"Mamba out!" " On April 13, 2016, his microphone release, along with a kiss to the public, during his farewell speech for his last game as a professional basketball player, became legend. President Barack Obama even took it up at his last dinner before the White House press correspondents association.
"Kobe was a legend on the floor and had just started what would have been a meaningful second act" : Former US President paid tribute to Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday January 26. Kobe Bryant's second career was indeed as rich as the first.
On April 14, 2016, the day after this last match, the “Black Mamba”, by his nickname, therefore opens a new chapter in his life. The members of his staff are then persuaded to arrive at the office before the one known for his "work ethic" and his stakhanovism. They are wrong. Kobe Bryant has already been there for two hours. "We have a lot of work to do", he warns.
"I can do something as good, or even better than before"
"In a way, I feel compelled to show that I can do something as good, or even better than before", he said in an interview in The Team in 2017, when some feared that Kobe Bryant, weaned from balls and competitions, would fall into depression.
Nike's muse, who had supported him despite a 2003 settlement rape charge, Bryant earned $ 323.3 million in wages, including $ 25 million in his last season. But the five-player NBA basketball player was one of the pioneers of a new generation of athletes positioning themselves as an investor, not just an advertising vehicle. Like some of his illustrious predecessors, Kobe Bryant did not wait until the end of his career to secure his back and become a successful entrepreneur.
In 2013, he previously co-founded a Bryant Stibel investment fund with Jeff Stibel, the founder of Web.com, who had acquired stakes in the sports platform The Players Tribune or the video game publisher Epic Games. As of 2014, he will buy 10% of the energy drink group Bodyarmor for $ 6 million. Four years later, these same shares will be valued at $ 200 million after Coca-Cola's equity stake.
But Kobe Bryant especially develops an "art of thinking", the "Mamba Mentality", which he described as a "way of life": " It is not an attitude in itself. It’s a way of life that is trying to be better every day. It’s not about living with daring. It’s something much simpler by just trying to be better at what you do every day. "
In 2016, he founded Granity Studios, to develop storytelling around this concept. "I had a great teacher of language arts, who taught us how to structure a story, how to write a story, he explained in November 2019 to CBS. The world revolves around storytelling. This storytelling plays an important role in our society. It makes me excited to play my little part in it. "
"Bryant wanted to go in unexpected and improbable directions"
Kobe Bryant also makes a successful foray into film production, with the animated short film Dear Basketball, which he himself wrote, crowned with an Oscar in 2018.
Slate, in an article dedicated to his second career, explains that "Granity, the studio with which he went up Dear Basketball, had diversified. For television, he had made a series of short films for ESPN +, the video on demand service of the American sports channel. In Detail, he analyzed various actions and NBA players to help the general public better understand what is happening on a basketball court. "
He also launched a series of children's podcasts, in the form of life lessons, and several novels for young adults, mixing sport and the fantastic universe, fruit of his imagination. "Entertainment became a team sport, and Bryant wanted to go in unexpected and unlikely directions," summarized Vanity Fair, for whom Kobe Bryant was building an empire.
The happy retiree wanted above all to take advantage of the time recovered to take advantage of his family, his four daughters, including Gianna, 13, promised a bright future in basketball, and especially passionate about this sport. " He is someone special "When she plays basketball, the five-time NBA champion said when Jimmy Kimmel was on ABC two years ago. " When fans tell me in front of her, you have to have a boy for him to continue the dynasty, she says to me: "I'll take care of it, don't worry." "
Kobe telling our pal Jimmy Kimmel about his daughter Gigi carrying on his legacy. “I got this!” #RIPKobe https://t.co/VXK0DJRgMI
She accompanied him to NBA and WNBA games and perfected with him in the gymnasium of their villa. Kobe Bryant also coached him in his young athlete structure, the Mamba Sports Academy. It was by going to a tournament in which his daughter's team had to line up that they died.
