LeBron is really pushing the idea he should own the Vegas expansion.

[Kblaze8855]

I’ve been hearing reports for a year or two that he’s the dream owner and now he’s on Twitter linking to reports talking about it.

He’s just rich enough to be more than just a front facing guy most athletes and celebs have been. He doesn’t have enough to put up 50% of the likely $3 billion expansion fee but he’s got enough he could be the top investor in a group that I bet would end up including Jay Z, Diddy, and a few others. I know Phil Knight wants an NBA team, but he’s shooting for the Blazers since he basically owns Oregon.

Bron definitely has enough money and friends with money to pull a group together. They would probably need public money to fund an arena unless Dolan lets them use the Sphere(which I doubt).

The league will find a way to get him listed as an owner. Seattle and Vegas are too obvious. Then they move Memphis, New Orleans, or Minnesota to the East and keep it moving.

this is why it’s funny to me sometimes when people wonder how some of the top players are so powerful and the league just does what they say. In a few years, several of the top players will literally be Adam Silvers boss with voting power on his bonus and him keeping his job.

The top stars today retire with as much career earnings as the previous generation of owners had. And they just had the CBA changed so they could invest in sports teams. Several of them are out to build equity for long-term moves. In 20 years, I’m thinking LeBron(for sure), Curry, and KD might all be either primary or large minority owners.

Silver has been keeping that knee oiled like the tin man so he can bend it to his new overlords in the years to come. I bet he doesn’t even raise his voice in meetings.

[Kblaze8855]

I was wrong he wasn’t linking to articles…he was posting clips of his own interview talking about it…

https://www.hostpic.org/images/2310110222310287.jpeg

[FultzNationRISE]

We’ll see what happens ;)

[8Ball]

He's speaking it into existence.

[8Ball]

I’ve been hearing reports for a year or two that he’s the dream owner and now he’s on Twitter linking to reports talking about it.

He’s just rich enough to be more than just a front facing guy most athletes and celebs have been. He doesn’t have enough to put up 50% of the likely $3 billion expansion fee but he’s got enough he could be the top investor in a group that I bet would end up including Jay Z, Diddy, and a few others. I know Phil Knight wants an NBA team, but he’s shooting for the Blazers since he basically owns Oregon.

Bron definitely has enough money and friends with money to pull a group together. They would probably need public money to fund an arena unless Dolan lets them use the Sphere(which I doubt).

The league will find a way to get him listed as an owner. Seattle and Vegas are too obvious. Then they move Memphis, New Orleans, or Minnesota to the East and keep it moving.

this is why it’s funny to me sometimes when people wonder how some of the top players are so powerful and the league just does what they say. In a few years, several of the top players will literally be Adam Silvers boss with voting power on his bonus and him keeping his job.

The top stars today retire with as much career earnings as the previous generation of owners head. And they just had the CBA changed so they could invest in sports teams. Several of them are out to build equity for long-term moves. In 20 years, I’m thinking LeBron(for sure), Curry, and KD might all be either primary or large minority owners.

Silver has been keeping that knee oiled like the tin man so he can bend it to his new overlords in the years to come. I bet he doesn’t even raise his voice in meetings.


Vegas will get it because of all the casinos involved next to the arena and is a bigger money maker. Even though Seattle is better for the league long term.

[Kblaze8855]

They won’t add one. It will be two at a time. Both Vegas and Seattle are ready and have people down to pay. When you add two expansion teams, the 30 existing owners literally split up five or $6 billion of straight cash among them. That’s a $200 million liquid payday and a lot of owners are not as liquid rich as people think. They won’t add one team when they can add two.

I won’t be surprised if they get the old Starbucks CEO, who used to own it to on the new expansion. He’s been apologizing for years for selling it to the guy who moved it to Oklahoma.

[highwhey]

They won’t add one. It will be two at a time. Both Vegas and Seattle are ready and have people down to pay. When you add two expansion teams, the 30 existing owners literally split up five or $6 billion of straight cash among them. That’s a $200 million liquid payday and a lot of owners are not as liquid rich as people think. They won’t add one team when they can add two.

I won’t be surprised if they get the old Starbucks CEO, who used to own it to on the new expansion. He’s been apologizing for years for selling it to the guy who moved it to Oklahoma.

does the league need to be watered down with 30 more players?

