‘Dreamt Out Loud’: Former Adidas Executive Reveals How Kobe Bryant Predicted His Academy Award Win

Sonny Vaccaro, former sneakers marketing executive, has seen befriended countless NBA stars in his career. He is prominently known for his tenure at Nike, where he helped in bringing Michael Jordan aboard. In fact, he also signed Kobe Bryant, then a teenager, to Adidas in 1996. Kobe just passed out of high school to the NBA.

Vaccaro also founded the ABCD Camp, which gathered countless high school talents in the US until 2007. It featured stars like Kobe, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, who went on to dominate the NBA.

Vaccaro knew Kobe Bryant’s dad, Joe Bryant, from his day and hence was close to Kobe as well. Vaccaro recently talked about how Kobe predicted that he would win an academy award. Kobe won the Academy Award for his film ‘Dear Basketball’.

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Sonny Vaccaro opens up on Kobe Bryant predicting his Academy Award

Sonny Vaccaro recently appeared for an interview on ‘The Undefeated‘. During the interview, titled ‘Sneaker Legacies’, Vaccaro was asked about his favorite memory of Kobe. To this, Vaccaro revealed his conversation with Kobe, where Kobe predicted his Academy Award win.

“One day, Kobe Bryant said ‘You know what? ‘One of these days I want to go to the Academy Awards and I want to walk down the aisle and I want everybody to say that’s Kobe Bryant, that’s Kobe Bryant’,” Sonny told ‘The Undefeated’.

“It wasn’t in an eager way. Did you have to know what he said? How you said it? Well, obviously he won an Academy award later on. I’ve never seen anyone so positive in their life. And it was able to dream out loud. Kobe dreamt out loud.”

Kobe won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2018 for his film ‘Dear Basketball’. By winning this, he became the first former professional athlete to be nominated and then win the prestigious Academy Award. Kobe had his own production company called Granity Studios, which produced the movie.

‘Dear Basketball’ was released in 2017 for the public. It is based on a letter Kobe wrote in 2015, announcing his retirement from the game of basketball. The film garnered a lot of attention and won several other awards, such as the Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject and the Sports Emmy Award.

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