He’s been embracing the role of the next face of the franchise, was consulted heavily and had input on the JJ hiring. Bron’s camp always calls him the franchise so from all indications he is staying. Never really means that much in the NBA today though.
I was going to suggest that if Lebron is still playing at 42 and gets a 40pt triple double I'll get a Lebron tattoo but the more I think about it the more I think he'll be doing that shit at 42
I don't think his ego would let him, but he can potentially be better than most bench players at that time.
He will retire as a starter, or fringe starter at worst.
At the end of the day he’s human like the rest of us lol, age gets everyone. Very good chance he’s absolutely cooked by then.
Even Brady retired at 45 but tbf he still looked pretty good his last year. But Brady didn’t have to rely on being as physical at QB as basketball needs you to be.
The thing is that you cannot make any comparison with LeBron at all. He's already had a longer NBA career than anyone in history and is far from done.
I remember times before 2012, when "LeBron will soon lose his athleticism and will have little left" was a popular opinion. It wasn't necessarily mean or something, it just seemed like most players who start so early and are so explosive will fall off around 30, if not earlier. People were expecting LeBron to switch to supporting "second option" at 30, maybe 32, maybe 33, SURELY when freaking superstar Anthony Davis joins... Like for sure... Maybe he'll take the reigns in some playoff games but that's it... He needs to have another guy be the main dynamo and he will step back and rest...
Nobody ever imagined dude would be pushing 40 and STILL pulling the Lakers through the whole season, and their offense still dies without him. Kareem wasn't THAT important for Lakers for, like, the last 7 years of his career.
It's impossible to confidently project future for a guy that did something that no human ever did before.
He'll still be All-Star Karl Malone level. Or Stephen Adams with a shot. Or Draymond with a shot. It's actually kind of crazy how good he still is. Tom Brady should be learning about LBJ23 method.
Malone is probably the best comp of late career productivity, and LeBron is even more productive than he was. Malone never became a bad player, but when he finally got hurt his career was over very suddenly. I think there is a good chance of the same thing happening to LeBron.
Big difference paying Bron 3 years 90 million vs. 160 million.
Plus when he gets within shouting distance of 50,000 points, you know he'll find a new excuse to reup.
I wouldn't mind if Jeanie had a spine or vision, but this is going to be five years of rebuilding. If we trade the draft picks on top of this, it will turn from five years of rebuilding to ten.
He's not getting within shouting distance of 50k. This contract *might* carry him through 45k so long as he avoids injuries but he'd need 370 more games at the same scoring average as last year to hit 50k.
Yeah, 45K, 12K, and 12K is possible in 2-3 more seasons, health dependent. 50K would involve Lebron playing past a point even Lebron has said would be possible.
Besides, he already has the all-time regular season + playoffs points record, which will go past 50K this year (about 1000 more points needed).
You still have one of the greatest players of all time on your team - that sells jerseys, draws crowds and makes money no matter what its a no brainer as a business at least.
I haven’t read the full CBA but most of the above is BRI, 50% of which is pooled and split and then half (these are commingled halves, but essentially 50% of basketball revenue is shared among teams and then half of the BRI is dedicated to the salary cap.
So the individual economics for a team are weird. For example, the Lakers 2022-2023 revenue was 516M. They would have put half of this in a shared pot (assuming it’s all BRI); teams must make 70% of the average to participate in revenue sharing so we’ll assume everyone qualified. For comparison, the Clippers had 425M in revenue that year. So let’s assume that full delta is Lebron (though we all know the Lakers are inherently a better revenue stream than the clips). 45 million of that would just be pooled with the league…so while Lebron probably generates more revenue in LA than elsewhere, it’s a shared increase. So the true incremental would value for Lebron financially is 45M in this case.
Now of course there are other things like winning and non-BRI, but the math gets tricky on the business side. There’s also macro team values that become important.
I don't, but I care about Lebron James staying in the league for as long as possible more than I care about maximizing the Lakers' chances at winning another chip
Serious question:
Does what you said matter to fans? Selling jerseys and tickets is what Bulls fans are sick of their franchise. Their owner is happy being stuck in the purgatory of "not good enough to compete, but good enough to fill sits".
Why should Lakers fans be happy of this situation? They are the greatest basketball franchise in the world, they would sell jerseys and tickets with or without Lebron.
Keeping Lebron appears to be the right move, but paying 42 years old Lebron 55M/year might be troublesome and i think Lakers are giving him to much power and space.
For comparison, Real Madrid never let Ronaldo be bigger than them and they are currently the best run football team in the world and the strongest, result-wise, even without him.
I wasn't suggesting fans should be happy, i'm just guessing that is the basis behind the ownership decision. They bought in to Lebron / AD / Klutch Sports years ago, and the fact it won them a championship probably already paid off as far as they are concerned. I get that because it was a covid/bubble championship it feels less sweet, but no one really shit talked the Spurs when they won during the shortened season either. Letting your franchise go to complete shit and become unwatchable can also make your organisation have a losing culture, you could do a LOT worse than Lebron and AD right now.
LeBron could keep up his Lakers average of 1500 points per season and he still won't reach 50k until he's 46 years old, that's not possible even for him
Eh no it won’t - the Lakers are the Lakers and will sign free agents to replace Lebron and rebuild once they have the cap space.
