Kobe Bryant once hilariously opened up about him doing menial tasks despite being one of the greatest players in NBA history.
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Kobe Bryant earned every penny, every dime that was a part of his $323 million earned from his 20 year career with the Los Angeles Lakers. In fact, in today’s league, the ‘Black Mamba’ would be incredibly underpaid, especially with guys like Bradley Beal set to make about 75% with a single long-term contract.
Kobe even felt that he was underpaid, once claiming in 2014 that guys like him and LeBron James deserved more, with the latter, according to him, being worth around $75 million. Of course, not getting paid as much as he’d liked from the NBA didn’t stop him from acquiring wealth from a bevy of different avenues.
Most notably, the 5x champ founded the Bryant Stibel venture capital fund with friend, Jeff Stibel, in 2013 that started off with $100 million but in a mere 6 years, grew to over $2 billion in worth. Savvy investments in companies like LegalZoom and famously BodyArmor, led to such a rapid growth.
Despite the financial success, Kobe Bryant wasn’t exempt from doing day-to-day tasks.
Kobe Bryant on him doing normal tasks.
During an interview with ESPN in his 17th season in the NBA, Kobe Bryant reflected on all that he had been through in those 17 years. The interviewer, Chris Palmer, asked him, “When was the last time you pumped your own gas?”
“Yesterday. I do all of life’s daily tasks. The other day my wife and I stopped at 7-Eleven and I pulled up to the pump and I started to pump some gas. She went inside to buy something and was waiting in line. The guy in front of her sees me outside but doesn’t see her. He says, ‘Man, there’s Kobe Bryant pumping his own gas.’ My wife says to the guy, ‘He wipes his own ass, too.’”
While this is quite the hilarious analogy, it goes to show that people of Bryant’s caliber don’t always have to be blinded by the wealth they accumulate.
