Business Manager Hints LeBron James' Lifetime Deal With Nike Worth $1 Billion
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Is LeBron James a billionaire?
Maverick Carter, the business manager for the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar, hinted in a recent GQ interview that the lifetime contract James signed with Nike is worth $1 billion.
Reporter Mark Anthony Green initially asked Carter how much the deal was for, but Carter said he couldn't say.
When Green asked Carter to ballpark the amount, James' business manager responded with, "What are people saying?"
Green said "a billion," and that's when Carter "smiles and points one finger skyward."
"Yeah, it's a fantastic deal. Nike feels great about the deal. That's the most important thing," Carter told GQ. "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."
Carter also told GQ that when negotiating "you have to know what you want" and "you have to know how to clearly articulate those things."
"If you go into the negotiation like, I'm gonna get every dollar, every piece of real estate – I'm just gonna take this guy's f****** pants off – you may be able to do that once, maybe twice, but after that, people aren't going to want to do business with you," Carter explained. "When you're negotiating something like the Nike deal, it's gonna last a lifetime, literally. The minute this negotiation's over, we're gonna work with these people every day. So you don't want to leave them with a bad feeling."
In an interview with CNNMoney in 2007, Carter said that James' goal was to make $1 billion.
"It's impossible to get to a billion dollars by endorsement deals," Carter said at the time. "The biggest deals only take you so far. It's how you make money when you're asleep that's going to get you there."
James is a minority owner in the Liverpool Football Club and also banked a reported $30 million when Apple bought Beats by Dre, a venture the NBA star had a stake in.
