Kobe Bryant

Vanessa Bryant expressed the anguish she continues to feel regarding the photos that were taken of the crash site where Kobe and Gianna Bryant and seven others died in January 2020.

As part of her ongoing litigation against Los Angeles County, Bryant wrote in a recent filing she remains worried about the photos finding their way to the wider public, per TMZ Sports:

It infuriates me that the people I trusted to protect the dignity of my husband and daughter abused their positions to obtain souvenirs of their deaths, as though possessing pictures of their remains somehow makes them special. I imagine Kobe watching over what occurred at that crash scene, and I am overcome by anger and emotion.

... I feel sick at the thought that deputies and firefighters have gawked at photos of my husband's and child's bodies without any reason. I also feel extreme sadness and anger knowing that photos of my husband's and daughter's bodies were laughed about while shown at a bar and awards banquet.

Bryant initially filed suit in September 2020, saying that members of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department took illicit photos of the crash and showed them to people outside of the department.

In March, Bryant said on Instagram that four deputies were at fault. One of the deputies, Joey Cruz, allegedly talked to a bartender and patrons at a local dining establishment about the crash scene and showed photos to multiple people.

L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva confirmed in March he instructed eight of his deputies to delete any photos they had of the crash.

Representatives for the county contended in May that Bryant still didn't have enough evidence to prove in court her privacy was invaded.

"The county does not condone this showing of accident site photographs and has taken corrective personnel actions accordingly," the lawyers said, per the Los Angeles Times' Richard Winton. "That does not mean, however, that plaintiff has viable legal claims. The two seminal cases involve public dissemination of pictures of human remains, and that did not occur here."

The promise Villanueva made to Bryant about securing the crash scene has become a point of contention in the lawsuit.

According to USA Today's Brent Schrotenboer, Bryant's lawyers are saying that Villanueva's order amounted to the destruction of evidence and hindered further examination into the actions of first responders.

L.A. County, on the other hand, said Villanueva was following through on what he said to Bryant and attempted to minimize further exposure of the photos.

Los Angeles County is requesting a summary judgment in its favor to conclude Vanessa Bryant's lawsuit against the county, according to USA Today's Brent Schrotenboer.

Bryant filed suit last September, accusing first responders and L.A. County sheriff's deputies of taking illicit photos of the crash scene where Kobe and Gianna Bryant and seven others were killed.

Per Schrotenboer, L.A. County contended in a court filing that the photos weren't shown to the Bryant family or the wider public and, as a result, her lawsuit lacks merit:

It is undisputed that the complained-of photos have never been in the media, on the Internet, or otherwise publicly disseminated. Instead, [Bryant] testified that this case is about her 'having to fear those photographs surfacing.' But a preemptive, speculative lawsuit about what 'may' or 'could’ happen, as [Bryant] testified, fails as a matter of law.

L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva confirmed in March he ordered eight of his deputies to delete photos of the crash scene.

"That was my No. 1 priority, was to make sure those photos no longer exist," he said to NBC News. "We identified the deputies involved, they came to the station on their own and had admitted they had taken them and they had deleted them. And, we're content that those involved did that."

However, the Los Angeles Times' Richard Winton reported in May that a former captain in the department's Lost Hills station had cautioned his superiors that Villanueva's order could amount to destroying evidence.  

Schrotenboer reported on Nov. 8 that attorneys for the Bryant family and L.A. County filed arguments on that matter.

"By destroying evidence instead of preserving it to conduct a proper investigation, Defendants have prevented Plaintiffs from discovering how many other people saw graphic photos of their loved ones' dead bodies," wrote Jennifer Bryant, attorney for Vanessa Bryant.

However, L.A. County said that Villanueva's order came before Bryant filed suit and that the department didn't need to begin preserving the evidence until she officially made her allegations in court.

According to Schrotenboer, Bryant's representatives are expected to file a rebuttal to L.A. County's summary judgment request in December. If the judge declines to grant the county's motion, the lawsuit will advance to a trial beginning in February.