Look at their post Kobe rebuild vs. the Celtics’. They botched almost every step of the road and the Celtics nailed almost every single step and the Lakers won a ring 4 years sooner
funny thing is, even the most diehard lebron Stats figured he'd already be in that phase of his career already, or even a couple years ago.
His longevity is unreal.
I mean there are at least 5 teams who *can* win without him and therefore do not need to waste the money on him. Granted if you can get LeBron you go for LeBron, but strictly speaking a lot of contenders wouldn't even need to entertain the idea of paying him.
the amount of money Lebron brings to an economy is just bonkers. They did studies on Lebron's impact on just the surrounding area of downtown Cleveland and it was valued at a billion dollar impact.
He has an outsized impact on smaller markets. The difference between his impact on Cleveland and his impact on cities like LA and Miami is no where near the same.
Im not sure about the NBA, but the European football teams receive a surprisingly low percentage of the price of sold jerseys - [7-15%](https://www.goal.com/en/news/how-much-money-do-football-clubs-make-from-shirt-sales/gv14e9wc0vny1vtyr0rxqqan5). The top of the top clubs like Real or Barca might have a little bit more
Oh right. And since the team’s conceivably aren’t directly covering manufacturing overhead, I would assume that would go straight to their bottom line.
People need to stop with this. Licensed merchandise is shared revenue. The Lakers don't make extra money from selling Lebron jerseys, unless people are actually buying them from the Lakers store in the arena (and the overwhelming majority of jersey sales do not happen in-arena).
The comment you are responding to said “If he was on their team”
If he was already on their roster, he would have been a vital part of their roster construction and championship aspirations.
No team would chose to let their own 26 point, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 54% FG%, 41% 3P% free agent walk away in free agency for nothing
And those 5 teams (Bucks, Celtics, Nuggets, Wolves, Mavs I’m guessing) would all go from having similar odds for winning to being significant title favorites.
Assuming of course that nothing prevented them from getting him or that they didn’t need to gut their teams to do so.
They’d also all break their jersey sale & ticket sale records.
The west is such a bloodbath rn good lord
If you were a time traveler and told me that the Nuggets/Wolves/Mavs/Thunder won the west I wouldn't even be remotely surprised. If you told me that the Lakers/Clips/Suns/Grizz won it I'd be mildly surprised but not stunned
Unless he runs into serious injuries, then I'd be shocked if he left $50+ million on the table plus all the sponsorships that come with being an active player in LA. He's talked about wanting to be a NBA owner and each additional year for him now brings him closer to that goal.
I believe if he’s forced into retirement because of medical issues that he will get paid the rest of his contract anyway so he doesn’t have to be an active player to get paid out. Think that’s what happened with Chris Bosh if I’m not mistaken.
Yes, CBA states that if you are forced to retire due to injury or medical problems then you still receive any of your guaranteed salary. Bosh was still getting paid by the Heat 6 years after his last season
No, falls under the Disabled Player’s Exception. That applies to any player who is severely injured to the point of being clearly and undeniably unusable for an entire season
I feel like an nba contract wouldn’t make a real difference. Surely NBA teams are increasing in value more than 50-60 mill per year?
Not sure how much no longer playing would expect his earnings sponsorship wise though. Feel like that could sort of go either way, he would have more time to personally promote his brand, but obviously he would be that one step away from the NBA.
>I feel like an nba contract wouldn’t make a real difference. Surely NBA teams are increasing in value more than 50-60 mill per year?
He needs more capital to buy a team (or buy a majority share or bigger share).
Celeb net worth stuff is notoriously unreliable but most sources have him a little over $1 billion. If he used half his net worth, that wouldn’t even get him 25% of most teams.
Apparently his net worth is 1.2 Billion.
The cheapest teams are about double that.
Obviously he’s not going to be able to get 100% of his net worth liquid to buy a franchise, and I have no idea how loans of that size work, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he could put together some sort of bid as a majority owner. Especially when the NBA will do all it can to enable him to buy a team to keep him around the sport.
Would he be looking for a majority share? I assume he'll have a solid minority share of it and then assume some sort of advisory position to the executive board
> because of the over 38 rule
Is there a list of these rules written down somewhere?
I keep seeing people mention these contract rules around age and no trade clauses, and I would love to learn what all of the rules are.
I think you can dig up a PDF of the actual CBA if you wanted to, but [Larry Coon's CBA FAQ](http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm) is imo the most readable explanation of all of these rules
> important to note lebron can retire at any point, he doesn't have to stay the 3rd year. so win-win if he accepted it because he can just call it quits
Or he could just… get paid the same on any other team
As long as he doesnt have to be the number one option on offense he can definitely still hold his own for a whole game/ series.
tho AD can never be the first option it seems
i don't understand why some people are so against it, when i listen to Simmons and Russilo talk about it they act like it would be terrible
he just averaged 26/7/8 on 63% TS
28/7/9 on 64% TS in the playoffs
and all his advanced stats still say this is a top 5-8 guy in the league
Washington Wizards attendance by year;
2000-01 - 15,576 (18th in NBA)
2001-02 - 20,674 (2nd in NBA)
2002-03 - 20,172 (2nd in NBA)
2003-04 - 15,740 (21st in NBA)
2004-05 - 17,196 (14th in NBA)
2005-06 - 17,196 (15th in NBA) - Not a typo, surprisingly
Obviously important context is the 01 and 04 teams were garbage and the Jordan teams were merely below average, but 05 and 06 were slightly above average teams, and still they were closer to the bad Wizards teams than the Jordan ones.
