“McDonalds dropped Kobe Bryant from a $10 million deal for his s*xual assault case”: Lakers legend wasn’t allowed to continue endorsing ‘Big N Tasty’ burger after a tumultuous 2003 summer

Kobe Bryant signed a $10 million deal with McDonalds but was dropped from the deal in the summer of ‘03 due to his s*xual assault charges. 

Kobe Bryant came into the NBA has a teenager and conquered that same demographic during his ascent into one of the league’s best players on both ends of the floor. The Los Angeles Lakers were the most talked about team in the NBA with both Kobe and Shaq on their roster, winning championships galore in the early 2000s. 

With a plethora of his fans having been around his age or younger, advertising for a fast-food company made quite a bit of sense. Of course, it would be McDonalds who would swoop in and snag Bryant with quite the attractive offer. 

At the time, Kobe Bryant was earning around $10 million a season from his regular NBA contract. The All-American fast-food chain signed him to a deal that was worth $10 million as well.

Also read: “Michael Jordan looked at me like he was going to f**k me up”: Kobe Bryant described how he wasn’t intimidated by Bulls legend like other were in the NBA

Earning the same amount of money from taxing your body to its limits every other night and simply saying a burger is tasty on camera is quite ludicrous. ‘Bean’, as any rational human would, took that deal.

Kobe Bryant had to be dropped by McDonalds after getting into legal trouble. 

Kobe Bryant was unfortunately caught up in a s*xual assault case back in the summer of 2003, causing him to miss several games for the Los Angeles Lakers. Two days after getting arrested in Colorado, the arrest was made public, leading to a media frenzy that painted the eventual 5x champ in quite the negative light.

Also read: “Michael Jordan flew in a $61 million Air Jordan 3 themed jet for a Fishing tournament!?”: When ‘His Airness’ arrived in style with his Rolls Royce-powered private plane

Due to this new public perception of Bryant’s, he lost major endorsement deals to companies that were looked at as ‘all good’. McDonalds was the largest of these companies as they are viewed as an ‘All-American, family-friendly’ type of establishment. 

They cut ties with Kobe Bryant, negating their previously signed $10 million deal that had yielded about $1.5 million in the near 3 years that they had been together. 

Despite a civil suit being filed and settled out of court, Kobe did not sign back with several of the companies that had cut ties with him.