Vanessa Bryant has filed four trademarks that indicate the start of Kobe Bryant-themed wines:

Kobe Bryant LLC (a company owned by Vanessa Bryant) has filed 4 new trademarks:

1. MAMBA VINO 2024
2. MAMBA VINO 24
3. MAMBA VINO 8
4. MAMBA VINO

The filings, made on November 5th, indicate that MAMBA VINO-branded wine might be on store shelves soon.#KobeBryant#LakeShow pic.twitter.com/1EFQ84yohz

— Josh Gerben (@JoshGerben) November 10, 2021

TMZ Sports also confirmed the news, noting Vanessa signed off on the paperwork under the applicant of Kobe Bryant LLC.

Kobe was known as the Black Mamba during his playing career, although Vino was another of his many nicknames (h/t Basketball Reference). The Hall of Fame player died in a helicopter crash in January 2020.

His wife Vanessa has remained active with Bryant's estate since then, filing a trademark for "Mamba and Mambacita" with the intention of using it for clothing and shoes, per TMZ Sports. She also reportedly filed a trademark for "KB24" to help build a sports and entertainment empire. 

In April, Bryant's estate severed ties with Nike after the player's post-retirement contract ran out. 

"I was hoping to forge a lifelong partnership with Nike that reflects my husband's legacy," Vanessa said in a statement, via Nick DePaula of ESPN. "We will always do everything we can to honor Kobe and Gigi's legacies. That will never change."

Kevin Garnett likes to talk. He liked to talk on the court during his Hall of Fame career, and he's clearly relishing the opportunity to tell his story in full now. These media blitzes that celebrities undertake when they have something to push can be tedious, but Garnett appears to be enjoying himself immensely.

Watching Garnett's new documentary, Anything is Possible, which premieres Friday on Showtime, the full breadth of his influence on the modern NBA comes into focus. He was the first player since the 1970s to enter the draft out of high school, paving the way for Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and others. The six-year, $126 million extension he signed in 1997 set records at the time for player salaries and precipitated the 1999 lockout and the creation of the league's current salary structure. And his 2007 team-up with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce in Boston was the first "superteam" under the current definition, with three stars coming together to dominate.

There are plenty of funny individual moments and interviews with Garnett and his friends and contemporaries in the film, but that wide-ranging impact on the sport in 2021 is what stands out.

Bleacher Report spoke with Garnett via Zoom this week for about 30 minutes ahead of the release of the documentary, and he reflected on his career and how he sees today's league as a continuation of his own basketball journey.

Editor's note: The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

 

Bleacher Report: When you made the decision to enter the draft in 1995 straight out of high school, were you thinking at all about the historical aspect of it, that nobody had done that in 20 years at that point, or were you just focused on your own situation?

Kevin Garnett: I was really more in the moment, if I'm being honest. I wasn't thinking about the impact of what it would be 20 years, 15 years, 10 years from that time. I wouldn't call it a panic, but I was in some real situations at that time where I had to make some decisions, and I didn't have this cast of support that I could lean on and get answers from. So I had to make a decision on my own of what I was willing to commit to.

I went to go play, and after that interaction of playing for a couple hours, I played with Michael Jordan, had Scottie Pippen in the gym, and after that, Isiah Thomas had a conversation with me that really changed my mindset. I was in limbo. I didn't really have a direct plan. So after that conversation with Zeke, it gave me some real direction in which I just committed to what I was willing to do. 

 

B/R: Did you reach out at all to Moses Malone or any of the other guys from the previous generation who made the jump from high school to get their advice?

Garnett: I couldn't get Moses Malone on the phone. I couldn't get Darryl Dawkins or track him down. There wasn't the internet back then. You couldn't just DM or reach out. But I did have a long conversation on the phone with Bill Willoughby, who was the last guy to do it before me. He shared some of his experiences with me. A lot of information about the league and the business. How they do guys with injuries. It just kind of took me down an avenue of a reality check on what the real NBA is like. He played eight years, could have played more. He thought that politics came into play a little bit in some situations. Fired his agent, went through a lot of catastrophic episodes that I thought I needed to hear. 

You hear so many glamour stories and the parts of it that are so glammed up, if you will. So to have that balance, to hear some of these "reality" stories, I needed that. And I don't want to make it sound like I didn't care what he'd been through, but I was so dead-on with what I was seeing for myself that it didn't matter. I was expecting to go through something. You can't achieve something without going through something. But the talk with Bill helped me a lot.

 

B/R: What was the most eye-opening thing that he told you about what life in the NBA would be like?

