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Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy event of the week. Each week our staff of educators
tries to introduce you to a person of interest in the financial world. This could be a person
in government or banking or an important investors or trader.
Kobe Bryant's 30,699th and final field goal came from 19 feet with 31 seconds left against
the Utah Jazz. During his 20 years with the Lakers, he fired up more than 30,000 shots,
including the regular season and playoffs. Even after 20 seasons and scoring 60 points
Wednesday night in the final game of his NBA career, a 101-96 victory over the Utah Jazz
at Staples Center, Bryant wasn’t ready to say goodbye.
Faced with the reality of the final years of his career, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe
Bryant announced his plans to start his next career: Businessman.
Bryant revealed that he has formed his own company called Kobe Inc., and is building
a team around him to start new businesses and evaluate investing in others.
"I have always had ideas and always had a vision of where I wanted to go going back
to 2000, but they are just ideas," Bryant said. "Now, once the Achilles injury took
place, I'm sitting at home for months not moving, a couple things set in. One is that
there is only so many Modern Family episodes a person can watch. And then two, what do
I do now?" Bryant said he has watched previous NBA greats
like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson turn basketball careers into lucrative business
relationships. Jordan has famously made money by licensing his name to Nike to make Air
Jordan sneakers. Magic has made much of his money by allowing others to use his name as
well. But the path Bryant seeks will be more hands-on.
Over the past year, Bryant has studied to become a businessman. He met with executives
at Twitter and Instagram, during a few road trips he stopped in to colleges and universities
to try to absorb the business classes that he missed by skipping college for the NBA,
and he spoke to some of the most successful business titans in the world.
Bryant has certainly made a lot of money playing basketball. At the end of this season, he
will have received more than $328 million in salary over his career, according to figures
from Basketball Reference. He has been the highest-paid NBA player for five straight
seasons. Off the court, he has made personal investments
in energy drink BodyArmor and sports site The Players’ Tribune, and he still brings
in about $20 million a year in endorsements, according to Fortune and Sports Illustrated
estimates. But that is less than he once brought in at his popularity peak. Over the years,
he has endorsed McDonald’s, the video game Call of Duty, Nutella, Upper Deck, Sprite,
SmartCar, and more. He still has active deals with Lenovo and Turkish Airlines, among others,
plus one big deal with Nike.