Kobe Bryant is an American basketball player who is currently playing for the Los Angeles Lakers in NBA (National Basketball Association). In the team, he plays at the position of shooting guard and wears the jersey no. 24. He was born on 23 August, 1978 and currently he is 6’6″ tall. Kobe Bryant has marked his name as one of the highest paid basketball players of the world. He is currently at 36 years old and has become the youngest player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points. Kobe Bryant is also the all-time leading scorer for Los Angeles Lakers. Since his second year in NBA, he has been selected to start every All-Star game.
Bryant has won the All-star MVP Award four times notably in 2002, 2007, 2009 and 2011. He is the most number of MVP Awards achiever in NBA history. He is also a gold medalist in 2008 and 2012 summer Olympics as a member of USA National Basketball team.
Kobe Bryant Net Worth
Today we will focus on Kobe Bryant net worth 2015. Let’s guess about how rich a basketball star like Kobe Bryant can be..
Kobe Bryant biography:
Name:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Kobe Bean Bryant
Profession:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Basketball player, Athlete
Net Worth:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â $300 Million
Annual Salary:Â Â $30.5 Million
Date of Birth:Â Â Â Â August 23, 1978
Place of Birth:Â Â Philadelphia, USA
Agent:                Rob Pelinka Â
Agency:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Landmark Sports Agency
Kobe Bryant achievements:
Kobe Bryant is one of the very best basketball players of modern days and also he is one of the most successful basketball legends. He is known for his glorious achievements throughout his basketball career and thus he needs no introduction. In two spells, 2000-2002 and 2009-2010, Kobe Bryant became the winner of the NBA Championship five times. His name was inducted as the NBA Finals MVP twice consecutively in 2009 and 2010 after his achievement of the title of NBA Most valuable player in 2008.
He was an integral part of the NBA All-Star team a record 16 times in 1998 and again from 2000-2014. He was inducted in the NBA All-Defensive First Team in three spells a total 9 times from 2000, from 2003-2004 and again from 2006-2011. With his 30,000 points, he is about to top the spot in all time point scorers in NBA history.
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Kobe Bryant salary and endorsement values:
According to the renowned magazine Forbes, the 36-year-old basketball legend has earned a total of $62 million prize money in the last season of NBA. It was his fourth consecutive year, he has had the highest salary during the 2014-15 season of NBA. Kobe Bryant earned a $30.5 million as his club salary in the last NBA season which is roughly $8 million higher than any other basketball players.
He has achieved the top place of NBA’s highest salary draw after he signed a two-year contract extension in November 2013 which worth $48.5 million. Besides his salary, he also earned an additional $31 million from his endorsement contracts. Kobe invested around $6 million last year in his new company, Kobe Inc. to buy more than 10% stake of emerging sports drink called ‘Body Armour’.
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Kobe Bryant net worth and his personal life:
Kobe Bryant as one of the richest basketball players has an estimated total net worth of $300 million. Kobe has earned more than $30 million annually from many of his reputed endorsers like Hublot, Turkish Air, Lenovo, Panini and Nike. In addition, he also earned his L.A Lakers season salary of $30.5 million. His current agent is Rob Pelinka and the Landmark Sports Agency is now responsible for taking care of all his sports related deals.
He spent ten and half years with his wife Vanessa before they finally decided for a divorce in December, 2011. His former wife Vanessa took possession of three mansions in the Newport Beach, California, according to the property records, which are estimated to be worth $18.8 million as the divorce settlement. But, there was a rumor that the divorce settlement was might cost Bryant approximately $100-150 million.
Wealth-X is an economical firm that provides analytics for high-net-worth luxury brands and private banks in US. The Wealth-X placed Kobe Bryant at the top of their rich list in a high profile study that ranked highest paid basketball players. Besides his massive earnings as salary, the study also stated,
“This is supplemented by multimillion-dollar endorsement contracts with Coca Cola, Nike, Mercedes-Benz, Lenovo, Turkish Airlines, Hublot and Panini”.
David Friedman, the Wealth-X president once said while talking about the ranking of highest paid basketball players,
“Against the backdrop of the NBA Draft last week, it is interesting to explore the correlation between talent and performance and net worth that is revealed in this high profile ranking.”