[Kblaze8855]

There won’t be a noticeable difference because the pace and style of play makes it pretty easy to produce people who statistically will force you to call them stars.

[Real Men Wear Green]

In the spirit of thread derailment: really expensive assets like an NBA team are often bought by really rich people.... without using their own money. The prime example that I've been learning a little about: Elon Musk borrowed the money to buy Twitter. It's an awful investment, costing some 44 billion dollars, but when it fails to pay off the banks he borrowed from will just sell the debt to someone else. Musk himself could even be the buyer. So all the banks that contributed to the purchase will be out billions of dollars. The next time we have a government bank bailout it would be worth doing the math on what percentage of that bailout was giving away money to the old owners of Twitter to cover up Musk stupid/smart awful business move that is fine because he doesn't really have to pay the consequences.

To maybe get back to the subject of this thread, is James rich enough to get banks to hand him 5 billion dollars for him to give to the current NBA owners that there is a slight chance he could have a hard time repaying without leaning on his own wealth or other business ventures? With the tv deals there is no way an NBA team could be a Twitter-bad investment but there is a magic number for team cost that could make it not as great to own a team as it should be.

[Kblaze8855]

The double expansion draft is going to be interesting too. Imagine all the hurt feelings from guys who get left exposed by the teams who don’t wanna pay the rest of their contract.

three years from now, the Warriors won’t protect Draymond Green will they?

The expansion team is going to have something like a 130 or $140 million salary floor they have to reach so they’re going to take some peoples big contracts just for the **** of it and the wink wink deals to get later compensation. LeBron’s first year as owner might have three $40 million bums.

teams can only protect eight players. It’s a recipe for hurt feelings and drama.

[highwhey]

The double expansion draft is going to be interesting too. Imagine all the hurt feelings from guys who get left exposed by the teams who don’t wanna pay the rest of their contract.

three years from now, the Warriors won’t protect Draymond Green will they?

The expansion team is going to have something like a 130 or $140 million salary floor they have to reach so they’re going to take some peoples big contracts just for the **** of it and the wink wink deals to get later compensation. LeBron’s first year as owner might have three $40 million bums.

teams can only protect eight players. It’s a recipe for hurt feelings and drama.

i forgot about this. would be a good way to get rid of bradley beal.

[Real Men Wear Green]

It might piss Green off of he's exposed to the draft but if you are running one of the new teams why would you want to pay Green 30 mil or whatever stupid number he's going to be getting paid? I'd leave him be.

[highwhey]

In the spirit of thread derailment: really expensive assets like an NBA team are often bought by really rich people.... without using their own money. The prime example that I've been learning a little about: Elon Musk borrowed the money to buy Twitter. It's an awful investment, costing some 44 billion dollars, but when it fails to pay off the banks he borrowed from will just sell the debt to someone else. Musk himself could even be the buyer. So all the banks that contributed to the purchase will be out billions of dollars. The next time we have a government bank bailout it would be worth doing the math on what percentage of that bailout was giving away money to the old owners of Twitter to cover up Musk stupid/smart awful business move that is fine because he doesn't really have to pay the consequences.

To maybe get back to the subject of this thread, is James rich enough to get banks to hand him 5 billion dollars for him to give to the current NBA owners that there is a slight chance he could have a hard time repaying without leaning on his own wealth or other business ventures? With the tv deals there is no way an NBA team could be a Twitter-bad investment but there is a magic number for team cost that could make it not as great to own a team as it should be.

that goes for pretty much anything. rich investors don't fund their own developments. they use banks. i know a developer group with about 15 current condo towers being built around the country att the same time, the bank just stopped funding one of them and now this 100 million dollar tower is half built and at a complete standstill bc the bank decided they're not giving them anymore money. the solution? the developers will sell off the tower to someone else and clean their hands, no personal loss to them. it's just something they gotta get rid off. honestly, it's the smartest thing to do...use the banks money and have them assume the risk, use the corporate veil to protect your own assets and money.

[Kblaze8855]

In the spirit of thread derailment: really expensive assets like an NBA team are often bought by really rich people.... without using their own money. The prime example that I've been learning a little about: Elon Musk borrowed the money to buy Twitter. It's an awful investment, costing some 44 billion dollars, but when it fails to pay off the banks he borrowed from will just sell the debt to someone else. Musk himself could even be the buyer. So all the banks that contributed to the purchase will be out billions of dollars. The next time we have a government bank bailout it would be worth doing the math on what percentage of that bailout was giving away money to the old owners of Twitter to cover up Musk stupid/smart awful business move that is fine because he doesn't really have to pay the consequences.

