LeBron James is, officially, a billionaire, according to Forbes.
The finance media outlet reported that the NBA legend reached the financial precipice on June 2. He’s the first active NBA player to reach that status with the outlet.
Off the court, James’ reportedly garnered over $900 million “from endorsements and other business ventures.” Some of those endorsements include Nike, AT&T, PepsiCo and Walmart, which made him the second-highest earning athlete in the world for 2021. In 2015, James left a $15 million endorsement deal with McDonald’s to invest in Blaze Pizza. He also has equity in small gym developer Tonal and Lyft. He wants to own an NBA team one day, and already owns percentages in Liverpool F.C., the popular English Premier League soccer team and the Boston Red Sox.
James also runs the production company Spring Hill, which helped produce James’ Space Jam: A New Legacy, HBO documentary What’s my Name: Muhammad Ali and most recently, Netflix’s Hustle, starring Adam Sandler, set to debut on June 8.
We did it again @KingJames #HustleNetflix dropping June 8 👀 pic.twitter.com/t7ltVotimh
— UNINTERRUPTED (@uninterrupted) June 2, 2022
Forbes estimates his stake in the Spring Hill company to be worth $300 million, $90 million for the Fenway Sports Group, $80 million of real estate, $30 million of Blaze Pizza, and more than $500 million in cash and other investments, like owning a small stake in Beats By Dre, which sold for $3 billion in 2014 and co-founding Beachbody, which sold for $28 million in stock in 2020.
On the court, James has dominated the NBA no other 37-year-old has since Kareem Abdur-Jabbar who averaged 22 points per game, 7.9 rebounds, 2.1 blocks per game in 79 games of the 1984-85 season. This past year for the Los Angeles Lakers, James averaged 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks per game in 56 contests.
