Nick Sirianni’s 7th-grade niece was player of the year in her basketball conference. She’s just the latest sports star in the family.

Two days after 12-year-old Gianna Sirianni and Southwestern High School were upset in their second-round playoff game, she got a text message from her cool Uncle Nick. It contained two Kobe Bryant videos.

One detailed how Kobe fired a flurry of airballs in a 1997 playoff elimination game in Utah as a rookie, and then, when the Lakers’ plane landed back in L.A., he went to a local gym and practiced shooting — until 3 a.m. The other video is a story about how a trainer asked Kobe if he could attend one of Kobe’s legendary 4 a.m. workouts. When he got there, he was astounded that Kobe worked on nothing but the most basic skills and moves. The lesson: Even the best must master the simple stuff.

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Nick Sirianni loves to apply Western New York life lessons to his big-city Eagles. So when he wanted to illustrate his message about what it would take to repeat as Super Bowl champions, he pulled up some of that Chautauqua County wisdom.

“I have a niece who’s in seventh grade and was a starting guard on the varsity basketball team,” Sirianni told reporters at the league meetings Tuesday. “I called her after she was named player of the year in the conference, among seniors and juniors, and I said, ‘The better you get, the harder you have to work. You averaged 17 a game last year. You stay exactly the same, you’re going to average 12 a game next year. Because they’re going to be on to you.’ ”

He paused.

“And that’s what we’ll keep doing.”

Yeah, right, whatever, rah-rah, Tush Push ...

Record scratch.

Wait. What the heck did he just say? His niece scored 385 points in one season? His 12-year-old niece? Against varsity competition? What, did she play for some podunk private school? In tiny gyms? For some garbage team?

No.

Gianna Sirianni, a 5-foot-5 sniper, played for the same high school where Uncle Nick and his brothers, Jay and Mike, starred in basketball, football, and track. She scored 29 points in her first playoff game. She hit seven three-pointers in the Trojans’ final regular-season game; the seventh came with 40 seconds left and iced the win.

She’s the real deal for a legit team.

They went 10-0 in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1. They went 17-3 overall. They earned the top seed and a bye in Section VI playoffs, won their first playoff game, and then were upset in the semis, by two, without two key reserves.

The kid did not take it well.

“Gianna struggled with the loss,” said her coach, Kay Sirianni, who also is her mother and Jay’s wife.

For the first time in Gianna’s brief career the opposition focused on her, gave her the Caitlin Clark treatment. Like so many girls, “she wants to be like Caitlin,” Nick said. That can be a burden.

Predictably, Uncle Nick didn’t offer many condolences during their conversation.

“I just told her to get her butt back in the gym and work on shooting and dribbling and passing and getting stronger,” Sirianni said.

That game made clear to Gianna how she should follow Uncle Nick’s advice.

“I will work on getting open better, cutting, getting faster,” Gianna said. “And my form, getting my shot off, so I can shoot the ball quicker.”

She turned 13 in February.

Sounds a lot like Kobe.

This season was no fluke for the Trojans. They have become a Class B powerhouse under Kay Sirianni and her top assistant and husband, Jay. They went to the state semifinals last year, their fifth trip to state in the last six seasons. Gianna’s older sister, Bella, was a junior. Reece Beaver, then a senior, set the girls’ county scoring record, with 2,463 points.

Reece Beaver also is Gianna’s cousin. Kay’s maiden name is Beaver; she’s Reece’s aunt. She now coaches Reece’s sisters, Braya, a junior, and Charlotte, a freshman. Team dynamics can be interesting. Gianna wasn’t a teenager until February, but her sister and cousins did not baby the baby of the group.

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“Sometimes it might be a little hard,” Gianna said. “When you mess up, and they’re all older than you, and they say something ... ”

The harshest critiques probably came from big sister, right? Not necessarily.

Sadly, sibling rivalry never was a problem. Bella injured her ankle in the first game of the season, missed two months, and played sparingly upon her return. She’s still rehabbing it. Bella’s ruined senior season meant more playing time for Gianna, and, perhaps, less resentment as Gianna’s star rose.

“Bella was starting to see Gianna’s success and was cheering Gianna on 100%,” Kay said. “It might have been different if she hadn’t been injured.”

Nick doesn’t play favorites.

Before he called Gianna last month, he called Bella first. He told her the story of how he overcame a chronic injury as a receiver in college. He then wrote her a letter detailing his journey.