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Kobe Bryant family and early life:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, takes pride as the birthplace of Kobe Bryant, the basketball superstar. Kobe is the youngest of three children of Pamela Cox Bryant and Joe Bryant and he is also their only son. Joe was also a NBA basketball player. Kobe Bryant is the maternal nephew of former Chicago Bulls NBA player, John ‘Chubby’ Cox. His naming was quite funny as he was named after the famous beef called “Kobe Beef” from Japan after his parents saw the menu in a Japanese restaurant. His middle name “Bean” comes from his father’s nickname “Jellybean”.
Kobe’s family moved to Rieti in Italy when Kobe was just six years old. His father stayed in US to continue his career as a professional basketball player after leaving NBA. Kobe Bryant was raised as a Roman Catholic and he learned to speak both Spanish and Italian. Kobe with his family returned to US after Joe’s retirement from the professional basketball in 1991.
During his high school basketball career, Kobe first gained National recognition at Lower Merion High School, Philadelphia. Kobe Bryant was named Pennsylvania Player of the Year during his early high school career with an incredible average of 31.1 points, 10.4 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. Then he was able to grab the attention from many of the famous college recruiters such as Duke, Villanova, Michigan and North Carolina due to his amazing performances.
Kobe Bryant was honored with the 1995 senior MVP award at the Adidas ABCD camp. While surpassing both Lionel Simmons and Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant ended his high school basketball career at an impressive 2,883 points and inducted his name as the Southeastern Pennsylvania’s all-time leading scorer.
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Kobe Bryant’s professional basketball career:
Kobe Bryant achieved several awards all through his basketball career. Among these he was named Naismith High School Player of the Year, USA Today ALL-USA First Team player, McDonald’s All-American and Gatorade Men’s National Basketball Player of the Year for his outstanding performance. Kobe’s varsity basketball coach Greg Downer while talking about him stated Kobe Bryant as “a complete player who dominates“. Kobe went directly into the NBA at the age of just 17 and being a NBA high school draftee. His performance got the attention of the media and crowd as at that time, prep-to-pro NBA basketball players were not so common. Kobe also secured his SAT score of 1080, which can get him admitted to any college he chose.
His international basketball career was not smooth as he met with a hectic start. Kobe declined to play in the 2000 summer Olympics due to his off-season marriage. Then he withdrew himself from the FIBA World Championship in 2002.
In 2003, he was selected for the FIBA Americas Championship and then got replaced by Vince Carter as he withdrew himself due to surgeries. And again due to his involvement with a legal case, he had to withdraw his name from the next Olympic team. His senior international career finally started as a member of the USA FIBA Americas Championship Team in 2007 and 2007 USA Men’s Senior National Team. He eventually earned his team a Gold medal in 2008 summer Olympic Games.
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Kobe Bryant special move in basketball:
In his early basketball career, Kobe Bryant became very popular for his playing style, shooting a fall-away jump shot into the net. His very best moves where instead of bringing the jab foot back, Kobe jabs his non-pivot foot forward to let the defender relax and the move was described as the “jab step-and-pause” by Sports Illustrated sports journalist Chris Ballard. Kobe has been roughly criticized for being selfish throughout his career, despite his splendid achievements and records. He missed more field goal attempts than any other players in his career in the NBA history as a real fact. Once Phil Jackson stated,
” Kobe tends to force the action, especially when the game isn’t going as he expected. When his shot is off, he will pound away relentlessly until his luck turns.”
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Kobe Bryant net worth 2015 and Kobe Bryant house and many others:
In January 2002, Kobe Bryant brought a beautiful Mediterranean-style mansion which is located at cul-de-sac in Newport Coast, Newport Beach for approximately $4 million. He signed a six-year contract dealing with Adidas before he started the 1996-97 NBA season which worth around $48 million. KB 8 is his first signature shoe which is one of the best basketball shoes of all time.
Eventually, Kobe Bryant signed a five-year contract with Nike which worth $40-45 million. Kobe was also selected for the cover athlete of the “NBA ’07: Featuring the Life Vol. 2”. He made a commercial appearance for the video games “Call of Duty: Black Ops” in 2010 and Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008. He signed an endorsement contract with Nubeo in 2009 and became the face of their Black Mamba Collection. The luxury sports watches in the Black Mamba Collection ranged from $25,000-$285,000.
In Conclusion,
Kobe Bryant has made a huge contributions to the sport. It’s not astonishing to think that Kobe is one of the highest paid athletes in recent days of sports. It is well expected that he will give his fans some even greater moments in the near future and all of these are likely to make him even more popular and greater.
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                    History of Basketball timeline in USA