Garnett: How the league perceives you when you're injured. Like a horse. You hear some of those horrific stories in horse racing when a horse can't perform like it used to. He gave me kind of the "factory" perspective of, "Next man up." This is how they do players. He was using players as an example, bringing up teammates of his. I was out here thinking, 'If you do it right, you work hard, you'll be an All-Star.' They don't tell you about these hurdles or these different what-if possibilities.

 

B/R: Once you got into the league, what was the first thing you experienced on or off the court that made you realize what you had signed up for?

Garnett: The league is full of layers. First off, meeting the commissioner and him talking to you right away like you're a trivial kid about to get in trouble. David Stern was very adamant about performance on and off the court. Perception. Character. The league's perception. The league's view of how they see you as a professional. I can remember David's conversation with me being like a dad or an uncle, I guess it would have been like sending you off to college. It was kind of a wake-up call of, "Don't f--k this up."

And then when I got into my first NBA practice, versus a workout. Because for a workout, you're going against coaches and working on certain things. When you get into a practice, those things you work on are actually embodied in the practice. It was a bunch of drills, a bunch of running. It was like being in a washing machine. Everything's spinning, everything's going 100 miles an hour. I remember after that first practice being like, "Oh, wow, I'm really here." Getting through picks. There was a bunch that I didn't know. They were kind of transitioning me, because I was a big in high school. Once I got to the league, they didn't think I was strong enough to be a power forward, so they started me off at small forward. That was a whole university and class within itself.

But I put the work in. I'm compulsive when it comes to getting things right. I watched the film with Kevin McHale. Every practice, we'd have a pre-practice, we'd have the practice, and then we'd have what we called "Lessons with Kevin." Those were some of the most beneficial because that's where the moves come from and the knowledge.

The other thing I didn't know about the NBA was that they had two-a-days for the whole month of October. That was new to me. All these things were presented to me as hurdles, but at the end of the day it made me who you're looking at today.

 

B/R: Do you think your coaches thinking you couldn't play certain positions might have helped you expand your game and what you were capable of as you got more established?

Garnett: If you saw me play in high school or on the blacktop or playground, outside of the professional setting, I'm playing against guards, I'm playing against shorter guys, taller guys, guys that are probably better than me, faster than me, stronger than me, jump higher. So I'm playing against a different array of players. And when you come into the league, they want you to be great at a position and play the position like "this." For me, I was able to play the position but sprinkle these little intangibles in that I had. I could handle the ball. I didn't have to bring the ball up like a point guard would, but if I had to, I could get myself out of situations. I had enough handle that if I was facing a guy who was my same makeup, he was as strong as me but not as quick as me. Playing on the playground helped me in the NBA, because if I needed to get out of a situation I could go to those different skills. 

A lot of things I did in the league, I actually think I didn't get to show my whole arsenal of handles or shooting threes or being able to be versatile. I think I showed it more in defensive situations. I kind of liked that, because the unexpected was to be expected.

 

B/R: Once you started to establish yourself as a star, were you able to mentor any of the next wave of kids coming into the league from high school like Bill Willoughby did for you? Your relationship with Kobe Bryant is covered in the documentary, but did guys like Jermaine O'Neal and Tracy McGrady reach out to you when they were weighing their decisions?

Garnett: Yeah, I tried to make myself available for those kids. I didn't talk to J.O. or Tracy, but I did talk to Kob. Kob and I had a long conversation. I could tell that he had very similar visions for himself coming out of high school to what I had. I said to him, "You've got a father who played in the league. All the stuff you're asking me, you can go ask your dad." But he wanted to hear it from me. He wanted my perspective. We remained friends after that. But when it came to Tracy and those guys, they didn't really reach out. 

Darius Miles was the one besides Kobe that I actually sat down with. I could see a lot of myself in him. He had already made up his mind of what he wanted to do and wanted some advice. We had similar paths. He was from East St. Louis, so we kind of messed on some Midwest-type ish. But he was a student. I saw a lot of myself.

 

B/R: How did your Sports Illustrated cover with Darius come together?

Garnett: He was coming out of high school and was a big fan of mine. They were gonna put him on the cover, and they thought it would be an inspirational piece. I thought it was pretty cool that someone was looking up to me. That was all new to me, being a role model. These were all early relationships that I started to establish with these guys that later on I was able to call them friends.