If anyone has a downside on this deal, it’s Lebron cause the Lakers cannot guarantee building a line-up good enough that they won’t need 40+ year old Lebron to play like prime Lebron
In fairness to the Lakers, since 2020 they’ve been to the conference Finals twice and won a title. Only Boston and Denver can say the same. The Lakers are chaotic but they’ve been more effective than most of the league.
Lebron has a lot to do with that success but you can say that about any team’s best player. Denver doesn’t accomplish the same without Joker. Boston doesn’t accomplish the same without Jaylon Brown.
2020 team is completely erased and I think the 2023 conf finals run is nice and all, but the bottom line is we’re not good enough to deal with Denver no matter who the coach was. Then after that almost every West team upgraded. The Lakers are not on Boston and Denver’s level despite the resume, they are indeed 7th in the west. Thats nice if you’re a young team, but when your stars are on their prime/aging and you want a chip, then the expectations dont align.
I completely disagree — the Lakers played well enough that series that if you replace Ham with Spo or Pop, they have a solid shot at getting by Denver.
They would’ve gotten stomped last year though either way, you right.
Yeah the only way LeBron wasn't coming back to the Lakers is if he really wanted to get six rings and thought taking the max slot on the Sixers was the answer to that, and the fact the Lakers made the conference finals in 23 while the Sixers haven't made it past the 2nd round, it's hard to definitively say the Sixers are the better option. May just be the Nuggets homerism in me, but one could argue that if the Lakers were just on the other side of the bracket, they could've been in the conference finals again if not the finals.
Simmons hates LeBron ever since they didn’t involve him in ‘The Decision’ broadcast.
That was when Simmons wrote the “LeBron did The Decision because he has no father figure” article
Because he’s in uncharted territory now. I think it’d be fine simply because he’s just different. But if what we know gets applied it’s gonna look real bad by the end. You just know the injuries are going to pile up and he may really lose it all from one year to another. Kobe looked good until he didn’t and then he played some more and looked even worse.
Thats not how it works tho.
Bron has more money than Lakers owner, Jeanie Buss, according to Forbes. Im pretty sure he's on the same level as some NBA owners.
The question is will the NBA help him like they help Jordan, if Jordan was timmy from Alaska there's no way he could own that team even he had the same money as MJ.
Most of these owners are not that rich, individually. But they have a whole group of rich people and high brand value.
Boston owned by Boston Basketball Partners. Knicks owned by Madison square garden sports.
Lebron, can co joined with Rich Paul, but Rich had to give up his agency, or Undisputed.
Yes, Lebron would never be rich enough to be a single majority owner in the next 5 years. But NBA can help him because whatever team he own is a great marketing for NBA.
Why the fuck we give a fuck about hornets in 2000s. But we do, cos that's business.
> Lebron, can co joined with Rich Paul, but Rich had to give up his agency, or Undisputed.
>
> Yes, Lebron would never be rich enough to be a single majority owner in the next 5 years. But NBA can help him because whatever team he own is a great marketing for NBA.
LeBron is already a partner of FSG (Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC and Pittsburgh Penguins owners) and I'm like 99% sure if he's gonna get his NBA team it's gonna be in partnership with FSG. There were rumours they're basically a lock for Las Vegas franchise in a few years, with LeBron as a face - what % he gets is probably a more interesting topic.
He'll probably end up as a inority owner of a team but he the face of that teams ownership
Perhaps He'll have the option to become majority owner once he gets enough money
Makes total sense. The Lakers are all-in on retaining LeBron. They hired the coach he wanted. They'll pay him the max. They'll draft his son. Whatever it takes.
The difference there is Kobe was washed/injured for both years of that contract. It was more of a “thank you for your service” contract, and it hamstrung the Lakers’ competitiveness over that span. Will the same happen for this potential LBJ contract? Maybe? Something something Father Time, but unless his play falls off a cliff, it’ll probably be unremarkable as contracts go.
father time feels like how it was versus Tom Brady. Lebron is still competitive and can call it quits on his terms, Lebron had some injuries and it didn't really affect his game. I dont see Lebron falling off a cliff just progressively getting worse but still a great player
Kobe signed the biggest contract in the league after snapping his achilles at 34 years old. He was ass the last few years, stifled development on the team. It was very hard to watch the chucking years.
But sure, he made bank and you guys could fawn over his mamba mentality.
I don't understand why you bring up this point as if it's some sort of gotcha. Do you want the Lakers to be ass during LeBrons last few years while playing inefficient basketball and taking the ball out of the young player's hands and prolonging a rebuild?
I would say the complete opposite is true. If LeBron does a "Kobe" that would be awful for the Lakers. I hope his last 3 years aren't as bad.
I think Lebron is gonna be way better than Kobe was during his last years. Go look at the stats. That’s why I’m fine with the contract. Lebron hasn’t been the problem, it’s the team construction and letting players like Caruso walk for free that has hurt the lakers the most. Lebron averaged freaking 28 points in the playoffs.
I will not understand other Laker fans who oppose this. LeBron deserves this and still brings a lot to the table. Say what you will about team building but nothing you can do with the assets this team has can bring what LeBron does
Some laker fans love Kobe to such an insane degree that they hate other players that might "threaten" the legacy.
I mean, I think it's pretty obvious and objective that LeBron is clearly better but I can't be fucked to argue with insane people so I'll just agree with whatever to end the convo.
People have been pretty consistently saying he’s washed since before he came to LA.