To maybe get back to the subject of this thread, is James rich enough to get banks to hand him 5 billion dollars for him to give to the current NBA owners that there is a slight chance he could have a hard time repaying without leaning on his own wealth or other business ventures? With the tv deals there is no way an NBA team could be a Twitter-bad investment but there is a magic number for team cost that could make it not as great to own a team as it should be.


he won’t have to be. I would bet a significant sum of money that Jay-Z gets involved. LeBron legitimately has two or three billionaire associates. And some ownership groups are huge. The Celtics have at least 14 owners who went in to form the company that bought them.

An awful lot of people have a couple hundred million they can spare for this kind of thing and LeBron just makes sense to be the controlling Owner if he wants to put a little more up.

Watch…Lebron, Jay Z, and Rihanna are gonna be on the podium when it’s announced with like 12 unknown white guys putting in a hundred million or two from the shadows. Three world famous entertainer billionaires are a good public facing front for a new Vegas team.

[8Ball]

No expansion team is worth $5B. It will probably be half of that and nobody buys teams alone unless they have Balmer money.

LeBron can easily put together a group of wealthy billionaires to fund a large part of the purchase.



Bran + Jay Z + some wealthy white dudes.

[FultzNationRISE]

Vegas and Lebron is an interesting dynamic.

Vegas as a city is hugely reliant on tourism, much of it international. Now, as deeply as I respect Lebron’s phenomenal wokeness, and Jay-Z’s too, the question has to be asked… Will their brand of leadership and political influence be a good thing for Vegas as a city? I mean I certainly believe so. Vegas could become the the next Akron Ohio, which would be awesome. I think a big billboard acknowledging Lebron and Jay-Z as the destination’s civic leaders will do wonders for international appeal, given the kinds of society they're known to advocate for.

Problem is, I dont know if other people in the city will see it the same way I do. Will they think Lebron’s public profile and political image make Vegas more appealing as a place to visit, or less? He’s spoken out very bravely and intelligently about the evil of police officers. Which I personally love him for. But I dont know how well thats received in other quarters.

Time will tell.

[Kblaze8855]

No expansion team is worth $5B. It will probably be half of that and nobody buys teams alone unless they have Balmer money.

LeBron can easily put together a group of wealthy billionaires to fund a large part of the purchase.



Bran + Jay Z + some wealthy white dudes.

Silver kind of laughed off suggestions of an expansion fee of 2.5 billion a few years ago for being too low before the suns sold for 4. I wouldn’t doubt if they try to charge a new group 3.5-4 to join the club.

[Real Men Wear Green]

No expansion team is worth $5B. It will probably be half of that and nobody buys teams alone unless they have Balmer money.

LeBron can easily put together a group of wealthy billionaires to fund a large part of the purchase.



Bran + Jay Z + some wealthy white dudes.

The Hornets just got sold for 3 billion. Vegas is easily a much more valuable market, the NBA has huge tv contracts and the other owners are going to want to make a much money off the new owners as possible so their will absolutely be a bidding competition.

[GimmeThat]

based on the contracts that some of the NBA owners are handing out, easily. for how often Lebron appears on media, he doesn't come off as socially awkward.

[Axe]

The Hornets just got sold for 3 billion. Vegas is easily a much more valuable market, the NBA has huge tv contracts and the other owners are going to want to make a much money off the new owners as possible so their will absolutely be a bidding competition.
And nothing's happened significant to that sorry franchise in the last ten years. Didn't even get past the first round of the p/s in that time frame lmao.

[Kblaze8855]

based on the contracts that some of the NBA owners are handing out, easily. for how often Lebron appears on media, he doesn't come off as socially awkward.

yeah, LeBron is about 10 times richer than the guy who owned the Hornets when he was drafted is now.

Jaylen Brown’s current contract is for $18 million more than the 76ers were purchased for in just 2011. Not 1991. 2011. That is how much revenue the streaming age and international markets have added to the league.

