In 2005, LeBron James told Tim Withers of the Associated Press that he hoped to be the richest man in the world. That is a goal of mine. I would like to be rich. generation on generation don't have to worry about nothing I don't want my family to worry about me. I can't do that now because I'm playing basketball.
James was 21 years old when this took place. His career was in the hands of his friends after he fired his agent. He did not become the richest man in the world in 17 years, but he did become a billionaire while playing in the NBA.
According to Forbes, James went over that threshold this year. The Air Jordan business model was used to apply to all of his endorsements. Everything that had James' name on it had to be owned by him. He started a pizza restaurant. Space Jam 2 and What's my Name were both produced by SpringHill Entertainment, a branch of his SpringHill Company.
After the success of Jordan and Johnson, someone was going to be ready for more from the beginning. Most of the fruit of Johnson's life came after he stopped playing. Jordan was a college student who liked Adidas. Jordan's contract was worth half a million dollars per year for five years and stock options. James got $90 million from Nike in 2003 and has been looking for more.
With the NBA being a global sport that marketed stars, and a league starving for a true face of it, James came along at the perfect time. The rankings of prep players on websites like Rivals were starting to be as important as the cover stories of magazines. His name was going to be all over the place, and he was going to have total control of it. He was the real deal from the first time he played for the Notre Dame.
Fortune was writing stories about him in 2007, when Carter and James held a summit after Cleveland lost in the NBA Finals. Carter told Fortune 500 companies how to best market James with the Olympics in Beijing next year. The Duke college coach gave a toast at dinner in which he said, "Over the next two days the focus needs to be on King James, not your individual companies."
The best at making money were Warren Buffet and his team.
Do we need billionaires on this planet? The finances of the world should be in the hands of a small group. While they sell it to advertisers, many cable news programs have a question of their own.
James and his associates pulled off an amazing feat. Athletes who play in the three major American sports leagues are in good financial shape. Chris Rock once said that the man who signs his check is wealthier than the stars.
The woman who signed James' check for the Los Angeles Lakers is worth an estimated $500 million. The NBA had never seen a player of his size and athletic ability, but he molded them into a force they had never seen before. A healthy 2022-23 season will result in him becoming the all-time scoring champion.
He took his talent and potential and made sure that every last drop was rung out, but not the ones that belonged to the corporations. At an age when most people's most researched investment in 2005 was a fake I.D., James was able to play both the game on the court and off for himself and his family.
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