Lebron James talks about being financially "exploited" while in high school

[STATUTORY]

"Freshman year to my sophomore year they moved our home games to the [University of Akron]... My first game of my sophomore year was at the University of Akron and there like 6,000 people... and they sell season tickets," LeBron said

"His senior year they actually put the games on pay-per-view," Carter said. "You could watch LeBron James games anywhere in the state if you paid like ten bucks."



https://www.complex.com/sports/2019/04/lebron-james-on-being-financially-exploited-as-a-high-school-star

[tontoz]

Financially exploited? Nonsense. It was free advertising.

He signed a $90 million shoe deal before he played a NBA game. The exposure he got in high school is a big reason for that.

[stalkerforlife]

White man bad.

Black excellence good.

[FKAri]

Financially exploited? Nonsense. It was free advertising.

He signed a $90 million shoe deal before he played a NBA game. The exposure he got in high school is a big reason for that.
It's like the NCAA athlete argument. Is Zion getting free advertising or being exploited? It can be both.

[STATUTORY]

Financially exploited? Nonsense. It was free advertising.

He signed a $90 million shoe deal before he played a NBA game. The exposure he got in high school is a big reason for that.

it's sad he doesn't recognize this

[Real Men Wear Green]

This isn't some kind of tragedy but of course he was exploited. He might have been the biggest star in basketball as a high school senior. That wouldn't have been possible if he had nowhere to play but he was going to be a major start no matter where he played. If high schools were allowed to directly pay players he would have created a bidding war.

[sdot_thadon]

He's not wrong, but there's no way he was getting a cut of any of that legally. I can say I haven't ever heard of PPV for highschool games though. That's insane.

[SamuraiSWISH]

it's sad he doesn't recognize this
Is it really? He

[bullettooth]

Poor LeBron, terrible ****in luck getting exploited with only 87 million dollars as a kid.

[SamuraiSWISH]

Poor LeBron, terrible ****in luck getting exploited with only 87 million dollars as a kid.
And his mom was giving out free Hummers errr getting free Hummers

[Ben Simmons 25]

This isn't some kind of tragedy but of course he was exploited. He might have been the biggest star in basketball as a high school senior. That wouldn't have been possible if he had nowhere to play but he was going to be a major start no matter where he played. If high schools were allowed to directly pay players he would have created a bidding war.

In 2002 he was definitely not a bigger basketball star than Kobe, Shaq, Jordan and others. He wasn’t even the biggest star upon playing his first season. Utter hyperbole.

[Real Men Wear Green]

[quote=Ben Simmons 25]In 2002 he was definitely not a bigger basketball star than Kobe, Shaq, Jordan and others. He wasn

[SamuraiSWISH]

Hewasn't the best player but Nike gave him a contract worth more than twice what they gave Bryant. ESPN broadcast 2 of his HS games. He was a huge star. Do your homework.
Easily.

In 2002 we were both juniors he was probably hmm

1) Wizards Jordan
2) Kobe / Iverson / Shaq
3) McGrady / Duncan / Kidd
4) LeBron

Most popular or talked about basketball player in the entire world.

In 2003 our senior years of high school, he was actually by that point individually the most talked about player including professionals in all of the country.

Including Jordan in his final season. And that’s with Kobe and McGrady battling it out with historic seasons.

[Ben Simmons 25]

Hewasn't the best player but Nike gave him a contract worth more than twice what they gave Bryant. ESPN broadcast 2 of his HS games. He was a huge star. Do your homework.

I never said he wasn’t a huge star. He was.

Do my homework? I lived through it and watched some of those ESPN games.

You said he might have been the BIGGEST star.

That’s a complete falsehood and an extremely inaccurate representation of reality.

And before you say hurr durr he might have been 4th... well that’s true but the difference in scale for the purposes of this conversation... between being the most famous and being the fourth most famous... is quite significant. Monumentally large gap, in fact.

As I said... hyperbole. You’re wrong again.

[bison]

A worker is entitled to the value he creates. It’s exploitation if your work is making money for others but not yourself. Doesn’t matter if it’s sports, factory work, programming, etc. doesn’t matter if it’s lebron, a miner, your grandma etc.

[Real Men Wear Green]

No, he really did get a 87 million dollar contract from Nike, who that same year handed Kobe Bryant 40. Do your homework. The size of the endorsement deals a player gets is one of the best measures of how big a star they are. You think you have a point with making. You don't. Your obsession with me is pathetic.

[Ben Simmons 25]

No, he really did get a 87 million dollar contract from Nike, who that same year handed Kobe Bryant 40. Do your homework. The size of the endorsement deals a player gets is one of the best measures of how big a star they are. You think you have a point with making. You don't. Your obsession with me is pathetic.

