One of the biggest recent headlines in the sports business world came courtesy of one of the world's most famous athletes: LeBron James. The Lakers star joined Fenway Sports Group on the same day that RedBird Capital Partners, an investment group, injected $750 million into the organization, meaning that James would be in the ownership group of Liverpool and the Boston Red Sox.
Jokes were naturally flying about how LeBron -- who was joined by his longtime business partner Maverick Carter in the Fenway investment -- would be as an owner, but as it turns out there's a real desire from those at the top to get the opinion of The King. Tom Werner, chairman of Liverpool, said he wants the opinions of Carter and James in major decisions.
"I will be surprised actually if they don't weigh in (on management decisions of either team), I would welcome their thoughts," Werner told The Athletic. "I think that the relationship that the consumer has with a sporting team is an emotional one. I consider Maverick to be one of my closest friends, and I've spent hours with him talking about strategy, coaching, the lessons that I've learned from (Liverpool manager) Jurgen Klopp, and the lessons that he's learned as an astute observer of basketball.
"We have a very collaborative relationship, so I would actually say that their wisdom and their experience is going to be hugely helpful to us going forward."
He later added in the interview that the James and Carter "provide an intellectual perspective that's extraordinary" to the group.
LeBron would supposedly not be in unfamiliar territory in regards to being in a position of such serious decision-making, as his role on teams he's been on in recent years has included being a de facto general manager. But this is still new ground as one has to imagine decisions he'll be weighing in on will go beyond just whether or not to replace a young player with an aging veteran who's a good friend of his.
Regardless of how it eventually looks, one thing is for certain: there will absolutely be a portion of the Red Sox fan base that will be blaming any and all team woes on LeBron for the foreseeable future.
