It's easy to overlook LeBron James' business empire because of his on-court accomplishments. As the best NBA player and one of the great athletes the world has ever seen, it seems logical that he would wield enormous influence and a multitude of business ventures generated by his wealth and notoriety. The reality is a bit more complicated. While professional athletes regularly gain access to lucrative business opportunities, James' empire goes beyond the buy email list traditional model of generating wealth through multi-year endorsement deals with big corporations.
Credit the story behind the brand James has carefully crafted since entering the NBA at just 18: From the start, the future Hall of Famer strove to create a singular brand as recognizable as any other in the world of sports, rivaling signature imprints like Michael Jordan's "Air Jordan" line of footwear and apparel. But in recent years, that personal brand has sought buy email list to expand beyond static agreements that allow images, names, and endorsements at an exorbitant price. Those deals are still ongoing, but in a slightly different form: James' longtime business partner, Maverick Carter, noted that James and his business group approach these deals as "partnerships.
When we started to think of our sponsorship buy email list deals as partnerships, that's when it started to click for me," James told Carter in 2015. The shift in approach reflected a growing preference for business deals that made James more intimate. involved in the success of certain projects, either as an investor or in other roles. And it transformed James from a corporate marketing vehicle into a fully-fledged business venture which, through sound decision-making and a shrewd long-term strategy, made James' brand history one of the sport's most valuable assets.