NBA star James Harden opens up about building a $400 million investment portfolio with Kobe Bryant
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Although Kobe Bryant was born in Italy, he became an absolute NBA great in his adopted home of Los Angeles. He mentored a generation of young LA hoopers on and off the field. One of them was star James Harden, who praised Kobe for giving him “life-saving” financial advice. Harden recently appeared on the Earn Your Leisure podcast and shared how Kobe got him to start investing.
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Kobe Bryant combined a rare combination of natural talent, an iron will to win and preternatural physical ability to become one of the greatest scorers the NBA has ever seen. What many people may not realize, however, is that Bryant approached investing with the same tenacity. Bryant began preparing for life after basketball long before his career ended and urged Harden to do the same.
“Kobe told me, ‘Let’s put aside $5 million. Whenever an opportunity arises – $200,000 or $500,000 – we’re going to pull from that pot and invest,” said Harden, 35. He said that conversation with Bryant occurred in 2014. At the time, Bryant was a senior statesman in the NBA and a savvy investor. One of those investments was Bryant’s stake in the energy drink brand BodyArmour, which he acquired for $6 million.
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Bryant encouraged Harden to invest in the deal, and he followed suit, albeit with a smaller investment of $500,000. Over the next seven years, BodyArmour grew in popularity, thanks in large part to public support from prominent athletes like Bryant and Harden. Coca-Cola took notice in 2021 and bought BodyArmour for $5.6 billion.
The deal is rumored to have netted Bryant $400 million, a return of about 6,700% on his original investment. That means Harden’s original $500,000 should have been worth between $32 million and $33 million. At this point, both men had highly diversified portfolios. According to the Daily Mail, Kobe Bryant’s portfolio included stocks from Dell, Alibaba and Epic Games. Harden has also expanded his portfolio to include ownership of an MLS and NWSL franchise.
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Harden’s love of startups and new ventures also carried over from his BodyArmour experience. He owns a stake in Therabody, maker of the portable, rechargeable muscle massager Theragun. He also made it clear that he sees investments as a way to continue Kobe’s legacy off the field. This mission has taken on added significance for Harden given the tragic death of Bryant in a helicopter crash in 2020.
Harden told his hosts: “It’s really hard to carry on Kobe’s legacy because he was really one of a kind. But I’m trying to do my part creatively and move things forward.” You may not have $500,000 worth of capital to start your portfolio like Harden did, but you can still learn from his example. The success of companies like BodyArmour and Nvidia shows that the world of investing is full of opportunities with unlimited profit potential.
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This article: NBA star James Harden talks about building a $400 million investment portfolio with Kobe Bryant originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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