Remember that lifetime deal with Nike that LeBron James signed in December 2015? It was to reportedly pay James "more than" $500 million. Well, apparently that was literally just the half of it as Nike may be paying James close to $1 billion.
That's right a billion. A one with nine zeros after it.
It may seem far fetched, but according to James' business partner, Maverick Carter, that's how much Nike paid LeBron to guarantee his allegiance to the brand for the rest of his life.
From Carter's interview with GQ:
So you just negotiated an unprecedented lifetime contract for LeBron with Nike. What's your secret to being a great negotiator?
You have to go into the room understanding a couple things. You have to know what you want. You have to know how to clearly articulate those things. You have to know what's important to the other side and what they want. Be able to articulate those things, too. And then you have to be willing to not take everything. 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 fucking 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. 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.
How much was the deal for?
I can't say.
Come on, Mav! Can you ballpark it?
What are people saying?
Kanye said a billion. So a billion.[Maverick smiles and points one finger skyward.]
Holy s---.
Yeah. It's a fantastic deal. Nike feels great about the deal. That's the most important thing. 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.
Calling a $1 billion lifetime contract "a fantastic deal" is putting it mildly.
Without this deal, James and his family would've well taken care of for generations to come. Now with this deal and factoring in James' other investments (which includes possibly starring in a sequel to Space Jam), future generations of Jameses will have extremely very little to worry about financially for potentially centuries.
It's good to be the King.
