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Kobe Bryant sat rapt, leaning in to hear why a gold snakeskin pattern and the predatory word "venom" were affixed to the shoes he'll be wearing tonight when he faces the Bulls.

"You're poisonous, lethal and deadly to your opponents," Consuela Hendricks, 14, said, barely containing her excitement as she held out the Nike Zoom Kobe IV she and five other Chicago Public Schools students designed as part of the After-School All-Stars program contest.

 
 
Students in the After-School All Stars Chicago program share the moment as L.A. Lakers basketball star Kobe Bryant.
(Scott Stewart/Sun-Times)

 

 
 
Kobe Bryant displays the shoe that Chicago Public Schools students designed for him. Bryant will wear the shoes in Saturday's game against the Bulls.
(Scott Stewart/Sun-Times)

The L.A. Lakers star called the students' creation "exceptional."

"I feel like there's a lot of beauty in simplicity, and I felt like the shoe did a great job in capturing that," Bryant said Friday after coaching a gym full of screaming, star-struck boys and girls at Walsh Elementary School, 2015 S. Peoria.

Bryant, 30, is a celebrity ambassador for the national after-school program and says the teamwork students experienced in designing the shoes will help them achieve their goals. "Hopefully through the lessons they learned ... they can carry it with them," the All-Star shooting guard said.

Four teams of students from Claremont Academy Elementary School and Parkside Elementary Community Academy worked on designing shoes, named after Bryant's nickname, "The Black Mamba."

Nike gave all 24 participating students a pair of their craftwork. But the students were a bit more excited to meet the NBA great.

Juwan Gatlin, 11, said he had to pinch himself.

"It feels good that I finally get to shake the hands of my favorite basketball star," the Parkside sixth-grader said. "I never saw it coming."

"I'm so happy. I'm smiling still," said Hendricks, a Claremont eighth-grader.

"I can boast about it at school," Jaluan Newson, 13, said of meeting Bryant.

Gatlin, Hendricks, Newson and the rest of the winning "Team Venom" will be Bryant's guests at tonight's game, where they say they'll keep their eyes peeled on his size-14 feet.

Are they scared about cheering for another team in Bulls territory? Not really. Except for Newson, the lone Bulls fan, "Team Venom" bleeds gold and purple.

"I know the Bulls are cool, but we gave him [Bryant] the shoes. There's no chance for them now," Gatlin said with a smile