 

B/R: One of the other big ripple effects of your career that's covered in the documentary is the impact that your first big contract had on the league, being a precursor to the 1999 lockout. How do you view that looking back?

Garnett: The owners had an agenda in which they wanted to acquire more value out of their respective franchises. They didn't have the makeup or the structure set to where it is now, with all these new dollars coming in, so they put the targets on the players. The league did a really good job of changing the narrative and making that the pivotal piece of the lockout. I looked at it like I was just one of the players that was the next up.

But that taught me a lot about the business of the league. Before I got that contract, the referees were very friendly with me. I had a very cool, back-and-forth relationship with the refs. And then after I signed this contract, it felt like the play changed. When I would play people, I could feel the extra ... whatever that was. Referees were talking to me different, and I was being painted like this aggressive guy, something that wasn't me. And then I was second to Rasheed [Wallace] in techs. All this stuff that I had never experienced before, but now that I'm the top player and get paid the most money, these things are starting to come into account now. 

I started to see things a little differently after that. I started educating myself on more financial stuff, and I started participating more in some of the lockout conversations. Some of the players association meetings, I started being more of a part of it and educating myself and encouraging other players to step up and know the business of the game. I don't think that was the case before. Michael Jordan and all those guys weren't in there. They didn't think of it as a whole cohesive group. I wanted the players I was competing against, [Chris] Webber and [Tim] Duncan and Rasheed, to all be on one page. For the most part, I felt like that was the wave. And in the parts where it worked, it worked, and where it fell apart, it fell apart. 

I can see where some of the nuances were and where the standard was set for contracts. And it comes back around in cycles, so here we are today with great money and opportunities for these players. Locker rooms are not the same. Practice facilities are not the same. Rules are not the same. Some things that we were getting hit over the head for—Kinesio tape that you see everywhere now, we were getting fined for that. We didn't have rest days. We didn't have load management. You couldn't just take the f--king day off if you wanted to. The ups and downs, aches and pains that you go through, you've got to know that you're the real beneficiaries of yesteryear. It's good to see these guys having these opportunities that we worked hard for and stood on.

 

B/R: What do you think of the alternative paths that kids in your position have now coming out of high school if they don't want to go to college, like the G League Ignite and Overtime Elite? Do you have young players now reaching out to you for advice about those options?

Garnett: Believe it or not, I have a bunch of young athletes, not just in basketball, reaching out for solutions. Part of me doing this documentary was just for that. There's only one of me, and a million people ask me a million different questions, so I wanted to either do a book or put something out there that people can use as a script. 

I try to make myself available and be as transparent as I can be. I see kids with all these different opportunities. They now have a dilemma of how to do something, as opposed to which option to take. I try to individualize every situation. Parents can only help so much when it comes to this decision. I've been throwing an idea to the league of a kind of big-brother program, where young kids can actually reach out to the OGs and get some solutions or get some advice, so they can make the best decisions for themselves as opposed to going into a situation that isn't necessarily the best fit for them. I'm seeing the business of it. I see the NBA going to a baseball kind of structure where you have a minor league where you can not have so much on you to begin with. The G League is kind of a perfect portal if you're coming out of high school and don't want to jump right into the league, you have something like the G League that pays decent money to these guys starting off. It's sort of R&D to where the league is going. I'm not saying the G League is the league, but to have that kind of secondary league where you can go prep yourself before you get to the league, I'm glad these kids have that option.

B/R: What was the Rookie Transition Program like when you were coming into the league?

Garnett: We had that. You might go into it looking like it's a waste of time, but it hits you with a lot of stuff about the lifestyle of the NBA that your mother and father can't teach you. You need to have someone who's been through it give you the ins and outs of it and tell you about the pitfalls.

 

B/R: What's one decision you made during your career, on or off the court, that you wish you could have back?

Garnett: I would have gone to the Celtics a little earlier. After Sam [Cassell] and Spree [Latrell Sprewell] didn't get their extensions, I would have left Minnesota a little earlier. I told Paul [Pierce] that, and he kind of got mad at me.

 

B/R: Like, 'Why didn't you do that? We could have got two or three.'

Garnett: Facts. You sound like Paul now. [Laughs]

 

B/R: That was the other thing I wanted to ask you about. Most people think of LeBron going to Miami with Wade and Bosh as the start of the player empowerment era, but you going to Boston to team up with Pierce and Allen was the blueprint.