Wrong again. So wrong.

[scuzzy]

Wish we could see the incentives in these contracts

I remember older Maj had something like every time he dunked Nike cut him an extra $5k bonus on top

[kennethgriffen]

does lebron know they do this with every college player too

[kennethgriffen]

No, he really did get a 87 million dollar contract from Nike, who that same year handed Kobe Bryant 40. Do your homework. The size of the endorsement deals a player gets is one of the best measures of how big a star they are. You think you have a point with making. You don't. Your obsession with me is pathetic.


endorsement deals for rookies are based on predicting how marketable a guy will be in the future when he hits his prime. they were going based on hype. kobe was a bigger star and getting the most allstar votes in 2003, then even when vince and yao got more kobe obviously got more than lebron in 2004 because lebron didn't make the allstar game. then in 2005 kobe got 1,815,952 to lebrons 1,661,204. then in 2006 kobe got G Kobe Bryant 2,271,631 to lebrons 2,207,697.

only by 2007 did lebron finally surpass kobe in popularity and it was mainly due to the public trade demands and problems kobe was going through personally



but the biggest reason for lebron getting a way bigger endorsement deal was because of kobes rape allegations that cost him his mcdonalds, spaulding, sprite deals and a few others. he was the most popular but not market friendly.

i have no doubt this is why they snubbed him for mvps and went with steve nash... they couldn't give it to wade playing with shaq or lebron on dog shit teams. they saw kobe lighting up the nba in a historic james harden/westbrook fashion and buried his ass by using a "makes teammates worse" agenda

even though kwame and smush were starters on a playoff squad with him and out of the league without him... go figure

[90sgoat]

I can't wait until this narcissistic, racist moron is out of the league.

[And1AllDay]

[QUOTE=Ben Simmons 25]I never said he wasn

[sdot_thadon]

Kenny, Kobe signed with Nike before the rape allegations came to light as far as i can remember. So i don't think it had anything to do with the contract amount. If anything who signs a guy with a rape case ongoing to a 40 million dollar deal? Endorsement partners were trying to distance themselves at that point.

[SamuraiSWISH]

Kenny, Kobe signed with Nike before the rape allegations came to light as far as i can remember. So i don't think it had anything to do with the contract amount. If anything who signs a guy with a rape case ongoing to a 40 million dollar deal? Endorsement partners were trying to distance themselves at that point.
He signed it right before the rape allegations. It literally had nothing to do with it. Nike was handcuffed for the next two almost three years to market him with his own signature shoe because of it. But they stuck behind him either way. They could

[Ben Simmons 25]

He signed it right before the rape allegations. It literally had nothing to do with it. Nike was handcuffed for the next two almost three years to market him with his own signature shoe because of it. But they stuck behind him either way. They could’ve easily dropped him right then.

Yeah, kenny's wrong about the fact that the rape charges had anything to do with it... at least I think so... I'm guessing you're right about the timeline, don't care to check...

But he is absolutely dead on balls accurate that LeBron got that deal based on projected career / potential... he didn't get that deal because he was already the most famous basketball player on the planet back in 2002 and 2003... because he wasn't. That's just extremely erroneous and I have a hard time believing that anyone who lived through that time frame would actually believe such a thing... but nevertheless... here we are... a guy with ****ing moderation privileges believes it... speaks volumes about why the forum is the way it is, tbh.

Michael Jordan was a month removed from playing in the NBA when LeBron inked that deal. It's an asinine statement. Even if you want to get into semantics and say that no longer made Jordan a player, you've still got to convince me that Shaq and Kobe were less famous than LeBron in May of 2003... that's even without getting into the lesser stars than those two guys. It's just an utter bullshit take and one of the dumbest things I've ever read.

[Ben Simmons 25]

Also... for the record... Michael Jordan received ~$480 million in compensation from Nike from 2002-2012. That's ~44-48 million a year, for the record... which absolutely dwarf's LeBron's deal.

[SamuraiSWISH]

Also... for the record... Michael Jordan received ~$480 million in compensation from Nike from 2002-2012. That's ~44-48 million a year, for the record... which absolutely dwarf's LeBron's deal.
Because Michael Jordan is Nike. They wouldn

[Ben Simmons 25]

[QUOTE=SamuraiSWISH]Because Michael Jordan is Nike. They wouldn

[Real14]

That's why that bitch was always pampered. That's why I dont respect him to be top 10 cuz he had everything handed to him on a mutha f.ucking silver platter while failing miserably.