LeBron James is 32 with the body of a 19-year-old. He’s led two franchises each to four championship runs and has made his seventh straight NBA Finals appearance with an end to his streak nowhere in sight.
LeBron James unveils his plans to eventually own an NBA team
But how will LeBron actually find his way in?
Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
At this rate, James could play into his mid-50s before reaching his prime. But whenever The King does decide to call it quits, he knows exactly what he wants the next phase of his basketball career will be: Ownership.
“I will own a team someday,” James said according to The Athletic’s Ken Berger. “That’s my next thing.
“Why do I want to own team? I think it’ll be cool. I’ll stay part of the game and still be able to put people in positions of power. I’ve always loved that, putting people in a position of power to feel like they can make a change and make things happen.”
This isn’t the first time James has mentioned the idea of future ownership in a league he’s dominated for more than a decade. On The Uninterrupted podcast, he cited his “unique” basketball brain and said he would love to be part of a franchise, if not at the top.
“I have a feel like I have a good eye for not only talent, because we all see a lot of talent, but the things that make the talent, the chemistry, what type of guy he is, his work ethic, his passion, the basketball IQ side of things, because talent only goes so far,” James said.
It takes an obscene amount of money for one person to buy an NBA franchise outright.
The New York Knicks come in as the league’s most valuable franchise, valued at $3.3 billion. The Los Angeles Lakers aren’t far behind at $3 billion, and each the Warriors, Celtics, Clippers, and Nets range between $2 and $2.6 billion.
A quick math check reminds us that there’s a thousand million in a billion, and most players don’t haul in more than $100 million over the course of their careers. That was before the spike in TV revenue that ballooned NBA salaries to ridiculous amounts. Just when we thought Mike Conley’s $153 million deal was disgustingly lucrative, certain players are in line to sign five-year deals worth more than $200 million.
James is one of those players, and his on-court salary might not even be his primary source of income. LeBron’s got a lifetime deal with Nike reportedly worth $1 billion. Between his endorsements, past earnings, and don’t forget the movie hits, James was ranked Forbes’ 39th-richest entrepreneur under 40 with a net worth of $275 million.
But even at this rate, he’d have to multiply his net worth a few times to reach $1 billion. That’d likely mean finding additional streams of income to crack the seven-digit plateau sooner than later, and/or partnering with other multi-millionaires.
Say he does that. Which team could he actually buy?
Ownership turnover is a rare occurrence. It took leaked tapes of Donald Sterling’s racially charged remarks to force him out as Clippers owner, and Mikhail Prokhorov was able to scoop up the Nets during their transition from New Jersey to Brooklyn.
In all, 17 of the 30 NBA owners have been in place more than 10 years, and with the spike in TV revenue, there’s little-to-no incentive to sell any time soon.
It’d make sense for James to purchase the Cleveland Cavaliers team he brought to prominence by delivering the franchise’s first-ever NBA championship. But Dan Gilbert’s only 55 years old with kids equally interested in sports business. Waiting him out probably isn’t an option.
Neither is buying teams in the biggest markets — New York and Los Angeles. Those teams are profitable on location alone, exponentially more so when the team is winning. It would take a ridiculous offer to convince a Jeanie Buss or a James Dolan to part with the franchise so dear to their hearts.
That would leave a smaller market team — someone like the Minnesota Timberwolves, whose majority owner, Glen Taylor, is 76. Perhaps the Nets? Prokhorov sold a 49 percent stake in the team in April. If he gets tired of basketball, he could sell the other half of the team.
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