Garnett: It's hard to say that when you come from '80s basketball. The '80s have some of the greatest teams ever assembled, to me. Those are the teams that really built the league. Those Lakers teams, those Celtics teams, even some of those 76ers teams, Portland, Detroit, Chicago. The Jordan era did two things. You came into camp in shape, and then it was kind of built off of one superstar per team. Obviously, Mike's the exception because the growth of Scottie Pippen and some of those other guys made the Bulls one of the greatest teams ever assembled. But that was kind of the script. I think what you started to see out of that was in my years in Minnesota, it wasn't working and I wanted to change it up. And I wanted to change it up and play with players that would push me to be better and be something different. I think it was time. Minnesota was starting to get to the point where it was unappreciative of what I brought to the game. I felt like the mindset of winning wasn't the same in Minnesota. My thirst for winning and being the best in the league and to hoist the trophy was kind of psychotic, and I don't think the owner [Glen Taylor] shared that same passion with me. I don't really have too many regrets, but if we're talking about on the court, I probably would have left Minnesota a little earlier.

 

B/R: Going to Boston and immediately winning the title in year one, did you hear any of the same criticism at the time that LeBron faced in Miami or Kevin Durant did when he went to Golden State? "He couldn't do it by himself so he had to team up."

Garnett: I kind of see myself different from the Kevin Durant situation or the LeBron situation. LeBron is and was the face of the league, whether we want to admit that or not. And that's a real thing. So for him to not be able to do it in Cleveland was a big asterisk next to his name. I felt like I had been proven up until the decision I made to go to Boston. Then, it was putting the pieces together and seeing if it worked. And we had a coach [Doc Rivers] who had been beat up over the years and questioned about if his style works. And we put all that in a pot and it worked, and now you have a new presence in the league. Now Boston is reactivated as a superpower. 

And I think LeBron going to Miami actually reactivated the East. They had a duo called Shaq and Kobe that was just stepping over people in the West. And then you had the Spurs in San Antonio who were mopping everybody up. So to have the East kind of be reactivated with teams like Indiana and Detroit and Boston, it was a good thing for the league. And then the emergence of Orlando and other teams gave it a true balance where it wasn't lopsided. 

I can say that, just like when I came out of high school and gave people a script of 'This can work if it's done like this,' I thought that decision to go to Boston had the same kind of ripple effect. It made other players go, "OK, I can do that." Because Detroit had something special on their hands, but they didn't see those five as stars. Tayshaun [Prince] had to blossom into what he was. Rip [Hamilton] wasn't known as a great mid-range shooter like he was. Chauncey [Billups] was bounced from team to team. Sheed had his own challenges. Ben Wallace wasn't drafted, wasn't a big name. And those guys came together and made something unbelievable. When those guys won how they won, Doc used that as a script for us. He wanted to build it around us three with all these great pieces around us. And then you see LeBron do the same thing. It's all history from there on out.

 

B/R: To wrap this up, what's the number one thing you want people to take away from your career and your story after watching this documentary?

Garnett: Bet on yourself. Bet on yourself and believe in yourself if everybody doesn't believe in you. F--k everybody else. What do they know? If you have a passion and you want to put the work into something, then chase it. If it means something to you, chase it. I hope this inspires people, but more importantly, I hope people are able to look at themselves in the mirror and keep doing what you want to do. That's the message of this.

Attorneys for Vanessa Bryant are asking a federal court to sanction Los Angeles County in connection to first responders destroying photos of the crash that killed Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant and seven others.

"By destroying evidence instead of preserving it to conduct a proper investigation, Defendants have prevented Plaintiffs from discovering how many other people saw graphic photos of their loved ones' dead bodies," said Jennifer Bryant on behalf of her client, per USA Today's Brent Schrotenboer.

Schrotenboer also shared what L.A. County wrote in its filing:

Sheriff [Alex] Villanueva was keeping his promise to Bryant by making sure no photos got out. The deputies, on and before January 30, 2020, deleted the photos from their phones — months before this dispute. Within two days, LASD interviewed 28 deputies, reserve deputies, sergeants, and civilian volunteers. The department determined that all personnel who had taken, shared, or received crash site photos had, in fact, deleted them. No one had sent a photo to anyone outside LASD.

