8-year-old fan who was celebrating a birthday -- and the gesture was AWESOME.

It all went down after the Milwaukee Bucks finished beating the Orlando Magic ... when the Greek Freak noticed a kid with a really cool sign.

"Giannis," the big note read. "Today is my 8th birthday. Wanna trade shoes?"

Antetokounmpo raced up several rows at the Fiserv Forum to hand off his sneakers -- and the little boy was pumped!!

Check out the footage ... the kid could barely hold Giannis' size 16 Nike Zoom Freak 2s -- they were damn near as big as his body!!

Of course, Giannis didn't take the kid's shoes in the deal ... so, total win-win for the fan, right??

The gesture is not unusual for the 26-year-old, two-time MVP ... he's been known to give out game-used stuff to young fans following games no questions asked.

An elderly Asian man was screaming out for help while at least 2 teenage attackers hovered over him -- but not only did no one come to his aid, you can hear someone laughing out loud.

The horrifying scene played out in the San Francisco Bay Area, where an 80-year-old man appeared to be randomly attacked by the 2 suspects, who cops say are in their teens.

In this surveillance video, you can see and hear the victim calling out for help but no one responds. Another person enters the frame, but does nothing -- it's unclear if that person was with the suspects.

Cops say the suspected attackers are as young as 16 and their getaway car was seen a couple hours later in a strong-armed robbery ... according to KGO-TV reporter Dion Lim. They are still on the loose.

Police aren't labeling this a racially motivated crime yet, but the victim has said he believes the attack was motivated by hate.

This incident comes as San Fran is still reeling from the heinous stabbing attack on 2 elderly Asian women. That suspect was captured and charged with attempted murder.

It's Mother's Day again -- and if you thought Hollywood would skip a beat due to COVID, you're wrong ... because they laid it on thick for mama bear, just like years past.

Scores of celebs made sure to shout out that special lady in their lives on Sunday, posting heartfelt tributes for their moms ... while also posing for shots with them too. This year feels especially poignant, as we're finally turning a corner in the pandemic and are going strong.

Among the stars who shared the love ... Reese Witherspoon, Priyanka Chopra, DJ Khaled, Ellen DeGeneres, Michael Strahan, Lenny Kravitz, Gene Simmons, Drake, Usher, Usain Bolt, Jimmy Fallon, J Lo, Ryan Seacrest, Matthew McConaughey, Addison Rae, Mark Ruffalo, Amy Schumer, Elle Fanning, Sammy Hagar, Vince Neil, Lea Michele ... and VP Kamala Harris.

One post that was notably meaningful was Ryan Dorsey's ... who made sure to remember Naya Rivera, his late ex-wife and the mother of his own child, Josey, who died last year.

He wrote, "🖤❤️🖤We can’t say the word happy but we’ll say thank you for being a mother & giving me this sweet amazing boy.🖤❤️🖤#mothersday." Ryan threw up a photo of Naya and Josey sitting at a booth with what looks to be some ice cream in front of them.

As you know ... Naya drowned last year at Lake Piru in Ventura County, after taking Josey out on a boat ride, but somehow getting sucked under the water when trying to re-board.

The family of the 6-year-old who was paddled by an elementary school principal is holding out hope for justice ... in the form of yanking the principal's teaching license.

The 6-year-old's mother is devastated the Central Elementary School Principal, Melissa Carter, will NOT face criminal charges for meting out corporal punishment ... this according to the family's attorney, Brent Probinsky. The mother now wants the Dept. of Education to take a hard look at the situation and do what's right ... she says to deny the principal her license.

Probinsky says the family has an ally in the Dept. of Children and Family Services because CFS has recommended Carter be banned from teaching or even being around the children.

CFS interviewed the 6-year-old and her 2 siblings, without the mother's knowledge, about alleged neglect at home.

It's now a waiting game to see what the Dept. of Education concludes in its investigation. We're told once that's complete ... Probinksy and the family will decide whether they want to file a civil lawsuit against Carter, the clerk and the school.

No criminal charges will be filed in the case of the 6-year-old elementary student who got paddled by her principal ... investigators concluded the principal didn't commit a crime, because the child's mother consented to corporal punishment.

According to new legal docs obtained by TMZ ... state prosecutors found Central Elementary School Principal Melissa Carter and her clerk, Cecilia Self, carried out the discipline of the student at the request of the girl's mother.

Deputy Chief Assistant State Attorney Abraham R. Thornburg explains "the evidence in this case appears clear that the child's mother sanctioned and consented to the spanking of her daughter as discipline for misbehavior."

Thornburg also says there were "significant concerns" about the mother's credibility regarding her statements that she was confused or didn't understand the process ... adding even if she was confused, there was "no reason to believe" the principal was aware of any such confusion at the time of the paddling.

He continues ... "A parent has the right to use corporal punishment to discipline their children, and similarly has the right to consent that others do so on their behalf."

Wayne Gretzky is not only The Great One on the ice ... but clearly off of it too -- 'cause the NHL legend made a fan's life by re-autographing a baby shoe, and the story is awesome.

