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KOBE BRYANT IS the highest paid player in the NBA, and the third-highest earning player in league history.
While Kobe has an insane work ethic and at times appears to be completely consumed by the game of basketball, he does find time to enjoy life, including nice houses, fancy cars, and even a helicopter.
He’s living the life — saying and doing whatever he wants in endlessly entertaining fashion.
Let’s take a closer look at how Kobe spends his millions.
He went to high school in the Philly suburbs, but he grew up in Italy. He loves Italian cars
He once walked into a Ferrari dealership and wrote a $329,000 check for a 458 Italia
YouTube
Source: TMZ
He also owns a Lamborghini, Bentley, and Range Rover
YouTube
Source: Pricing Insider
And yet, he's not above eating at Waffle House, as he did with his wife during a recent trip to Atlanta.
He owns three houses that were estimated to be worth $18.8 million in 2012. All of them are in Orange County, California, a lengthy drive from the Staples Center.
Source: Forbes
Kobe sold one of those houses earlier this year for $6.1 million.
Source: Orange County Register
Luckily, he has a helicopter that he typically takes to home games. He says it saves him from sitting in traffic and keeps his body fresh.
He's pretty generous with his helicopter, too. He once let team-mate Steve Blake use it to go to a doctor's appointment.
Kobe is the third-highest paid NBA player ever, with $280 million in career salary. He trails only Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O'Neal.
Despite his declining production, he will still make approximately $26 million in endorsements this year with companies like Nike, Lenovo, Hublot, and Panini.
Source: FORBES
But Bryant started Kobe Inc. in 2013 to become more of a business partner as opposed to the more traditional athlete endorser. The company's first investment was a 10% stake in sports drink BodyArmor.
In 2014, Kobe spent $5.8 million to purchase this building in Newport Beach to house the offices of Kobe Inc.
Source: Orange County Register
Kobe Inc. has also partnered with Alibaba to produce his documentary "Muse" and to produce and distribute Kobe-branded products in China.
Kobe once went all in on a rap career, even enlisting heavyweight hip-hop video director Hype Williams to direct the video for Kobe's first single, "K.O.B.E." The song was not well-received and the video was never released.
One good thing came out of that song, as it was during the video shoot that he met his wife, Vanessa.
Source: Fox Sports
Unfortunately, Kobe had to buy his wife a $4 million ring after his sex scandal. It was an 8-karat purple diamond.
SOURCE: Yahoo
He was reportedly set to lose $75 million in a divorce, but he and Vanessa worked things out.
Kobe had a strange fashion phase before it was cool to wear strange fashion in the NBA. He appeared in an odd photo shoot for LA Weekly and teammate Metta World Peace (known as Ron Artest at the time) said, "He's a star. He's Kobe Bryant. He can do what he wants."
Source: LA Times
But at games, he still keeps things classy.
He still has an incredible competitive fire, one where he is willing to put his money where his mouth is. With Team USA in 2012, he challenged Kyrie Irving to a $50,000 game of one-on-one.
Kobe Bryant is still the NBA's highest-paid player, making $25 million this season, but but there won't be any more contracts in the NBA as a player after this one.
- Tony Manfred and Cork Gaines, Business Insider
