LeBron, Inc. - The Making of a Billion-Dollar Athlete
the book
This is for LeBron completionists if you're already familiar with him. I've read (and written) a bit about LeBron so not much of this was news to me.
It does deliver an insight into what athletes of this level are - they are businesses and what LeBron has realised and catalysed is a movement from athletes as employees to athletes as businesses. The book expands on the details of some of his business manoeuvrings.
You could argue this has always happened and there are some precedents that he's learned from, namely Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal. I'd say that LeBron has learned from those figures and moved along the conversaiton.
The reason I find this discussion interesting is partly due to my athletic background and my complete failure to leverage it in professional terms but mostly because athletes are generally indicative of wider societal trends. With social broadcasting tools and the ability to speak directly to fans, athletes are circumventing traditional outlets and are carving out their own spaces and endeavours far beyond the realm of sporting competition. Athletes have an audience hungry for their expression and they’re taking advantage in more varied ways.
I'd then argue that this is a wider societal trend that athletes are merely the first example of.
Athletes are generally a testing ground for consumer products and goods that later become mainstream. Gym culture, athleisure, wellness, yogas and self-actualisation are all realms that were explored first by professional athletes and were then made widely available later. Athletics is the pursuit of self-optimisaiton and this pursuit has become mainstream, even outside of sporting activities.
The next is personal branding and 'You Inc'. As freelancing and remote work become more prevalent, everyone becomes a brand and has to market themselves. It's no coincidence that athletes are becoming bigger 'characters' as their opportunities expand beyond their line of work and this will happen for everyone as high skilled gig work becomes more prevalent.
LeBron's most infamous commercial misstep was 'The Decision' - a special feature that was basically a slightly awkward countdown to him announcing he was joining the Miami Heat. Decried at the time, think now how it's not only common for athletes to do similar when they join new teams but how often we do this ourselves, on social media or recording videos for LinkedIn when we move on from a role or get a new job.
All in all, the book is a good walk though his endeavours in detail but to join the dots, you need a wider appreciation of sport, the marketing of its stars and the trends in terms of influencer marketing that the book doesn't necessarily spell out for you.
A Could Read
ideas and quotes
creating your own environment
At its core, a professional basketball team isn’t all that different from an average high school squad.
LeBron as trying to recreate his high school squad vibe wherever he is. Watch his film More Than A Game to see how much he values this sense of brotherhood and bond. His business associates and managers are guys that have come up with him and he values longterm friendships over expertise.
There’s a fascinating article about Neymar which details how he now has an entourage of about 30 people around him most of the time. Guys of this level of fame are rightly wary of newcomers and need to curate their immediate surroundings due to not being able to exist in public areas. LeBron and Neymar still have their early friends around them.
vision
There’s also LeBron’s feel for the game. He’s a wonderful passer, a master of creating angles and delivering to teammates. He’s left-handed but plays basketball right-handed, which gives him a measure of ambidexterity that few players can match.
What makes him unusual is his vision, playmaker skill and mindset in a forward's body. The point being made is that his vision extends beyond the court, considering other commercial avenues and his own story when he makes decisions, all of which makes him unusual among athletes.
owner mindset
For LeBron, not getting the same deal wasn’t about jealousy—50 Cent later filed for bankruptcy—it was a learning experience. At the time, as a teenager, LeBron enjoyed the idea of being paid millions to be the voice of something.
The idea of being a spokesman was cool to a young guy. When you grow up with brands, it’s fun to consider yourself a representative but LeBron was to move beyond this mindset.
What happened with VitaminWater and 50 Cent would have been an interesting case study for LeBron even if the company hadn’t approached him with an offer. It was a lesson about the difference between being an employee and being an owner in a brand. It showed that taking a calculated risk on a young company could pay off, especially if that company was so desperate to attach itself to LeBron’s brand power that it was willing to give up potentially valuable ownership shares.
Turning down Vitamin Water and missing out on a big windfall taught him the value of equity in deals. Where athletes previously hankered after being spokespeople for brands, and LeBron still does this of course, LeBron saw the asymmetric opportunities available to him by virtue of his influence. This instance was pre-influencer economy but now, with the extreme success of figures like Kylie Jenner, you can see the value of having a preexisting audience to sell things to. Now that you can talk to this audience directly, you can take greater ownership of what you’re selling to maximise your profit.
In short, LeBron moved to partnership thinking - looking for owner seats rather than being an employee.
By this point, two years into their experiment with LRMR, LeBron and Carter were very focused on making partnership deals where they had partial control and partial ownership in projects. That is exactly what Belman was hoping to get.
It was all about personal relationships, long-term thinking, and leveraging value.
“For me, I try to never make any of my decisions about what is the most money,” LeBron said. “I think about building things. That’s what we’ve been doing, building.”
more than an athlete
LeBron is unusual in being outspoken on social issues. Michael Jordan was famously apolitical while LeBron has taken a stand on several occasions. He’s felt more and more comfortable to speak up and has made addressing blackness and inequality a part of his vision and his brand.
In 2012, with Trayvon Martin on his mind, LeBron left the sidelines for good on political matters. “For me I think it’s just a sign of growth,” he said about the decision in an interview several years later. “I don’t know if this was the moment that sparked something for me to speak up on social issues. What I like to talk about, I have to be educated about issues. I think it all starts from an individual being comfortable in their own skin and knowing who they are.”
He began using the power of his name in the charitable sector too - this has led to creating a school.
But what sent the foundation to the next level was LeBron applying what he learned by working business deals. It’s one thing to make a straight transaction; it’s another to leverage name and fame. If LeBron could use businesses’ desire to be attached to him to drive a favorable equity deal or make a movie, was there a way he could use this from a charity perspective? It wasn’t just in the private sector that companies wanted to be attached to LeBron’s name.
RELATED
1 Name Recognition - At what point does LeBron transcend the competition he plays in? The NBA has so much cultural capital tied up in the big name franchises but by creating a suite of businesses and a media company, LeBron has become a 1 name athlete. This links to Naval Ravikant’s idea of the risky personal brand:
“Embrace accountability and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.”
At some point you may even become a Sovereign Individual - LeBron certainly is in at least a basketball context.
Athletes are Brands Too - this idea already exists - LeBron Inc. is just a great expression of it.
High Flying Bird - Steven Soderbergh film, shot on an iPhone and released on Netflix, explores the power of the athletic personal brand and the racial inequality that exists in sport due to owner/employee division. NBA players are the most powerful personal brands, there are fewer of them on court, they’re most recognisable and are increasingly celebrities away from the court. They probably have more power over the league than the league has over them.