Back in 1986, a little boy and his mother ran into Gretzky -- but they had one problem ... they had no hockey memorabilia for Wayne to sign.

So, Mom thought quickly on her feet, handed over her little boy's Nike shoe ... and Gretzky gladly slapped his John Hancock on it.

The piece actually came out pretty cool ... it's a baby shoe with Wayne Gretzky's signature on it!!

But, after 30-plus years ... the signature faded, and the boy who had kept it all that time was heartbroken.

So much so, he says he tried EVERYTHING he could to get in touch with Gretzky to have him re-sign the shoe.

Fortunately, after years of reaching out, he posted his story on a Facebook group's page ... and the guys at Upper Deck eventually caught wind of it and decided to lend a helping hand.

They were able to ultimately get the shoe back in front of Gretzky ... and, after explaining to him the story of it all -- the hockey legend gladly signed it again!!

The piece is now truly incredible ... Gretzky wrote "1/1" on it alongside his signature -- and Upper Deck authenticated it and sent it back to the fan, who couldn't have been more grateful.

"I can't thank everyone enough that helped get this done," the fan said. "This shoe will remain in my Family forever. If I thought it was priceless before, it has now become even more priceless if that’s possible."

The mother of the Florida 6-year-old paddled by her principal had the tables turned on her -- as investigators grilled her kids about alleged neglect at home.

The family's attorney, Brent Probinsky, tells TMZ ... the little girl and 2 of her siblings -- plus a cousin for whom the mom cares -- were yanked out of class Tuesday by officials with the Florida Dept. of Children and Families, and questioned one by one.

Probinsky tells us this was done without the mother's knowledge, and he only learned about it after the fact when the Dept. came to him seeking to talk to the mom.

As for what all the fuss was about -- we're told the kids were asked if their mother is abusive in the home ... to which the children said no. Probinsky says the investigators then told him they wanted to follow up with the mother to ask why she didn't step in and intervene during her daughter's paddling.

Apparently, investigators were acting on a tip about the mom allegedly being neglectful -- but so far, there doesn't appear to be any evidence of that. Probinsky says it's an outrage law enforcement would come after the mom, when the real culprit's on camera in the paddling video.

As Probinsky previously explained -- there's a number of reasons the mom didn't step in ... for one, she's undocumented and was afraid of repercussions.

There was also a language barrier, and the mother didn't know what was about to happen.

Josh Duggar's friends and family told law enforcement he's dealing with a porn addiction ... according to the feds, who claim his computer was chock full of disturbing images.

The "19 Kids and Counting" star appeared over Zoom for a court hearing Wednesday in his child pornography case. During the hearing, an agent from the Dept. of Homeland Security said Josh's computer had more than 200 images involving naked minors and child sex abuse material. The agent said some of the children were as young as 5.

The feds say witnesses, including friends and family, brought up Josh's alleged addiction to porn in interviews with law enforcement.

However, Josh's defense asked the agent if there's evidence Duggar had looked at the alleged images, and the agent said he hadn't "directly" seen Josh checking out child porn.

TMZ broke the story ... Josh was hit with charges of receiving and possessing child porn following last month's arrest by federal agents in Arkansas. He's pled not guilty.

In Wednesday's court hearing, the feds claimed authorities identified a computer with videos and photos of child porn in May 2019 -- a few months later they claim they connected Josh to the computer using the IP address.

Remember, the Springdale, Arkansas car dealership where Josh works was raided by the feds in November 2019.

DHS agents seized a computer from Josh's office, plus his iPhone and a MacBook from inside an RV during that raid, and the feds say child porn was on the HP computer.

Josh, who is facing up to 20 years behind bars and fines of up to $250k on each count, wants to be released from jail, on bond, pending a trial ... claiming he's too famous to be a flight risk. The judge has yet to rule on that request.

The 6-year-old student from Florida who took a paddling -- with her mom watching -- is still shaken up from the incident ... and is getting professional help.

Brent Probinsky, the family's lawyer, tells TMZ that the girl's mother calls him twice a day with distress about the school beating that happened on April 13 ... telling him the kid can't sleep, cries constantly and feels generally terrorized by what happened.

As you can imagine, we're told her parents are also overcome with emotion ... especially the mom, whom Probinsky tells us is riddled with guilt from watching it all unfold. We're told the family now has a therapist ... and their first appointment should be this week.

BTW, the attorney shed some light on why the mom just stood by instead of stepping in -- he says she and her husband are undocumented immigrants from Mexico, and she was afraid she'd get deported if she reported it. You can see her hesitation first-hand in new video that we've obtained, showing the principal take an authoritative tone right from the jump.

Luckily, the mom reported it anyway ... and now it's being handled by authorities. Probinsky says the case is being reviewed by the state attorney's office, as well as the school district and the Florida Dept. of Education. Probinsky insists this was aggravated battery -- he's pushing for officials to strip the principal and her clerk of their education licenses ... so they can't teach in Florida ever again.

