Mamba Sports Academy has dropped the “Mamba” from its name and rebranded as Sports Academy four months after celebrity partner Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash in the hills of Calabasas. Bryant, his 13-year-old-daughter Gianna, and seven other people onboard were killed in January as they flew to the Newbury Park sports training facility for a youth basketball tournament. In a statement announcing the rebrand earlier this month, the academy said the name change comes out of “respect for (Bryant’s) unparalleled legacy.” “The academy will retire the ‘Mamba’ in the Mamba Sports Academy name — to raise it to the rafters, where it belongs. In doing so, Sports Academy will carry on the vision it curated during that special partnership,” the statement said. Chief Executive Chad Faulkner opened the facility under the name Sports Academy in 2016 in a Thousand Oaks building formerly occupied by Amgen Inc.’s technical support group. The 6-acre center aspires to be a one-stop-shop for athletes of all persuasions and boasts a wide array of facilities, including basketball and volleyball courts, batting cages, weight training and stationary bicycling rooms, sports medicine and a bio-mechanic lab. It offers camps and clinics for beginning and advanced athletes, and amateur sports leagues for kids and adults. The late Lakers icon entered a partnership with the academy in 2018 after bringing Gianna and her youth team there to practice. When Bryant became involved, the Sports Academy changed its name to reflect his nickname, “the Black Mamba,” and changed its logo to resemble a snake wrapped around a golden “M.” The terms of Bryant’s partnership with the academy were never revealed publicly. The academy has now created a new logo and reverted back to its original name. The announcement ruffled feathers on social media, where professional NBA players and fans questioned whether the move was the best way to honor Bryant’s legacy. The academy subsequently sent the following statement in an email to the Business Journal: “The changing of the name from Mamba Sports Academy to Sports Academy, the original name from 2016, is not a decision we came to lightly or on our own. It was a mutual agreement made in accordance with the wishes of his estate.” The academy declined to comment further. Dissolution clause Lindsey Carnett, chief executive of Marketing Maven in Camarillo, said it is common for celebrity partnership agreements to include dissolution clauses in the event that either party becomes unable to fulfill their responsibilities. “It’s easy to pass judgment,” she said of the ensuing social media firestorm. “I don’t know the terms of their agreement … but it probably wasn’t an emotional decision. It was probably a legal, mandatory obligation.” Carnett said in her experience, when a public figure passes, sponsors and partner businesses are quick to pull any advertising, branding and imagery related to the celebrity. “You get massive backlash from consumers and people saying how insensitive you are,” she said. “It gets messy quickly.” She said the academy’s choice to market the rebrand as a show of respect indicates that both parties are likely following dissolution procedures as they were written in the agreement. “Otherwise, we might be hearing about a lawsuit,” she said. How the dissolution will affect the academy’s operations going forward isn’t fully clear. According to Jason Nyhan, the former director of advancement for the Academy’s Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation, the nonprofit is separating from the Academy and moving to Orange County to be run by widow Vanessa Bryant. The foundation provides sports education services to underserved communities and funds sports training programs for young women. It was founded in 2016 as the Sports Academy Foundation, but was renamed Mamba Sports Foundation in 2018 when Kobe came aboard. It was then renamed again in January following the crash. Nyhan, an employee of the academy since its inception in 2016, said he was first furloughed on March 18, along with about 150 other employees. He said he was notified April 10 that his position would be permanently eliminated. “(Sports Academy Controller) Carolyn Schoew calls. She’s on the phone with (foundation Director) Angela (Stanislawski). She says, ‘We are laying you off completely. The foundation is going to now be controlled by Vanessa Bryant and her team. It’s going to down to Orange County.’” References to the Mamba and Mambacita Sports Foundation have been scrubbed from the Sports Academy website. Nyhan said he doesn’t know the exact terms of the dissolution agreement. Both locations of the Sports Academy – in Newbury Park and Redondo Beach – have been closed since March 17. Select workouts, basketball drills and nutritional classes have been moved online. The company’s integrated sports medicine practice, however, has remained open for scheduled in-person appointments.