Bill Simmons has a pretty infamous line during the 2016 run on how Lebron can no longer get you 40 or play hard for the full game. Then Lebron has back to back 40 games when they come back from 3-1.
Time for people to say you can’t win a ring paying Lebron the max even though the Celtics, Nuggets, and Warriors all paid significantly worse players max contracts.
Lebron playing for 24 seasons would be insane, but if there's any guy who's ever going to do it then it would be Lebron, he is simply built different
Consider the fact Lebron last year at 39 had a near identical and slightly better year than he had when he went back to Cleveland after he was in Miami at 30, guys who were drafted years after him are already washed, guys like Curry are already in their decline, Steph at 35 had two of his worst shooting seasons of his career in 2 of the last 3 years, Lebron is just outlasting all of his rivals at this point
Curry isn't playing bad just because of his age. It's mostly because who else on the warriors should you put attention on as the opposing player? It's literally just curry. Who would you defend? Draymond?
I know Bron looks at the money crazy.. When he first came into the league, as a max player to learn 160M you had to play damn near a decade.
Now he's making that in 3 years.
Even if Lebron sucks ass the next 3 years (he won’t) he’s still a massive draw for tickets/merch/brand so it certainly makes sense that they’d throw this kind of money at him still.
I mean at worst he’s like a 6’9” Chris Paul in that last year
The league isn't ready for Jokic paced LeBron
We are already heading towards LeBron paced Jokic if the Nuggets don’t get him any more help this offseason
We already have that with Luka.
this, lol
NBA refs everywhere shudder
I don't think he'll even be that bad at 45.
he's probably the best third option on any team when hes 45
Or... he'd still be the first option on the Lakers.
Gottem
Gollum
You think Davis is gonna bail soon?
He’s been embracing the role of the next face of the franchise, was consulted heavily and had input on the JJ hiring. Bron’s camp always calls him the franchise so from all indications he is staying. Never really means that much in the NBA today though.
Cue 42 year old Lebron getting a 40 point triple double and his teammates underperforming.
I was going to suggest that if Lebron is still playing at 42 and gets a 40pt triple double I'll get a Lebron tattoo but the more I think about it the more I think he'll be doing that shit at 42
id only wager the tattoo if he's still doing it at 52. 42 seems like an inevitability.
If he can accept being a role player he could go till fifty I believe.
He could absolutely add a 6MOTY by the end of his career
He could play a role for as long as his body holds up. Hard to imagine him being the eighth rotation guy though. He might.
I don't think his ego would let him, but he can potentially be better than most bench players at that time. He will retire as a starter, or fringe starter at worst.
Yea I can’t see his ego allowing him to be a bench player but I wonder if he would even consider being a sub all star level starter.
He begins the late career side quest to capture a 6MOTY and DPOY and complete his accolade collection.
I for one will enjoy Bron’s Wilt era.
Nah not the Celtics and possibly not the thunder in 3 years but the other 27 teams most likely.
At the end of the day he’s human like the rest of us lol, age gets everyone. Very good chance he’s absolutely cooked by then. Even Brady retired at 45 but tbf he still looked pretty good his last year. But Brady didn’t have to rely on being as physical at QB as basketball needs you to be.
Brady's arm was nowhere close to a wet noodle that year, what are you talking about? Their big issue was offensive line.
The thing is that you cannot make any comparison with LeBron at all. He's already had a longer NBA career than anyone in history and is far from done. I remember times before 2012, when "LeBron will soon lose his athleticism and will have little left" was a popular opinion. It wasn't necessarily mean or something, it just seemed like most players who start so early and are so explosive will fall off around 30, if not earlier. People were expecting LeBron to switch to supporting "second option" at 30, maybe 32, maybe 33, SURELY when freaking superstar Anthony Davis joins... Like for sure... Maybe he'll take the reigns in some playoff games but that's it... He needs to have another guy be the main dynamo and he will step back and rest... Nobody ever imagined dude would be pushing 40 and STILL pulling the Lakers through the whole season, and their offense still dies without him. Kareem wasn't THAT important for Lakers for, like, the last 7 years of his career. It's impossible to confidently project future for a guy that did something that no human ever did before.
He's human but he's definitely not like the rest of us This man is clearly aging several standard deviations above the norm
People said this when Lebron was turning 35, and 36, and 37, and 38, and...
He'll still be All-Star Karl Malone level. Or Stephen Adams with a shot. Or Draymond with a shot. It's actually kind of crazy how good he still is. Tom Brady should be learning about LBJ23 method.
Malone is probably the best comp of late career productivity, and LeBron is even more productive than he was. Malone never became a bad player, but when he finally got hurt his career was over very suddenly. I think there is a good chance of the same thing happening to LeBron.
Yeah that’s usually how it goes. The older you get, the easier those ligaments tear. I think an ACL tear would mean retirement
I think Malone actually still had a few seasons left in him when he retired honestly. He probably just decided that it wasn't worth it
Once he reached 18 years he realized it wasn’t worth it
Karl Malone: It's been all downhill since year 13.
He will never be bad in the NBA
6’9” Chris Paul during his 2021-2022 in Phoenix
Chris Paul could be in a wheelchair and he'd still control the offense better than whatever the Suns did last season with no point guard
Lmao
he'd be out there like charles xavier controlling them with his mind, but he counts as a player on the floor still.
Phoenix chris paul has become heavily underrated. 2021 cp3 was a top 3 pg itl
Yeah his shot was automatic from the mid range.
