Lake Show Life
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LeBron James money train…when basketball and money collide!

By Ronald Agers

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 04: Lebron James attends Harlem's Fashion Row - September 2018 - New York Fashion Week at Capitale on September 4, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Zimmerman/WireImage)
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 04: Lebron James attends Harlem's Fashion Row - September 2018 - New York Fashion Week at Capitale on September 4, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Zimmerman/WireImage) /
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LeBron James is a force on the basketball court in more ways than you might expect.

LeBron James has been in the league for going on 16 years now. Within that time, he has been mentioned in every conversation about his status as the best ever, either this era or beyond.

He has seen all sides of the NBA fan spectrum. He has been loved and adored up until 2010. He has been hated when he decided to take his talents to South Beach. Now that he has brought the  Cleveland Cavaliers that long-awaited championship, he is now an icon. What’s next for LeBron James to accomplish?

Post-NBA life…aka retirement.

Look, the man just signed a four year, $154 million dollar contract with the Lakers this summer so everyone can relax on the retirement talk in the offseason.

Why would he based on the money that he can make just on the court according to HIGHSNOBIETY…

"James’ four-year, $154 million contract with the Lakers certainly makes for excitable headlines and pushes him into territory no NBA player has ever seen before.He will make $35.6 million next season, with his salary rising annually to $41 million in the 2021-22 season in the final year of his contract. In terms of pure NBA earnings, James’ 19 seasons as a professional until the end of this latest contract will have earned him a record-breaking $387.2 million. For context, Kobe Bryant earned $323.3 million in his 20 seasons and Michael Jordan earned $89.8 million over 15 seasons.Due to the timing of when he joined the league and his on-court success, James’ record might never be broken regardless of inflation."

I believe that the record will be broken eventually; no one can predict what can happen on this earth financially. The economy is too unstable to make that bold of a claim, especially in the sports world.

Did anyone think that Michael Jordan made less than $90 million dollars in his career? Not in this lifetime. But Jordan had a different mindset when it came to his salary based on the different salary cap in that era.

However, this does not take away from the fact that LeBron James is working on something that all people, not just athletes, should do when it comes to preparation for the future.

I broke down some of James’ business ventures a few weeks ago…

This is just the fast forward track that he has accomplished for the most part this summer alone! That piece was just on his business exploits. How about the residual effects of all people and business that are tied and vested into LeBron James?

Over the two eras that James played in Cleveland, the city of Cleveland, not just the Cavaliers organization, benefited greatly from LeBron James playing at a high level and doing his part of putting Cleveland on the map for NBA fans worldwide.

Again insight from HIGHSNOBIETY…

"The year before Cleveland drafted James, they were dead last in terms of average home attendance, some 9,000 fans off top team Detroit. Four years later, they were in the top three, having gained those extra 9,000 home attendees. When he was with the Heat, the often-mocked South Beach fans were always top five in average home attendance. Upon James’ return to Cleveland, the Cavs sat second, just behind the Chicago Bulls, during the entirety of James’ second spell."

What I see here is that the Lakers obviously brought LeBron James in to build a winner, to eventually challenge for a championship in a couple of years. But let’s not get this misconstrued here, the Lakers are about making money in an entertainment business.

More from Lake Show Life

That was the blueprint of the late Dr. Jerry Buss when he acquired the team. This is the vision that he saw even before the NBA itself figured it out. The original “Showtime” Lakers with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar to the Kobe and Shaq Lakers are perfect examples of a combination of winning championships and bringing the glitz and glamour along with it.

The Lakers commanded top dollar for tickets that were about as impossible to get as a lead role in a successful Jerry Bruckheimer Fourth of July blockbuster! With LeBron James walking in the door in Lakers purple and gold check out these numbers again from HIGHSNOBIETY…

"Last year, the Lakers were 10th in attendance, with a home average of 18,934 fans, not far off the Staples Center’s 18,997 capacity for Lakers games. If you multiply last season’s $299 median ticket price for Lakers games by last season’s average home attendance, the Lakers earned approximately $232,111,906 from their 41 regular season home games last season. But if prices for the home opener were to become the norm, and we assume that the Lakers will have a 100 percent home attendance this season, that figure could go beyond $424,487,965."

What does this mean? That means the Lakers have basically made their money back in LeBron’s contract spread out over four years potentially…ALREADY! This figure again is based on the Lakers NOT raising ticket prices. I’m going out on a limb stating that they will.

Look, I’m on record saying that I hate the comparisons of LeBron James and Michael Jordan. Jordan is on another level that will take too long to explain in this piece. The only way that I will compare the two is business wise which I laid out here…

LeBron James’ financial impact to this point is just the historical foundation of the NBA that we all can get an understanding of. What about the unknown entities that NBA is about to embark?

Las Vegas and sports betting…

My father, Walter Agers, told me once that if he could go back to college, he would have studied economics (He was a double major History/Sociology). After doing research for this piece I would have a seat right next to him.

Remember that the Lakers played the World Champion Golden State Warriors just last Wednesday right? It was on ESPN, the stars came out and played very well. Especially LeBron James…

…and this…

Which added up to this…

LeBron James played pretty well in that game, didn’t he? Now that the NBA has a trademarking deal in Vegas, they have another revenue stream that could eventually run, in my estimation, into the trillions of dollars. It all starts with LeBron James, who sits at the top of the NBA business financial ledger.

Now that LeBron James is in Los Angeles, he’s at the top of Vegas’ NBA sports betting ledger too it seems…

Since I’m a novice to gambling (Not a good loser folks!) I did some research and it seems that the betting options are endless.

Over at Odds Sharks, they shared a few, as James is in the running for some of the statistical leader props for the season. Oddly enough, he is not listed on the assists betting table, but teammates Lonzo Ball and Rajon Rondo both are.

This is how much juice one NBA player has on an unknown business partnership between a league and Las Vegas.

"“[LeBron] means about 25 percent more handle,” South Point oddsmaker Jimmy Vaccaro told ESPN, referring to a term used by bookmakers to describe the total number of wagers made. In a town that will let you bet on almost anything, LeBron James made bookmakers question if the house could actually lose.”"

NBA fans may argue over if James is the best player in the NBA. That will always be up for debate. But for financial power…

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Next. 50 Greatest Lakers In Franchise History. dark

GAME OVER!