[AirBonner]

It’s always funny people thinking players have leverage on a guy like Silver. He’s 61 years old and worth 50million. He doesn’t need a job or to work

[Kblaze8855]

It’s always funny people thinking players have leverage on a guy like Silver. He’s 61 years old and worth 50million. He doesn’t need a job or to work

if you think middle-aged rich professional people don’t care about things like bonus money, and keeping positions of power I would suggest you get to know a few more. Not needing the money or the power doesn’t keep them from lusting after it and seeing it’s denial as great disrespect.

Guys like that don’t want to stop.

[AirBonner]

if you think middle-aged rich professional people don’t care about things like bonus money, and keeping positions of power I would suggest you get to know a few more. Not needing the money or the power doesn’t keep them from lusting after it and seeing it’s denial as great disrespect.

Guys like that don’t want to stop.

Perhaps that’s true but I doubt he lives a lavish lifestyle and he’s 20 years past middle age

[GimmeThat]

It’s always funny people thinking players have leverage on a guy like Silver. He’s 61 years old and worth 50million. He doesn’t need a job or to work

Silver in the role of front office will take you to the 1st round, and that's about it. Stern will help you sniff the conference final

[Kblaze8855]

Perhaps that’s true but I doubt he lives a lavish lifestyle and he’s 20 years past middle age

Middle aged is like 40-60. He’s in his prime as a powerful businessman. You don’t tend to be that in your 30s. It’s an older persons game you play after years of networking. In the world they live 38 year olds are kids.

[highwhey]

It’s always funny people thinking players have leverage on a guy like Silver. He’s 61 years old and worth 50million. He doesn’t need a job or to work

that 50 million is bc of players like Bron and KD...they absolutely have influence over Silver. especially LeBron because he owns an agency that represents like 7% of current NBA players and even more G-league/overseas talent that isn't eligible for the draft yet.

[eliteballer]

Vegas and Lebron is an interesting dynamic.

Vegas as a city is hugely reliant on tourism, much of it international. Now, as deeply as I respect Lebron’s phenomenal wokeness, and Jay-Z’s too, the question has to be asked… Will their brand of leadership and political influence be a good thing for Vegas as a city? I mean I certainly believe so. Vegas could become the the next Akron Ohio, which would be awesome. I think a big billboard acknowledging Lebron and Jay-Z as the destination’s civic leaders will do wonders for international appeal, given the kinds of society they're known to advocate for.

Problem is, I dont know if other people in the city will see it the same way I do. Will they think Lebron’s public profile and political image make Vegas more appealing as a place to visit, or less? He’s spoken out very bravely and intelligently about the evil of police officers. Which I personally love him for. But I dont know how well thats received in other quarters.

Time will tell.

Rampant PED usage as well, he’d fit right in.

[Kblaze8855]

Shaq also wants it:



LeBron James has talked (https://fos.cmail20.com/t/t-l-vsltll-jiujddidlu-h/) so much (https://fos.cmail20.com/t/t-l-vsltll-jiujddidlu-k/) over the last year about his desire to own an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas that it almost feels like a foregone conclusion.
Not so fast, says fellow basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal.
O’Neal, who also starred for the Los Angeles Lakers and is now a fixture on TNT’s “Inside The NBA,” told (https://fos.cmail20.com/t/t-l-vsltll-jiujddidlu-u/) The Messenger he’s also keenly eyeing the fast-growing Nevada sports market — and has no intention of partnering with James.

“I would like to have my own group,” O’Neal said. “I know Vegas hasn’t been awarded an NBA team yet, but if they ever get to a point where they are awarded a team, I would like to be a part of that. I don’t want to partner up with nobody. I want it all for myself.”
Major facility developer Oak View Group is including an NBA arena as a central element of aplanned (https://fos.cmail20.com/t/t-l-vsltll-jiujddidlu-b/) $10 billion entertainment district in Las Vegas that would also include a hotel and gaming facilities.

Like James, O’Neal has been an active (https://fos.cmail20.com/t/t-l-vsltll-jiujddidlu-n/) investor and businessman, perhaps most notably through his involvement in several national restaurant chains. O’Neal previously held an equity stake in the Sacramento Kings, which he sold early last year, telling (https://fos.cmail20.com/t/t-l-vsltll-jiujddidlu-p/) fans, “Till we meet again.”
James’ wide-ranging and growing investment portfolio is highlighted by an equity stake in Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Liverpool FC parent Fenway Sports Group.