Not simply on the court, LeBron James frequently breaks records. James made upwards of $1.2 billion in pretax earnings during a particularly prosperous year (after an incredibly successful career thus far), giving him a net worth of $1 billion, according to Forbes. The former Miami Heat great and current Los Angeles Lakers standout is the first NBA player to reach the billion-dollar mark while still competing in the league. James has earned more than $900 million from sponsorships and different business enterprises, in addition to being the highest-paid player in the NBA. Real estate, different investments, and The Spring Hill Company, a development and production company he co-founded with Maverick Carter, are what have made him a billionaire.
Only Michael Jordan and LeBron James have ever had a net worth in the tens of millions of dollars, with Jordan being the first to do so nearly ten years after retiring his number. Although James is an anomaly with his long-running, almost superhuman career, his path to billionaire status is much more humble than one might anticipate. James has been able to surpass expectations thanks to his concurrent success as an athlete and an entrepreneur. James didn’t become a billionaire overnight, and some may say that his very first brand agreement, which he signed in 2003 with Nike at the age of 18, was his first step toward his meteoric success. James had the option of choosing between rivals Reebok and Adidas, but he chose Nike instead because he believed it would be a better long-term connection.
The result was a $90 million, seven-year contract that was later extended in 2010 and turned into a “lifetime agreement” five years later. James would still be a living legend even if he had never done anything else than play basketball. It might be sufficient to lead a comfortable life and have a fulfilling career just to be the highest-paid active player, a four-time NBA champion, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and an 18-time NBA all-star. However, as past billionaires have shown, the position rarely results from a single source of income.
Source- Entrepreneur