James Harden hit the jackpot thanks to an investment decision influenced by the late Kobe Bryant.
During an interview on the “Earn Your Leisure” podcast, the basketball star revealed that Bryant suggested creating a pool of money dedicated to investments, including sports drink company BodyArmor. As previously reported by AFROTECH™ , Bryant had invested $6 million in BodyArmor back in 2014.
“Kobe basically was like ‘We going to put a stash of $5 million and then any like business opportunities — it might be as little as $200,000, it might be $500,000 just depending on what, you know, what investment it is. But we going to put a pot together and we just going to invest our money,’ rest in peace before he passed away,” Harden explained to “Earn Your Leisure” hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings. “But BodyArmor was the beginning of that, and we seen how it is.”
While it is unclear what Harden’s direct contributions were, the investment into BodyArmor was a smart move. In 2021, BodyArmor, co-founded by Mike Repole and Lance Collins, was acquired by the Coca-Cola Co. After purchasing a 15% stake in 2018, Coca-Cola later paid $5.6 billion in cash for the remaining 85% of the company.
“BODYARMOR has been a great addition to the system lineup over the last three years, and the company has driven continuous innovation in hydration and health-and-wellness products,” Alfredo Rivera, president of the North America operating unit of The Coca-Cola Co., said in a news release at the time. “We’re excited to bring BODYARMOR into The Coca-Cola Company and work with Mike Repole and his leadership team on the next stage of growth.”
As a result of the transaction, Bryant reportedly earned an impressive $400 million. Today the company, which was founded in 2011, is valued at $3.30 billion in 2024, and that is expected to reach $5.83 billion by 2034, according to Precedence Research.
“We built the whole business up, and it took 8 to 10 years and look what it’s done,” Harden said on “Earn Your Leisure.”
