Professional basketball and lucrative product endorsements have made LeBron James wealthy. But that doesn’t mean the newly crowned NBA champion isn’t, um, cavalier about his spending habits.
LeBron’s former teammate Dwyane Wade was a guest co-host on Live With Kelly Thursday morning and during a behind-the-scenes segment which included Wade’s wife Gabrielle Union, Kelly Ripa asked the couple who the cheapest NBA player was among friends they’ve vacationed with.
Wade didn’t even hesitate in outing his friend. “Oh, LeBron,” he told Ripa. Check out the segment, which was posted to the show’s Instagram page:
“This is no joke. [imitating LeBron] ‘I’m gonna send this text before I leave the boat because there ain’t gonna be no Wi-Fi, probably,'” Wade elaborated to Ripa. “It’s amazing. And I’m like, ‘We just rented a yacht. You flew private here.'”
At least LeBron is a good tipper, if not an overly generous one, according to Union. But not willing to pay for roaming charges? Hey, none of us like to pay those. The wireless carriers stick it to the consumer with those data overages, man. Sometimes, however, you have to make a call, regardless of where you are and pay those charges. And we don’t even have endorsement deals with Nike reportedly worth $1 billion.
(Personal note: Do not let children watch cartoons on your phone or tablet when you’re driving around. We’re guessing that LeBron probably takes the mobile devices away from everyone on a trip. Those data charges get very expensive.)
Hey, LeBron respects the value of a dollar. Perhaps we shouldn’t mock that, especially when there are plenty of horror stories about professional athletes who squandered the fortunes they earned during their playing days. LeBron is not going to be a cautionary tale. Although, really, it’s kind of surprising the guy doesn’t just own his own wireless carrier, right? I mean, if great wealth should be able to buy you something, it should be cellular service no matter where you go in this world.
But really, we shouldn’t be surprised that LeBron doesn’t like paying when he doesn’t have to. He stuck Bill Hader with the check in Trainwreck, and after arguing that they should split the bill for lunch.
Forgetting the wallet is always a great trick for getting out of paying for lunch. Not that we would know. More often than not, we end up in Hader’s position. And we’re not even making sports doctor money!