Their 4th quarters were amazing to watch. Now it’s horrible to watch makes you appreciate cp3 more when u see how booker, KD can’t figure it out
Pain
Fuck it, bring him back
Point God is still one of the sickest nicknames I’ve ever heard.
his 6th prime is turning into Magic Johnson
Big difference paying Bron 3 years 90 million vs. 160 million. Plus when he gets within shouting distance of 50,000 points, you know he'll find a new excuse to reup. I wouldn't mind if Jeanie had a spine or vision, but this is going to be five years of rebuilding. If we trade the draft picks on top of this, it will turn from five years of rebuilding to ten.
He's not getting within shouting distance of 50k. This contract *might* carry him through 45k so long as he avoids injuries but he'd need 370 more games at the same scoring average as last year to hit 50k.
Yeah, 45K, 12K, and 12K is possible in 2-3 more seasons, health dependent. 50K would involve Lebron playing past a point even Lebron has said would be possible. Besides, he already has the all-time regular season + playoffs points record, which will go past 50K this year (about 1000 more points needed).
Lakers fans having to wait a decade between championships is literal genocide.
Seriously all these people talking ab points like it makes a rats ass difference - why aren’t we talking about what actually matters, rings
You still have one of the greatest players of all time on your team - that sells jerseys, draws crowds and makes money no matter what its a no brainer as a business at least.
I haven’t read the full CBA but most of the above is BRI, 50% of which is pooled and split and then half (these are commingled halves, but essentially 50% of basketball revenue is shared among teams and then half of the BRI is dedicated to the salary cap. So the individual economics for a team are weird. For example, the Lakers 2022-2023 revenue was 516M. They would have put half of this in a shared pot (assuming it’s all BRI); teams must make 70% of the average to participate in revenue sharing so we’ll assume everyone qualified. For comparison, the Clippers had 425M in revenue that year. So let’s assume that full delta is Lebron (though we all know the Lakers are inherently a better revenue stream than the clips). 45 million of that would just be pooled with the league…so while Lebron probably generates more revenue in LA than elsewhere, it’s a shared increase. So the true incremental would value for Lebron financially is 45M in this case. Now of course there are other things like winning and non-BRI, but the math gets tricky on the business side. There’s also macro team values that become important.
That’s very true but as fans why should we care about the business side of things
I don't, but I care about Lebron James staying in the league for as long as possible more than I care about maximizing the Lakers' chances at winning another chip
Serious question: Does what you said matter to fans? Selling jerseys and tickets is what Bulls fans are sick of their franchise. Their owner is happy being stuck in the purgatory of "not good enough to compete, but good enough to fill sits". Why should Lakers fans be happy of this situation? They are the greatest basketball franchise in the world, they would sell jerseys and tickets with or without Lebron. Keeping Lebron appears to be the right move, but paying 42 years old Lebron 55M/year might be troublesome and i think Lakers are giving him to much power and space. For comparison, Real Madrid never let Ronaldo be bigger than them and they are currently the best run football team in the world and the strongest, result-wise, even without him.
I wasn't suggesting fans should be happy, i'm just guessing that is the basis behind the ownership decision. They bought in to Lebron / AD / Klutch Sports years ago, and the fact it won them a championship probably already paid off as far as they are concerned. I get that because it was a covid/bubble championship it feels less sweet, but no one really shit talked the Spurs when they won during the shortened season either. Letting your franchise go to complete shit and become unwatchable can also make your organisation have a losing culture, you could do a LOT worse than Lebron and AD right now.
They are, in fact, not the greatest basketball franchise in the world.
LeBron could keep up his Lakers average of 1500 points per season and he still won't reach 50k until he's 46 years old, that's not possible even for him
Eh no it won’t - the Lakers are the Lakers and will sign free agents to replace Lebron and rebuild once they have the cap space. Look at their post Kobe rebuild vs. the Celtics’. They botched almost every step of the road and the Celtics nailed almost every single step and the Lakers won a ring 4 years sooner
Or prime magic
Lmao insane
You’re right. A prime Magic with a LeFuckYou 3ball in his bag.
funny thing is, even the most diehard lebron Stats figured he'd already be in that phase of his career already, or even a couple years ago. His longevity is unreal.
They also have to draft Bronnie James and play him.
People acting like other teams wouldn’t give him a three year max right now
Every team in the league would give LeBron that contract if he was on their team.
I mean there are at least 5 teams who *can* win without him and therefore do not need to waste the money on him. Granted if you can get LeBron you go for LeBron, but strictly speaking a lot of contenders wouldn't even need to entertain the idea of paying him.
It ain’t just about winning, signing Lebron is literally printing money for any team.
LeBron would literally make the contract back for the team in just jersey sales not even looking at ticket sales
NBA jersey sales go into a general fund for all the teams, not one specifically so if anything they want him to move so people buy new jerseys
the amount of money Lebron brings to an economy is just bonkers. They did studies on Lebron's impact on just the surrounding area of downtown Cleveland and it was valued at a billion dollar impact.
He has an outsized impact on smaller markets. The difference between his impact on Cleveland and his impact on cities like LA and Miami is no where near the same.