Last September, Bryant filed a lawsuit alleging that L.A. County sheriff's deputies took illicit photos of the crash site and shared them with people outside of the department. She named four deputies who allegedly engaged in the conduct, including a deputy trainee, Joey Cruz, who allegedly showed the crash photos to a bartender and bar patron.

According to Schrotenboer, the county has said Cruz was the only employee in the sheriff's department who allowed non-department personnel to see the images.

Villanueva acknowledged in March ordering eight deputies to delete the offending pictures in order to avoid their further dissemination.

The county is taking the stance that it didn't need to preserve the evidence in question until Bryant's representatives made their initial claims in court. Her attorneys are claiming "nine sheriff's deputies discarded or wiped devices after this litigation began," per Schrotenboer.

As part of the continuing litigation, L.A. County attorneys requested that Bryant provide any therapy records she had dating back to 2010. They say this will help them better understand the extent of the emotional distress she experienced from the January 2020 crash and more specifically the controversy over the crash photos.

Scottie Pippen joined GQ's Tyler Tynes for an extensive interview prior to the release of his memoir, Unguarded, and opened up about a number of topics from his Hall of Fame career, including Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.

While his comments about Jordan have already made headlines leading up to the release of the book, there were a number of quick-hitting answers that stood out as well.

Pippen said the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls that won 72 regular-season games should be remembered as better than the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors that won 73 regular-season games because his team won the championship.

"You can't be considered the greatest team," if you don't win a ring he said when referencing Golden State's loss to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals.

Pippen also said the New York Knicks were the team he enjoyed beating the most and his first championship in 1991 is the one he remembers the most fondly in part because the Bulls defeated Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers.

"I really idolized Magic as a player and a young kid growing up," Pippen said.

The six-time champion also said his favorite current young player is Devin Booker, he would consider coaching but likely won't so he can focus on his children and he would "win a championship in Portland" if he could do one thing differently in his career.

Yet it is the comments about Jordan that figured to stand out since he previously said he isn't particularly close with His Airness anymore and felt disrespected by The Last Dance documentary that chronicled the Bulls' final championship run because it focused so much on No. 23 and not the team.

Pippen suggested he felt like a prop while watching the documentary because it didn't glorify Hall of Famers such as himself, Dennis Rodman and Toni Kukoc and was all about elevating Jordan's legacy.

The seven-time All-Star's focus on team and not individual achievements was never clearer than when he said he would rather have a seventh championship than an MVP because "it would have been a team achievement. I don't chase individual achievements, they chase me."

Still, he said "there's no doubt about that, c'mon" when saying Jordan was the best teammate he ever played with during his career.

He also said Bryant is the one teammate he wishes he could have played alongside and appreciated the way the Laker great reached out to him for advice even after Pippen retired.

"Kobe idolized the way I played the game, the way I defended," Pippen said while calling Bryant "a great student of the game" who even asked about defending his personal idol Jordan and what Pippen would do in such a matchup.

Bryant and Pippen both played for head coach Phil Jackson, so it is not surprising the Bulls legend was an ideal person for Kobe to turn to for various advice throughout his career.

While Pippen may have felt disrespected during The Last Dance and is remembered by some as Jordan's second option on the dynasty Bulls teams, he is one of the best players in NBA history and will further explore a career that featured seven All-NBA selections, 10 All-Defensive selections and six championships in the upcoming memoir.             

The estate of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant can collect around $400 million as part of BodyArmor's $5.6 billion sale to Coca-Cola Co., according to the Wall Street Journal's Jennifer Maloney.

In 2014, Bryant purchased around a 10 percent stake in BodyArmor. Darren Rovell of ESPN reported in August 2018 the value of his investment approached $200 million after Coca-Cola obtained a minority stake in the company.

Following Monday's sale, BodyArmor co-founder Mike Repole credited Bryant with helping in the company's growth.

"If it wasn't for Kobe Bryant's vision and belief, BodyArmor would not have been able to achieve the success we had," he said. "I couldn't be more excited to become part of the Coca-Cola family and set our sights on the future."

Bryant's career salary earnings in the NBA eclipsed $328 million over 20 seasons. Prior to his death, the Hall of Famer expanded his reach beyond the game in terms of investing in and also launching the Mamba Sports Academy.