Kobe Bryant Lakers Contract From 1996-2016: How Much Did He Earn In 20 Seasons?

Kobe Bryant was a legendary basketball player nicknamed the “Black Mamba” who played the entirety of his 20-year career in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers. His two-decade run with the team earned him a lucrative payout, primarily due to his dominating performance on the court.

Since debuting in the professional basketball scene in 1996, Bryant had accumulated a massive net worth, estimated at $600 million, as per Celebrity Net Worth. At the peak of his career, he earned an annual average salary of more than $30 million.

Throughout his entire 20-season NBA career, the Black Mamba earned a massive $323 million fortune from contract salaries alone, according to Spotrac. He consistently made more than $20 million per year from 2008 up until his retirement in 2016.

The Black Mamba was chosen as the 13th overall pick by the Lakers in the 1996 NBA Draft as a shooting guard. His first deal with the team was worth $3.5 million for three years. Bryant turned to be one of the highest-paid athletes in the history of team sports during n his retirement year. He was also the league’s third all-time leading scorer, and he won five NBA titles during his entire career, as per Forbes.

The basketball icon’s massive net worth also included his earnings from various endorsement deals that totaled about $350 million. In 2014, Bryant invested $6 million in BodyArmor in exchange for a 10% equity stake. He later collaborated with entrepreneur Jeff Stibel to set up a $100 million VC fund in 2016, which was an investment in technology, media and data companies.

In August 2018, Coca-Cola purchased a stake in BodyArmor that valued the company at a massive $2 billion. This took Bryant’s measly $6 million and turned it into $200 million on paper before taxes.

But on Jan. 26, 2020, Bryant, unfortunately, passed away in a helicopter crash, which also resulted in the death of his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna Bryant. A year after his untimely demise, the Black Mamba’s legacy lives on as Aug. 24, 2021 marks the celebration of the first annual Kobe Bryant Day, National Today reported.