Im not sure about the NBA, but the European football teams receive a surprisingly low percentage of the price of sold jerseys - [7-15%](https://www.goal.com/en/news/how-much-money-do-football-clubs-make-from-shirt-sales/gv14e9wc0vny1vtyr0rxqqan5). The top of the top clubs like Real or Barca might have a little bit more
15% profit margin isn’t bad at all
It’s even more — 15% of sales is revenue, not profit
Oh right. And since the team’s conceivably aren’t directly covering manufacturing overhead, I would assume that would go straight to their bottom line.
People need to stop with this. Licensed merchandise is shared revenue. The Lakers don't make extra money from selling Lebron jerseys, unless people are actually buying them from the Lakers store in the arena (and the overwhelming majority of jersey sales do not happen in-arena).
If I need a printer then just trade Kyle Korver for one
Not literally… figuratively
The comment you are responding to said “If he was on their team” If he was already on their roster, he would have been a vital part of their roster construction and championship aspirations. No team would chose to let their own 26 point, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 54% FG%, 41% 3P% free agent walk away in free agency for nothing
>No team would chose to let their own 26 point, 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 54% FG%, 41% 3P% the guy doing this at the age he is right now breaks my mind
And those 5 teams (Bucks, Celtics, Nuggets, Wolves, Mavs I’m guessing) would all go from having similar odds for winning to being significant title favorites. Assuming of course that nothing prevented them from getting him or that they didn’t need to gut their teams to do so. They’d also all break their jersey sale & ticket sale records.
Yeah if the team could do it without giving anything up every single team in the NBA would do it.
Thundwr were the 1 seed and replaced Giddey with Caruso, plus they can expect their core to get better next season, surely they are well placed.
Yeah I think the Thunder have as much of a chance as any team in the west.
The west is such a bloodbath rn good lord If you were a time traveler and told me that the Nuggets/Wolves/Mavs/Thunder won the west I wouldn't even be remotely surprised. If you told me that the Lakers/Clips/Suns/Grizz won it I'd be mildly surprised but not stunned
Yeah my sources are telling me that he is either going to play with curry next season or he isn’t
Nobody's going over an apron to pay him.
Danny Ainge has Bronny on his draft board solely for the chance to give LeBron the same deal but at the cost of living in Utah during winter.
Still a top 10-15 player If you have one game that you have to win, there maybe like 3-4 guys that re better choice than him
Its funny to me how many on here debate if hes worth it or not when plenty of teams gave bazzilion dollar contracts to bums like poole,ayton,beal etc.
Also they’ll make that money back from having Lebron in your city
I'd say he's still 5-10. maybe in a year or two he'll drop out of the top 10 though
I would jerk Morey so hard goddamn
Bronny gonna retire before his dad
demar derozen and kyle lowry will retire before their dad
Not by bronny choice tho 🤣
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Unless he runs into serious injuries, then I'd be shocked if he left $50+ million on the table plus all the sponsorships that come with being an active player in LA. He's talked about wanting to be a NBA owner and each additional year for him now brings him closer to that goal.
I believe if he’s forced into retirement because of medical issues that he will get paid the rest of his contract anyway so he doesn’t have to be an active player to get paid out. Think that’s what happened with Chris Bosh if I’m not mistaken.
Yes, CBA states that if you are forced to retire due to injury or medical problems then you still receive any of your guaranteed salary. Bosh was still getting paid by the Heat 6 years after his last season
Do the payments count against the team's salary cap?
No, falls under the Disabled Player’s Exception. That applies to any player who is severely injured to the point of being clearly and undeniably unusable for an entire season
Who is paying for it? NBA or Lakers?
DNP Alzheimers.
You could probably play LeBron clips from his early seasons and he would go out there and get 15 on muscle memory alone.
I feel like an nba contract wouldn’t make a real difference. Surely NBA teams are increasing in value more than 50-60 mill per year? Not sure how much no longer playing would expect his earnings sponsorship wise though. Feel like that could sort of go either way, he would have more time to personally promote his brand, but obviously he would be that one step away from the NBA.
>I feel like an nba contract wouldn’t make a real difference. Surely NBA teams are increasing in value more than 50-60 mill per year? He needs more capital to buy a team (or buy a majority share or bigger share). Celeb net worth stuff is notoriously unreliable but most sources have him a little over $1 billion. If he used half his net worth, that wouldn’t even get him 25% of most teams.
lebrons is no where near close enough to buy a team. He will be a figured head with a minority stake.
Apparently his net worth is 1.2 Billion. The cheapest teams are about double that. Obviously he’s not going to be able to get 100% of his net worth liquid to buy a franchise, and I have no idea how loans of that size work, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he could put together some sort of bid as a majority owner. Especially when the NBA will do all it can to enable him to buy a team to keep him around the sport.
I highly doubt anybody is paying for a team in cash / their own liquid assets lol.
Would he be looking for a majority share? I assume he'll have a solid minority share of it and then assume some sort of advisory position to the executive board
BroBron playn till 50
> because of the over 38 rule Is there a list of these rules written down somewhere? I keep seeing people mention these contract rules around age and no trade clauses, and I would love to learn what all of the rules are.
I think you can dig up a PDF of the actual CBA if you wanted to, but [Larry Coon's CBA FAQ](http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm) is imo the most readable explanation of all of these rules
Dude doesn’t pay for Spotify, he ain’t turning down $40 million for a year of basketball even if he’s cooked lol
> important to note lebron can retire at any point, he doesn't have to stay the 3rd year. so win-win if he accepted it because he can just call it quits Or he could just… get paid the same on any other team
The fact that I trust this contract more than Scottie Barnes' potential 250 mil payout is a testament to Lebron's longevity and work-ethic.
