Last October, on the sidelines of a preseason game in Las Vegas, James once again became the focus of media attention. Because he not only stated that he hopes to become the owner of an NBA team one day, but also said that he hopes that the NBA team he owns can use "Las Vegas" as his home court.
"I'm hoping to bring a team here at some point," James said after the preseason game between the Lakers and the Suns. NBA player interview records, so I shouted at him, Adam, I hope there is a team here, thank you in advance."
It is really appropriate for James to make such a statement. Because he is not only a player with outstanding performance on the court, but also financially enough to afford an NBA team, just like his predecessor Michael Jordan. If James can really become the owner of a team one day, he will become the third black owner in the four major sports leagues in North America. Such representative meaning is also very important to James.
Business minded at a young age
In fact, as early as 2016, James mentioned in public that he wanted to become the team owner. Then in 2019 and 2021, he reiterated his idea many times. At that time, the WNBA team Atlanta Dream had sought to sell. James expressed his strong desire to buy the Dream Team through social media at that time, but in the end he did not do so.
Although the action failed, James' enthusiasm has never been dispelled. In 2019, he made such a classic comment: "For this issue, my attitude is not 'maybe', I will definitely do this in the future."
The reason why James has such confidence is mainly because he has personally experienced too many business judgments and tempers during such a long game in his career, so he has accumulated a lot in the "business world". experience of. Moreover, James set off in the business world very early, dating back to high school. At that time, James was still wearing Adidas sneakers, but as he became famous and "booked" the No. 1 pick in 2003, James began to seriously consider his future sneaker choices. At that time, several major manufacturers, including Adidas, Nike and Reebok, offered an olive branch to James, and James also began to use the "rain and dew" method to try a variety of mainstream sneakers from major manufacturers at the time.
This is the way James explored before entering the NBA. If James wants to control the influence of the market by himself, he cannot let a certain brand completely control him, and he must also have the right to speak. And by wearing multiple brands of sneakers, James really did this before entering the NBA.
Ryan Jones, who has followed and reported on James for a long time, is deeply touched by this. "He has clearly expressed an attitude since then: 'I will do my best in this regard, so I will grasp everything I can grasp.'" Jones said when evaluating James, "He was Already realized his personal value very clearly."
This strategy of action continued after James entered the NBA. When he renewed his contract with his team more than once, he only signed a "1+1" contract, which is to maintain the flexibility of his future choices in this way, and at the same time put pressure on the team to maximize his value display. With the passage of time and development, James has more resources and funds, which also allows him to use his keen business acumen to expand more fields and open up more new tracks.
Actively invest in sports after becoming famous
In 2011, James began his own investment in sports teams. Looking back now, it could be read as an experiment for him to one day own an NBA team. That year, he and his business partner Maverick Carter spent $6.5 million to buy a 2% stake in the Premier League team Liverpool.
Later, in 2021, James continued to "open up territory" and became a partner of Fenway Sports Group. Fenway Sports Group owns many well-known professional sports teams, such as the Boston Red Sox, the veteran team of MLB (Major League Baseball), the Pittsburgh Penguins of NHL (North American Hockey League), the NASCAR racing team Rosh Fenway, and local sports broadcaster NESN. James still invested in Fenway Sports with Carter this time, which also made James the first black investor in the group.
In 2022, James participated in the investment in the Serie A team AC Milan through the "Red Bird Office" in New York. The founder of Redbird was Gary Cardinal, who had known James for 10 years. In the eyes of this professional, every step of James' sports investment career has been very solid, and it has been carefully planned and calculated. "One thing he wants to figure out is how to be LeBron James off the court," Cardinal said. It won't be long."
So, after so many attempts in other fields, when will James launch a commercial move in the basketball field he is most familiar with? According to the provisions of the current NBA labor agreement, active players cannot own shares in any NBA team. Therefore, James wants to invest in NBA teams, or even buy an NBA team, at least until he retires. Judging from what James said now, he hopes to join the same team as his eldest son Bronny and play in NBA games together, and Bronny can enter the NBA as early as 2024. So based on this calculation, James can choose to retire as early as 2025, and then start to attack the new goal of the NBA boss.
The NBA revealed its intention to expand its military in 2014 and 2020, and last summer, President Xiao Hua said that although the NBA will not expand its military at present, it will definitely continue to expand in the future. In his plan, there may be new NBA teams in Las Vegas, Seattle and even Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. These possible new teams may become James' future goals.
Everything you need to be a boss
Of course, if James thinks that the expansion plan of the new team is still a bit illusory, then he can also try to acquire the existing team. The last five completed team transactions (not including the Timberwolves and Suns, which are still in progress), can be used as a reference for James.
In 2014, the new owner of the Bucks spent $550 million to acquire the team; in the same year, the Clippers changed ownership and sold $2 billion; Quanchang sold 2.35 billion. The most recent team transaction completed was in 2021, when the new Jazz owner spent 1.66 billion to buy the team.
According to the statistics of "Forbes" magazine, James will become the first player in the active NBA team to be worth more than 1 billion. Although in the scope of NBA players, James is already one of the richest players, but at the level of NBA owners, James still has some gaps.
Take the Sun, which is changing ownership recently, as an example. Those who have quoted Sun include Bezos, the boss of Amazon, whose worth has reached 121.3 billion US dollars. There is also Powell Jobs, the current small boss of the Wizards, who also wants to buy the Suns. His worth is 12.4 billion US dollars. There are also Oracle founder Larry Allison (worth 102.8 billion U.S. dollars) and Disney's former CEP Robert Igor (wealth 690 million U.S. dollars), both of which have also applied for the purchase of the sun. Isbia, who finally got the ownership of the sun, is also worth 5.1 billion US dollars.
James' current contract with the Lakers will end in the 2024-25 season. Calculating only the total salary of James' career, his income is 520 million US dollars, which has set a record for the salary income of professional sports players in North America. According to Forbes calculations, James has made an additional income of 900 million U.S. dollars through various investments and endorsement brands over the years. In the category of athletes' income, this is already at the ceiling level. But considering that it may cost at least 2 billion to buy an NBA team, James' current net worth is obviously not enough.
Under such circumstances, it may be a more practical approach to establish an investment group with James as the core, and then to acquire an NBA team, following the way Jordan acquired the Bobcats (now the Hornets). With James' appeal and influence, coupled with his contribution to the black affirmative movement, it shouldn't be a big problem to gather such a force.
Moreover, NBA officials must be very happy to see James, a player of great significance to the NBA, who can continue to participate and invest in the global promotion of the NBA as a boss, just like what Jordan is doing now. Under the joint promotion of such internal and external forces,
캡사이트 predicts that the NBA may indeed expand a brand new team in Las Vegas, and James will continue his development and cooperation in the basketball and business circles here. open up.