Forget champagne and fancy steak dinners ... Ohio State star Jonathon Cooper found a much better way to celebrate his NFL draft selection -- by being mobbed by neighborhood kids!!

The linebacker was picked Saturday in the 7th round of the annual selection show by the Denver Broncos -- and it didn't take long for a block party to ensue.

Once word got out that Cooper was headed to the Mile High City ... a bunch of neighborhood kids showed up at his house in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday to congratulate him -- and video from the scene is adorable.

There were hugs, high fives and cheers ... and the party didn't stop there -- 'cause they all ended up sitting around later and grubbin' on some food!!

And then, of course, they got in some good ol' fashion football in the backyard!!!

23-year-old Cooper was a beast at OSU -- he logged 77 total tackles and 10 sacks in his 5-year career ... and he played a key role in this past season's journey to the National Championship game.

And, even though he's moving on to Denver now ... it's clear there will always be a neighborhood in Columbus watching him closely going forward!!

An Asian teenage basketball player was socked in the face during a game this weekend after allegedly being called a racial slur -- and video of the violence was all captured on video.

The altercation went down on Saturday in Oakland, Calif. during an AAU game between the South Bay Snipers and the San Francisco Generals.

At one point during the action, Snipers player Evan dove to the floor to try to take a loose ball from one of the Generals' players, but that's when things turned ugly.

Evan was pushed by the Generals' player on the ground, and then he was shoved to the floor by another Generals' player.

That Generals' player then took a swing at Evan, barely missing ... before he threw a second haymaker just seconds later that landed flush on Evan's jaw.

You can see in the clip, Evan was visibly wobbled ... and to make matters even more disturbing, Evan's parents allege that just before the melee, Generals players had called him and his teammate's anti-Asian slurs.

"They did use the 'C' word -- c***k word," Evan's mom, Lennie, told KPIX -- not revealing their last name out of fear of retaliation.

"Two-thirds of the team are Asian," Evan's dad, Eduardo, added.

The parents say Evan sustained a concussion from the punch.

Tournament officials banned the attacker from the Generals' game on Sunday, but Evan's father said, "The worst part is no one apologized."

Evan's parents say they are planning to go to police over the incident.

Robert Kraft riding Space Mountain is gonna draw a lot of attention -- which is why a lot of folks at Disney World noticed his mission to help a mournful little girl and her mother smile over the weekend.

Sources inside the Magic Kingdom tell us the Patriots owner and his GF, Dana Blumberg, were all over the park with a woman and her 8-year-old daughter -- the four of them were seen taking snapshots ... one of which caught the attention of a Patriots great.

Hall of Fame linebacker Andre Tippett actually posted one of the group's pics Sunday, saying how proud he was of Kraft and the Patriots organization -- and now we know why.

Our sources at the park tell us the woman they were with is a frontline worker from Long Island whose husband -- himself an essential worker -- caught COVID and died in recent months. The little girl had been struggling with the loss, and we're told Dana and Robert wanted to do something special for her.

From what we're told, they succeeded ... as the group spent 2 days at Disney World and they all stayed at the Grand Floridian -- all on Kraft's dime, we're assuming.

We hear the group got the full VIP treatment ... Fast Passing it on about 20 different rides. We've reached out to Kraft's camp, but haven't heard back.

An elementary school principal went full 19th-century headmaster on a 6-year-old student -- paddling her a few times ... all while the mom recorded it.

This is coming out of Clewiston, FL ... where Central Elementary School Principal Melissa Carter and her clerk, Cecilia Self, were captured on video bending a little girl over and giving her a few whacks with an old-school paddle ... all in front of the kid's mom, who filmed it.

The student's mother says she was called to the school recently, with a claim that her daughter had damaged a school computer ... with a repair cost of nothing more than $50.

The mom says she was told by the school that her kid would be getting paddled as punishment, with her and a "deputy" present ... but says she didn't understand the process as it was being explained to her, as she doesn't speak much English.

Anyway, when the mom showed up to pay the fee and get her daughter ... she says she was led to a room where Carter and Self were present, along with her child. No law enforcement deputy was in sight. Before she knew it, Carter was meting out a beating.

The mom, who hasn't been ID'd for privacy, insists she didn't step in because she felt she would get in trouble ... and figured the only thing she could do was to document it to expose the abuse. So, that's what she did ... secretly filming the encounter and standing by.

The mom justifies her action -- or a lack thereof -- by saying she felt she needed to "sacrifice" her daughter to blow the lid on what was going on there.

Anna Nicole Smith's 14-year-old daughter Dannielynn Birkhead is the spitting image of her late mom ... so much so, it's kinda shocking.

Dannielynn and her dad, Larry Birkhead, attended the Kentucky Derby as they have nearly every year, but this time heads turned, because of Larry's daughter's uncanny resemblance to her mom.

Larry made it clear ... his daughter is growing up ... "She said she wanted to wear something entirely different than she had in the past. I guess that means no more “little girl” dresses?? She cleaned out the chocolate brownies, ice cream and nachos while at the same time critiquing my outfit."