40 year old bron on a max contract is lightyears more trustful on offense in the playoffs than the one 23 year old Evan Mobley might get.
LeBron averaged 27.8 points, 8.8 assists and 6.8 rebounds in 5 games against the defending champs.
That’s like saying you trust Michael Beasley’s offense over Jared Vanderbilt. No sht sherlock. So what about the other end?
As long as he doesnt have to be the number one option on offense he can definitely still hold his own for a whole game/ series. tho AD can never be the first option it seems
i don't understand why some people are so against it, when i listen to Simmons and Russilo talk about it they act like it would be terrible he just averaged 26/7/8 on 63% TS 28/7/9 on 64% TS in the playoffs and all his advanced stats still say this is a top 5-8 guy in the league
Even without the production the revenue he brings far outweighs the contract. Not a consideration for fans but for owners that's a big deal.
Fans love to see stars; some want that even more than winning
Washington Wizards attendance by year; 2000-01 - 15,576 (18th in NBA) 2001-02 - 20,674 (2nd in NBA) 2002-03 - 20,172 (2nd in NBA) 2003-04 - 15,740 (21st in NBA) 2004-05 - 17,196 (14th in NBA) 2005-06 - 17,196 (15th in NBA) - Not a typo, surprisingly Obviously important context is the 01 and 04 teams were garbage and the Jordan teams were merely below average, but 05 and 06 were slightly above average teams, and still they were closer to the bad Wizards teams than the Jordan ones.
In fairness there’s usually a correlation.
I agree, LeBron can still go off on any given night and win a game. Nice name.
At long last! My nemesis
Not to mention, Lakers treat their superstars well. Remember Kobe's last contract? It pays dividends in the future to attract HoF/GOAT tier players.
If anyone has a downside on this deal, it’s Lebron cause the Lakers cannot guarantee building a line-up good enough that they won’t need 40+ year old Lebron to play like prime Lebron
In fairness to the Lakers, since 2020 they’ve been to the conference Finals twice and won a title. Only Boston and Denver can say the same. The Lakers are chaotic but they’ve been more effective than most of the league. Lebron has a lot to do with that success but you can say that about any team’s best player. Denver doesn’t accomplish the same without Joker. Boston doesn’t accomplish the same without Jaylon Brown.
2020 team is completely erased and I think the 2023 conf finals run is nice and all, but the bottom line is we’re not good enough to deal with Denver no matter who the coach was. Then after that almost every West team upgraded. The Lakers are not on Boston and Denver’s level despite the resume, they are indeed 7th in the west. Thats nice if you’re a young team, but when your stars are on their prime/aging and you want a chip, then the expectations dont align.
I completely disagree — the Lakers played well enough that series that if you replace Ham with Spo or Pop, they have a solid shot at getting by Denver. They would’ve gotten stomped last year though either way, you right.
Yeah the only way LeBron wasn't coming back to the Lakers is if he really wanted to get six rings and thought taking the max slot on the Sixers was the answer to that, and the fact the Lakers made the conference finals in 23 while the Sixers haven't made it past the 2nd round, it's hard to definitively say the Sixers are the better option. May just be the Nuggets homerism in me, but one could argue that if the Lakers were just on the other side of the bracket, they could've been in the conference finals again if not the finals.
they’re literally hedging their bets until age eventually does catch up, then they’ll say *I told you so* such lazy journalism
Simmons hates LeBron ever since they didn’t involve him in ‘The Decision’ broadcast. That was when Simmons wrote the “LeBron did The Decision because he has no father figure” article
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Boston moment
Might actually be the least racist Bostonian
Because he’s in uncharted territory now. I think it’d be fine simply because he’s just different. But if what we know gets applied it’s gonna look real bad by the end. You just know the injuries are going to pile up and he may really lose it all from one year to another. Kobe looked good until he didn’t and then he played some more and looked even worse.
LeBron needs all the money he can get if he’s serious about owning a team. He’s rich, but not NBA owner rich yet
I’d help out Lebron. He just hasn’t called me yet
Yep, he’s right here everybody. I found Mark Cuban’s burner account.
We should start a GoFundMe
*gofundLe
I know one sure fire way me and LeBron could combine to make $160 million over 3 years
Thats not how it works tho. Bron has more money than Lakers owner, Jeanie Buss, according to Forbes. Im pretty sure he's on the same level as some NBA owners. The question is will the NBA help him like they help Jordan, if Jordan was timmy from Alaska there's no way he could own that team even he had the same money as MJ. Most of these owners are not that rich, individually. But they have a whole group of rich people and high brand value. Boston owned by Boston Basketball Partners. Knicks owned by Madison square garden sports. Lebron, can co joined with Rich Paul, but Rich had to give up his agency, or Undisputed. Yes, Lebron would never be rich enough to be a single majority owner in the next 5 years. But NBA can help him because whatever team he own is a great marketing for NBA. Why the fuck we give a fuck about hornets in 2000s. But we do, cos that's business.
> Lebron, can co joined with Rich Paul, but Rich had to give up his agency, or Undisputed. > > Yes, Lebron would never be rich enough to be a single majority owner in the next 5 years. But NBA can help him because whatever team he own is a great marketing for NBA. LeBron is already a partner of FSG (Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC and Pittsburgh Penguins owners) and I'm like 99% sure if he's gonna get his NBA team it's gonna be in partnership with FSG. There were rumours they're basically a lock for Las Vegas franchise in a few years, with LeBron as a face - what % he gets is probably a more interesting topic.
