NBA Great James Harden Spills The Tea On Building A $400 Million Investment Portfolio With Kobe Bryant
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Although Kobe Bryant was born in Italy, he became an all-time NBA great in his adopted hometown of Los Angeles. In the process, he mentored a generation of young LA hoopers on and off the court. One of them was all-star James Harden, who credits Kobe for giving him “lifesaving” advice about finances. Harden recently appeared on the Earn Your Leisure podcast and told 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 otherworldly physical gifts 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 that same tenacity. Bryant began preparing for life after basketball long before his career ended and challenged Harden to do the same.
“Kobe told me, ‘Let’s put aside $5 million. Anytime an opportunity comes up –$200,000 or $500,000 – we’ll pull from this pot and invest,” says Harden, 35. He said this conversation with Bryant took place in 2014, by which point Bryant was a senior statesman in the NBA and an accomplished investor. One such investment was Bryant’s equity share of the BodyArmour brand of energy drinks, 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 $500k investment. Over the next seven years, BodyArmour grew steadily in popularity, thanks in no small part to the public backing of highly visible 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, roughly a 6,700% return on his original investment. That means Harden’s original $500k should have been worth between $32 million and $33 million. By then, both men had heavily diversified portfolios. According to the Daily Mail, Kobe Bryant’s portfolio included Dell, Alibaba and Epic Games shares. Harden has also expanded his portfolio to include ownership of an MLS and NWSL franchise.
Harden’s affection for startups and new companies has also carried over from his BodyArmour experience. He owns a stake in Therabody, maker of the Theragun hand-held, rechargeable muscle massaging device. He also clarified that he sees investing as a way of continuing Kobe’s legacy off the court. This mission has added significance for Harden in light of Bryant’s tragic death in a 2020 helicopter crash.
Harden told his hosts, “Carrying on Kobe’s legacy is really hard because he was truly one of a kind. But I try to contribute creatively and keep things moving forward.” You may not have $500k worth of capital to start your portfolio like Harden, but you can still learn from his example. The success of companies like BodyArmour and Nvidia shows that the investing world is full of opportunities with unlimited upside.
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