LeBron James Fully Plans On Owning An NBA Franchise

[RealGM Wiretap]

LeBron James confirmed he has interest in owning an NBA franchise when his playing career is over.

“We’re gonna still be together,” James said of Maverick Carter, Randy Mims and agent Rich Paul.

“I will own a team someday,” he said to Ken Berger of The Athletic, with emphasis.  “That’s my next thing.”

While James has ventures in media and entertainment, owning an NBA franchise is something he's obsessed with.

“Why do I want to own team?” he said. “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.”

Via Ken Berger/The Athletic

[Sam195]

League will probably offer him an expansion franchise like they did for Michael Jordan - it's the cheapest way to own a team instead of paying ridiculous premiums like Ballmer paid for the clippers. Maybe Lebron brings the nba back to Seattle who knows?

[MJallday59]

League will probably offer him an expansion franchise like they did for Michael Jordan - it's the cheapest way to own a team instead of paying ridiculous premiums like Ballmer paid for the clippers. Maybe Lebron brings the nba back to Seattle who knows?

Exactly my thoughts. Seattle or maybe Vegas?

[hyberx]

League will probably offer him an expansion franchise like they did for Michael Jordan - it's the cheapest way to own a team instead of paying ridiculous premiums like Ballmer paid for the clippers. Maybe Lebron brings the nba back to Seattle who knows?

That expansion team wasn't offered to MJ first. He bought it from the last owner, mostly took over the debt owned by the team.

[Jeff Van Gully]

buy the knicks from dolan, please.

[Sam195]

League will probably offer him an expansion franchise like they did for Michael Jordan - it's the cheapest way to own a team instead of paying ridiculous premiums like Ballmer paid for the clippers. Maybe Lebron brings the nba back to Seattle who knows?

That expansion team wasn't offered to MJ first. He bought it from the last owner, mostly took over the debt owned by the team.

MJ was first a minority owner in the group I believe and his ownership agreement had an option of first refusal to buy out stakes if the other owners wanted to sell. And he eventually used that to buy and own rest of the team.

[RandomRaptorfan]

He probably still doesn't like Dan Gilbert, this is laying the foundation to take the franchise from him someday. He's already the cavs' coach and GM, now the lucrative title of owner is all that's left for him to completely become one with the team.

[likashing]

Being from Arkon, and his apparent dislike of Gilbert, plus him already directing coaching and GM duties, his first choice is obviously taking the Cavs from Gilbert. This way, he can take possession of *his* ring, instead of leaving it for Gilbert.

It won't be an easy task though as team values keep going up. He needs to get a few more of these $200m player contracts, a couple more billion dollar Nike contracts, and play until 50 before he can buy Gilbert out.

[GEOLINK]

Come buy the Knicks, LeBron!

[Revived]

Being from Arkon, and his apparent dislike of Gilbert, plus him already directing coaching and GM duties, his first choice is obviously taking the Cavs from Gilbert. This way, he can take possession of *his* ring, instead of leaving it for Gilbert.

It won't be an easy task though as team values keep going up. He needs to get a few more of these $200m player contracts, a couple more billion dollar Nike contracts, and play until 50 before he can buy Gilbert out.

He has plenty of other business ventures that make him money too. He's part owner of Beats by Dre, has a huge investment in Blaze Pizza among many other things.

[Vibranium]

League will probably offer him an expansion franchise like they did for Michael Jordan - it's the cheapest way to own a team instead of paying ridiculous premiums like Ballmer paid for the clippers. Maybe Lebron brings the nba back to Seattle who knows?

Yeah but the team they gave MJ was set in his hometown.

[spree2kawhi]

Never stops: Me myself and I.

[JonFromVA]

The Cavs will plummet in value the day he retires, which gives him some interesting leverage.

[LakersLegacy]

The Cavs will plummet in value the day he retires, which gives him some interesting leverage.

He should wait a few years let the Cavs devalue and then buy a piece of the team. I hope he buys that team.

Hope he doesn't pull an MJ and buy a different team. So
Much cooler to stay part of the org that he help build up as a player.

[madmaxmedia]

He should maybe look into getting some KooKooRoo's instead.

[phanman]

The Cavs will plummet in value the day he retires, which gives him some interesting leverage.

He should wait a few years let the Cavs devalue and then buy a piece of the team. I hope he buys that team.

Hope he doesn't pull an MJ and buy a different team. So
Much cooler to stay part of the org that he help build up as a player.

Highly doubt that Gilbert would ever sell his team Guy is currently worth 5.8B he'll never be hurting for money enough to sell that team.

[luss54321]

The Cavs will plummet in value the day he retires, which gives him some interesting leverage.

He should wait a few years let the Cavs devalue and then buy a piece of the team. I hope he buys that team.

Hope he doesn't pull an MJ and buy a different team. So
Much cooler to stay part of the org that he help build up as a player.

I agree, but not MJ's fault he couldn't buy the Bulls. First of all, Chicago is the 4th most valuable franchise in the NBA and Charlotte is 28th. Also, the Reinsdorfs are terrible terrible owners who unfortunately have never been interested in selling the team. Plus, MJ grew up in NC, so that's cool.

[Lava Rock Kid]

Lets hope he is a better owner than Jordan. How good of a business man can he be. Can he step aside and be the face of the franchise, but hire good people to run the day to day operations and big decisions like other successful owners do.

[deepeeenn]

Being from Arkon, and his apparent dislike of Gilbert, plus him already directing coaching and GM duties, his first choice is obviously taking the Cavs from Gilbert. This way, he can take possession of *his* ring, instead of leaving it for Gilbert.

It won't be an easy task though as team values keep going up. He needs to get a few more of these $200m player contracts, a couple more billion dollar Nike contracts, and play until 50 before he can buy Gilbert out.

Let this sink into anyone that has a hard time grasping how stupid rich some people in the world are. One of, if not the most lucrative HOF players, currently playing has to do what? in order to possibly buy a team from a billionaire? Crazy...

Imagine what Dan Gilbert and many other billionaires had to do for their money...

[Sam195]

Being from Arkon, and his apparent dislike of Gilbert, plus him already directing coaching and GM duties, his first choice is obviously taking the Cavs from Gilbert. This way, he can take possession of *his* ring, instead of leaving it for Gilbert.

It won't be an easy task though as team values keep going up. He needs to get a few more of these $200m player contracts, a couple more billion dollar Nike contracts, and play until 50 before he can buy Gilbert out.

He has plenty of other business ventures that make him money too. He's part owner of Beats by Dre, has a huge investment in Blaze Pizza among many other things.

He already cashed out of Beats when Apple acquired them - he was initially given an equity stake in beats as compensation to do some commercials and be a brand ambassador. And Blaze pizza with its prices ain't toppling Pizza Hut, Dominos or Little Caesar's anytime soon. And his deal with Nike is pennies compared to Jordan's setup with majority ownership in the Jordan Brand which is basically Nike doing all the work and paying Jordan hundreds of millions to license his name.