16 Richest Athletes In Sports
15. Kobe Bryant – $260 million
NBA’s highest-paid player for the second year, the $83.5 million three-year extension he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in April 2010 assures he will stay on top through the 2013-14 season.
In 2009, Forbes Magazine estimated his net worth at $140 million.
Son of former Philadelphia 76ers player and former Los Angeles Sparks head coach Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, Kobe has won five NBA championships as the star shooting guard of the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryan joined the Lakers in 1996 and became part of a celebrated one-two punch with center Shaquille O’Neal.
The pair led the Lakers to NBA championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002; and after O’Neal moved on to Miami, Bryant led LA to two more NBA championships in 2009 and 2010.
Bryant was an NBA prodigy, jumping straight from high school to the pros. He was drafted in 1996 by the Charlotte Hornets, then traded to the Lakers for center Vlade Divac. Bryant’s charisma and flashy talent led some to compare him with former NBA superstar Michael Jordan.
Now he is one of the game’s premier players; as of July 2011, Bryant ranks third and sixth on the league’s all-time post-season scoring and all-time regular season scoring lists, respectively. Endorsement deals pad earnings, Nike launched Zoom Kobe IV in 2010; the company’s “lightest basketball shoe ever.”
He is the centerpiece of director Spike Lee’s documentary “Kobe Doin’ Work.” The crew used 30 cameras to capture the player’s every move during a game in 2008.