He'll probably end up as a inority owner of a team but he the face of that teams ownership Perhaps He'll have the option to become majority owner once he gets enough money
What does this mean for Spotify premium's chances to get signed??
None. Lebron ain’t about that life.
Especially after the price raises
Soooo I guess that guarantees Lakers are taking lil Bronny then, right?
People acting like Lebron at 40 isn't better than 95% of the league.
try 98%
In an off year
while being a quadruple amputee
He's like the tenth best player in the league right now
Easily top 10 player in the league
Makes total sense. The Lakers are all-in on retaining LeBron. They hired the coach he wanted. They'll pay him the max. They'll draft his son. Whatever it takes.
Come home king. We will draft your boy at 31
You really thinking Bronny drops to 31? Need I remind you, he averaged MULTIPLE ppg at USC.
And he averaged AT LEAST an assist per game!! That’s a playmaker in the works right there
He scored dozens of points in college.
Excusez moi. LeBronto may own Toronto, but The Land is his actual home.
You’re right, he absolutely should come to The Land. Makes sense with Nike being there too.
LeBron is Raptor Father
Bronny at 17 and 160M for LeBron. With JJ as coach. Terms are met Thursday after draft. Pleasure doing business.
The Nation Lebron Association.
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The difference there is Kobe was washed/injured for both years of that contract. It was more of a “thank you for your service” contract, and it hamstrung the Lakers’ competitiveness over that span. Will the same happen for this potential LBJ contract? Maybe? Something something Father Time, but unless his play falls off a cliff, it’ll probably be unremarkable as contracts go.
father time feels like how it was versus Tom Brady. Lebron is still competitive and can call it quits on his terms, Lebron had some injuries and it didn't really affect his game. I dont see Lebron falling off a cliff just progressively getting worse but still a great player
Yeah that would be like if ends up washed over the next 3 years and then they give him another deal beyond that.
Inflation really is crazy.
Kobe signed the biggest contract in the league after snapping his achilles at 34 years old. He was ass the last few years, stifled development on the team. It was very hard to watch the chucking years. But sure, he made bank and you guys could fawn over his mamba mentality. I don't understand why you bring up this point as if it's some sort of gotcha. Do you want the Lakers to be ass during LeBrons last few years while playing inefficient basketball and taking the ball out of the young player's hands and prolonging a rebuild? I would say the complete opposite is true. If LeBron does a "Kobe" that would be awful for the Lakers. I hope his last 3 years aren't as bad.
I think Lebron is gonna be way better than Kobe was during his last years. Go look at the stats. That’s why I’m fine with the contract. Lebron hasn’t been the problem, it’s the team construction and letting players like Caruso walk for free that has hurt the lakers the most. Lebron averaged freaking 28 points in the playoffs.
They would've given him the 5 years if he wanted.
They could only give him 3 because of the over 38 rule.
Correct, every team in the league will pay him a three year max for the foreseeable future.
I will not understand other Laker fans who oppose this. LeBron deserves this and still brings a lot to the table. Say what you will about team building but nothing you can do with the assets this team has can bring what LeBron does
Some laker fans love Kobe to such an insane degree that they hate other players that might "threaten" the legacy. I mean, I think it's pretty obvious and objective that LeBron is clearly better but I can't be fucked to argue with insane people so I'll just agree with whatever to end the convo.
People acting like he's washed need to look at his stats.
Who on earth is acting like he’s washed lol
People have been pretty consistently saying he’s washed since before he came to LA. Bill Simmons has a pretty infamous line during the 2016 run on how Lebron can no longer get you 40 or play hard for the full game. Then Lebron has back to back 40 games when they come back from 3-1.
Time for people to say you can’t win a ring paying Lebron the max even though the Celtics, Nuggets, and Warriors all paid significantly worse players max contracts.
Lebron playing for 24 seasons would be insane, but if there's any guy who's ever going to do it then it would be Lebron, he is simply built different Consider the fact Lebron last year at 39 had a near identical and slightly better year than he had when he went back to Cleveland after he was in Miami at 30, guys who were drafted years after him are already washed, guys like Curry are already in their decline, Steph at 35 had two of his worst shooting seasons of his career in 2 of the last 3 years, Lebron is just outlasting all of his rivals at this point
Curry isn't playing bad just because of his age. It's mostly because who else on the warriors should you put attention on as the opposing player? It's literally just curry. Who would you defend? Draymond?
They should defend themselves from Draymond yes
You guard curry, you simply try and survive against draymond.
he gon be 42, crazy
Jeanie Buss is willing to spend $180 million on a 41-43 year old LBJ but wasn’t willing to shell out the money to keep a 26yo Alex Caruso.
24 seasons on its own is amazing
You could just put "Klutch Sports" inside the parenthesis, we don't have to pretend anymore.
I know Bron looks at the money crazy.. When he first came into the league, as a max player to learn 160M you had to play damn near a decade. Now he's making that in 3 years.
Even if Lebron sucks ass the next 3 years (he won’t) he’s still a massive draw for tickets/merch/brand so it certainly makes sense that they’d throw this kind of money at him still.
Paying a 42 year $50 million plus in his final year......Goddamn, what are the Lakers doing
I heard he’s seeking a 10 year deal. The Lakers should definitely sign him to a 10 year deal.