13. The Endorsements He Lost
In 2003, Kobe Bryant was arrested in relation to a potential sexual assault on a 19-year-old girl. Kobe ended up admitting to sleeping with the woman, but that the entire act was consensual. The case ended up being settled out of court after the accuser refused to testify. While this did not take Kobe away from the basketball court, it definitely took away from his wallet. He lost deals with McDonald’s, Nutella, Nike, Coco-Cola and didn’t get any new sponsorship until 2006. Kobe has since rebounded to being one of the most marketable athletes, but there was definitely a time where that was not the case.
12. He Has A Documentary
Kobe Bryant teamed up with Showtime to create a documentary entitled Kobe Bryant’s Muse. The film came out last February, and when asked about it, Kobe talked about how the project evolved:
“They followed me around with the cameras, and we did all that stuff, and we had a film. We sat here, watched the film, and at that time I had already crystallized what we were going to do with Kobe Inc., and what I enjoy doing, which is storytelling. So after we watched this, I said, ‘You know what? Let’s not make a standard documentary. Let’s make something more.’ … So we put the brakes on that project (nearly a year ago), and just created something completely new.”
At the very least, you know the documentary followed the vision that Kobe had for it.
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