Kobe Bryant, J.D.
ESPN came out with their best paid athletes survey again.
Aside from the usual suspects you’d find on the list – i.e. A-Rod @ $30M/year – there are quite a few “athletes” that get paid doing what they do. Yes, I put quotes around athletes because some of the athletes compete in games or weekend hobbies. But don’t get me wrong. I’m not hating. If I could play darts well too, I’d be doing that for a living (a guy made close to $1M throwing darts
See the list below.
Kobe Bryant, the top-paid bball player, needs to moonlight as a lawyer when he’s not busy shooting the J. I guess $25M plus endorsements just isn’t enough these days…
| Sport | Athlete | League, competition | Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto racing | Fernando Alonso | Formula 1, Ferrari, 2011 salary and prize money | $40,000,000 |
| Badminton (women) | Wang Yihan | BWF Superseries, Grand Prix Gold and Continental Championships, 2011 prize money | $277,550 |
| Badminton (men) | Lee Chong Wei | BWF Superseries, Grand Prix Gold and Continental Championships, 2011 prize money | $267,350 |
| Billiards | Shane Van Boening | Billiards, 2011 prize money | $160,450 |
| Bowling | Sean Rash | PBA Tour, 2011-12 prize money | $140,250 |
| Darts | Phil Taylor | Pro Darts Corp. 2011 tournament prize money | $938,497 |
| Distance running (men) | Emmanuel Mutai | Distance running (2011 prize money from various events) | $815,000 |
| Distance running (women) | Liliya Shobukhova | Distance running (2011 prize money from various events)* | $720,000 |
| Eating | Joey Chestnut | Major League Eating, 2011 prize money | $205,000 |
| Equestrian | Rolf-Göran Bengtsson | Show Jumping, 2011 prize money | $1,161,280 |
| Fishing | Kevin VanDam | Bassmaster Elite Series, 2011 prize money | $706,500 |
| Horse Racing (jockey) | Ramon A. Dominguez | Horse Racing, 2011** | $20,567,032 |
| Sled dog racing | Dallas Seavey | Iditarod, 2012 first place prize money*** | $50,400 |
