LeBron James and Nike reupped their deal in December of 2015 to a lifetime one. The actual numeric value wasn’t disclosed, but there was talk of the $1 billion range. LeBron’s business partner Maverick Carter sort of spills the beans in a recent interview.
In a profile featured on GQ Style, Maverick discusses the evolution of himself as a businessman. Mav started by interning at Nike. Now he’s negotiating lifetime deals with the company for one of the biggest sports stars on the planet. When asked to confirm the number, Carter had this to say.
Holy sh*t.
Yeah. It’s a fantastic deal. Nike feels great about the deal. That’s the most important thing. As great as I feel, as great as LeBron feels—Nike feels fantastic about it. It’s the largest deal in the history of the company. Their hope is he makes even more. And our hope is that, too, obviously.
Check out the full piece, it gives a lot of insight into the thought process LeBron makes as brand.
For example, Maverick breaks down the reasons why LeBron doing the movie “Trainwreck” last summer was a no-lose scenario.
When we were thinking about doing “Trainwreck”, I asked myself, What’s the downside? The downside is LeBron does a movie, he’s bad at it, and everyone goes:He’s bad in a movie. But he’s still the best basketball player in the world. Also, it wasn’t his movie. He’s not on the poster. He didn’t have to carry the weight. Nobody was saying, I’m going to see LeBron’s movie.
If James Harden is signing $200 million deals with Adidas, surely King James is worth a billi, right?
photo via LeBronJames.com