With Gianna getting so much attention from the outside world, Nick’s prioritizing Bella meant the world to Kay and Jay.

“He’s very involved with his nieces and nephews,” Kay said, “even though he doesn’t get to see them all the time.”

He’s just as interested in Joey, the girls’ brother and a wide receiver at Southwestern. Every morning after the kids play, Nick checks the online version of the Post-Journal of Jamestown, N.Y.

He doesn’t just read about them.

Nick traveled six hours last March to watch Kay coach Bella in the state semifinal near Albany. He visited his family in Jamestown last summer and watched Gianna and Bella play in a summer league game.

It’s just what their family does.

Mike drove up from Pennsylvania to see Gianna and Bella play in their first playoff game last month. He brought their cousin, his daughter, Jordan, an All-State volleyball player at Hopewell High School in Aliquippa, Pa.

Nick hosted Mike, Jay, their families, and his parents at Super Bowl LIX. He always misses Thanksgivings and Christmases, so when he can visit them or have them visit him, he makes it happen.

“Family,” Sirianni said. “Family is what gets you to the spot that you’re at.”

For the Siriannis, sports connects family. It always has.

Gianna has an imposing legacy to live up to. She’s off to a great start.

Mike played wide receiver at Mount Union College, where he helped win the 1993 Division III national championship. He also won the Ohio Athletic Conference’s triple-jump crown four straight years. He’s the head football coach at Washington & Jefferson

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni was a baller in college. Check out the highlight tape.

Jay, the middle child, played quarterback on the 1996 title team at Mount Union, where he also played basketball. He’s a multisport coach in the Southwestern district, where he and Kay teach.

Nick, the youngest brother, won three titles at Mount Union.

Their father, Fran, played defensive back and ran track at Clarion University, where he is a Hall of Famer. He coached his boys in football at Southwestern while he taught middle school science.

All four Sirianni men have been inducted into the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame.

Gianna might outshine all of them.

Kay already has.

Kay Sirianni was Kay Beaver when she attended Jamestown Community College for two years. When she graduated, she was an All-American in volleyball; a regional All-Star and MVP of the basketball team; and, in her final semester, she played softball, led that team in hitting, and earned another regional All-Star honor. When JCC named its best athletes of its first 50 years, Kay Beaver, Class of 1997, was No. 1.

Is she the best athlete in the family?

“Oh, yeah,” Nick Sirianni said.

So, does Kay beat Jay at sports?

“I wouldn’t have married Jay if I could have beaten him at any sport,” Kay said. “The only thing I’m better at is driving.”

It’s a safe bet that nobody’s going to be better at basketball than Gianna. She plays volleyball in the fall, and she plans to run track this spring, but for now, basketball rules her sporting life. She is like Kobe in her dedication. If 8 o’clock rolls around and she hasn’t worked out yet, she’ll ask Mom or Dad to drive her to the gym to get some shots up.

Nick knows that none of this means she’s going to be the next Caitlin Clark. She’s a 13-year-old kid who happens to have good genes and a sweet shooting stroke.

“I just want her to be the best she can be,” he said, “I mean, if that’s what she wants.”

Her future isn’t the most important question. This is the most important question:

Between her and Uncle Nick, who would win at H-O-R-S-E?

Sirianni brags about his record on the Eagles’ rim at the NovaCare Center, where he Sirianni brags about his record on the Eagles’ rim at the NovaCare Complex, where he challenges prospective draft choices to shooting games. Gianna said they’ve never played each other. They’ve only shot around at his driveway hoop, though she has put up a few shots at the NovaCare basket.

“You should challenge him,” Kay told her.

Well, G?

“I think I could win,” Gianna finally said, modestly.

Nick said Jay was always the best shooter in the family, and probably still is, but Nick worked for years to catch up.

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni has earned another week, another year, and many more. The Eagles should extend him immediately.

And now?

“I used to think I’d developed a pretty good jump shot, so I was always being content as second in the family,” Nick said. “But I’ve seen some of her tape. Watched her play a couple of times. She really can shoot. I’m going to have to settle for being third.”

You’d imagine Gianna’s head is spinning. She’s already player of the year. Her parents, uncles, and grandpa are local legends. Mom is the reigning conference coach of the year, Uncle Mike has been wildly successful as a football coach in D-III, and Uncle Nick is a superstar NFL coach.

Does she feel pressure to be the best of the Sirianni and Beaver clans, especially after such a promising start?

“No,” she said. “There’s a long way to go for that!”