LeBron James was named to the 2023 Forbes billionaire list but that doesn’t mean Elon Musk should expect he’ll be paying for Twitter verification.
“Welp guess my blue ✔ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain’t paying the 5,” James tweeted last week.
James, with a net worth of US$1 billion, joins Tiger Wood ($1.1 billion) as the only active athletes on the list. James has earned nearly US$400 million in the NBA and more than US$900 million in endorsements and other business ventures, per Forbes.
James has also earned a reputation for being tight with his wallet when it comes to things like apps and personal subscriptions.
“One of the most underrated great moments of covering the 4 straight Finals years was walking into the locker room, listening to music blaring from LeBron’s speaker at his locker and hearing commercials play in between because he wouldn’t pay to upgrade to commercial-free Pandora,” tweeted NBA reporter Chris Fedor.
James himself has come clean about his frugality in the past.
“I’m not turning on data roaming, I’m not buying no apps, I still got Pandora with commercials. So I’ll be listening to some great music at home with commercials,” he told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols in 2017 after his former teammate Dwyane Wade said he was the cheapest player in the league.
“You know you’re rich, right?” Nichols then asked.
“I’m not paying for it,” James responded.
Former teammate Kevin Love has also spoken about James penny-pinching, including that when James travels to Toronto, he’ll go through customs, travel from the airport to the hotel, and wait for a Wi-Fi signal rather than turn on his data.
“I can appreciate it, I gotta say it’s not like I’m mad at it but I’m like, ‘C’mon, Bron, like, seriously? It’s Wi-Fi.’ Maybe it’s good to get away from your phone for a minute but, I don’t know, it’s just, roaming,” Love said last year.
James, who passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar earlier this season to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, has worked with many multinational brands off the court, including GMC, AT&T and Nike. He also has ownership stakes in Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox and England’s Liverpool football club.
His entertainment company, SpringHill, which he founded in 2007 and is named after the apartment complex he grew up in, is valued at US$725 million and has produced movies for HBO and Netflix.
On the big screen, James has also poked fun at himself. In the 2015 movie Trainwreck, shortly after mentioning he has free texting, James “forgets” his wallet when it comes time to split the bill with Bill Hader. In another scene in the film, James drives 40 minutes to Hader’s office to retrieve his US$30 sunglasses.
Despite scrimping in his personal life, James has used his earnings for philanthropic efforts since entering the NBA. He founded the LeBron James Family Foundation during his rookie season, and the charity provides educational opportunities and support for children in his hometown of Akron, Ohio.
In its first year, the foundation gave away backpacks and bikes. From there it launched a series of after-school programs, and, in 2011, James established the I PROMISE School, a public school in Akron that serves about 575 third through eighth graders.
The foundation offers free housing to up to 16 families in need and is in the process of constructing 50 more affordable housing units. Additionally, the school features a family resource centre which extends mental health, legal aid, financial literacy, and GED classes to parents.
“His goal, I believe, is to have 10 per cent of his wealth go to causes and support communities, which is an amazing goal,” Lisa Delpy Neirotti, a professor of sports management at George Washington University, told The Associated Press earlier this year. “I would say he’s maybe above and beyond others, just on that aspiration alone.”
James, now in his 20th NBA season, has said his goal upon retirement is to own an NBA franchise. He still has a long way to go to catch up to Michael Jordan, who is worth more than US$5 billion and is the majority shareholder of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, but his business savvy shouldn’t be underestimated.
In 2017, some analysts questioned James’ decision to leave about US$15 million on the table and walk away from a deal with McDonald’s to focus on Blaze Pizza, a little-known pizza chain that he had invested in a few years earlier.
Shortly afterward, Balze became the fastest-growing restaurant chain ever and now operates more than 300 company-owned and franchised stores throughout the U.S. and Canada. Forbes estimates that James’ stake in the chain is worth around US$30 million.
“In addition to a lot of other talents, he has a money mind,” Warren Buffett told USA Today in 2018. Buffet, who comes in at No. 5 on the Forbes list with a net worth of US$106 billion, first met James when he was 21 years old.
“He talked smarter about business deals than plenty of MBAs I’ve met,” Buffett said of that initial encounter. “He’s just a smart guy,” he added. “He doesn’t miss anything.”
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