Kobe Bryant beyond the court: From basketball superstar to a business mogul

NBA legend Kobe Bryant’s impact on basketball is obvious but he also leaves a shining legacy off the court—bringing his competitive spirit or also known as the “mamba mentality” in the business world after retiring in a championship-studded two-decade reign in the National Basketball Association.

In the twilight of his career with the Lakers as five-time NBA champion; two-time NBA Finals MVP; league MVP in 2008; 18-time NBA All-Star; fourth-leading scorer in NBA history, the basketball legend shared a vision with billionaire Chris Sacca: When his time in basketball ended, he would become an investor.

Bryant, who died last Sunday along with eight other people in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, built a wide-ranging business that includes a venture capital fund, a film production company, athletic training centers, and held endorsement deals with Nike and other brands.

The basketball superstar followed the footsteps of professional sports athletes who successfully built business empires extending far beyond basketball.  In 1987, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, NBA Hall of Fame point guard founded an investment firm Magic Johnson Enterprises, which includes Starbucks and New York's LaGuardia airport.

So even before leaving the NBA, Bryant co-founded venture capital firm Bryant Stibel along with Web.com founder Jeff Stibel. He unveiled Bryan Stibel & Co. in 2016, months after he played his last game as a Laker. By September 2019, their firm managed more than $2 billion in assets, with investments in dozens of technology, media and data companies.

In 2014, Bryant announced that he was investing on another front, Kobe Inc., based in Newport Beach, with plans to develop brands that would help the sports industry. The first investment through the company was sports drink BodyArmor with an initial $6-million investment which grew to a value of $200 million after Coca-Cola acquired a minority stake in 2018.

The NBA legend-turned-businessman has also partnered with the Chinese online retail giant, Alibaba, in 2015 to collaborate on a social media platform, Kobe-branded products and the release of his Showtime documentary “Muse” which he served as an executive producer of the film.

Bryant founded Granity — initially called Kobe Studios — the Costa Mesa-based multimedia production company with an eye on creating projects that married his love of storytelling and sports in early 2013.

Granity’s projects have included “Detail,” an ESPN+ series co-hosted by Bryant analyzing professional athletes’ performances. Bryant also wrote and executive produced the project. He also produced “The Punies,” a podcast featuring fictional stories about a group of youths chasing big dreams in sports, and collaborated with author Wesley King on the Wizenard Series, a young-adult franchise that combined fantasy and sports. He had been working on a project with famed Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, who wrote Bryant’s favorite book, “The Alchemist.”

The production company’s most well-known effort was a 5 1/2-minute animated short that Bryant wrote and produced called “Dear Basketball” that was based on a poem of the same name that Bryant wrote to announce his retirement. The project, scored by five-time Oscar-winning composer John Williams, won an Academy Award for best animated short in 2018.

Bryant found success outside Hollywood, too. He co-founded the Mamba Sports Academy, located in Thousand Oaks and Redondo Beach, in 2018. The business, which bills itself as a “full-circle facility designed to update the way men, women and youth approach human performance,” has hosted players from the NBA and WNBA, offered football strength and conditioning, Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments, volleyball camps and sports performance conferences.

Bryant’s helicopter crashed en route to a basketball game for the Mamba Sports Academy, an organization he created to offer athletic and lifestyle training for young athletes across various sports and competitive levels.

A 2003 sexual assault allegation by a 19-year-old woman cast a shadow over his film making career, with thousands of people signing a petition demanding that his Oscar nomination be rescinded, however, the criminal case was dropped.

In the wake of allegations, McDonald’s dropped Bryant but Nike stood by him. His relationship with the company began in 2003, when Bryant signed a four-year, $40 million deal. Bryant went on to have several lines of Nike merchandise, and the company helped launch Bryant’s youth basketball league, the Mamba League. He called former Nike chief executive Mark Parker a mentor, and the company brought him onstage at its annual investor meeting in 2017.

The figure of Bryant was key for Nike, who was able to get into the Chinese market and paid him about 15 million euros annually for the sponsorship of his shoes.

From the hand of Kobe, the Oregon brand managed to infiltrate a Chinese market that currently reports about 5.5 billion euros of annual turnover, according to the results published by the company.

According to the data of Forbes, the company of the 'swoosh' paid him about 15 million euros annually only for the sponsorship of his snookers, one of the most expensive in the category.

Kobe Bryant will be remembered as a passionate athlete, whose talent and commitment led him to the highest level of achievement in his sport. But his entrepreneurial efforts were hardly surprising, when you consider the hard-work mentality that defined his professional basketball career. Indeed, that work went well beyond the court.

Photo is from Kulture Hub