The NBA’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron James, shocked the NBA world when he announced that he’d be signing with the Philadelphia 76ers for his 24th season in the league. Before signing with the Sixers, James spent eight seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.
However, before James signed his initial $154 million contract to sign with the Lakers in 2018, he’d already made an even larger financial deal, according to Bloomberg. Months before his deal with Los Angeles, “a limited liability company (James) controls borrowed almost $300 million from a pair of Midwestern life insurers advised by an arm of Guggenheim Partners.”
The bonds, due in 2049, were set up to give James immediate liquidity and backed by a stream of future revenue tied to his off-court earnings, such as his lucrative sponsorship deals.
James’ loans began prior to Dodgers owner Mark Walter beginning his acquisition of the Lakers, which he recently relinquished in a $12.5 billion deal with Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, amid a federal investigation into his financial empire. It’s worth noting that, per Bloomberg, James’ loans have nothing to do with the ongoing federal probe.
The “transactions were a securitization done by Mr. James with his personal, non-NBA salary, assets, and income, which is a very common financial structure for an individual with this level of earnings and assets,” a spokesperson for James told Bloomberg.
The spokesperson added that the loans, made with North American Company for Life and Health Insurance and Midland National Life Insurance Co., were “independently credit rated by a third party and the 2022 transaction was fully approved by NBA.”
For over a decade, Walter has combined money from insurers with investments in sports. His 2012 acquisition of the Los Angeles Dodgers with business partners elied heavily on the insurance industry. His recent sale of the Lakers was done in part to “unwind more than $20 billion of loans on his insurers’ books that should have been marked as funding affiliated businesses, but weren’t.”
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.