Bay-beri – Newspaper Kommersant No. 151 (7352) dated 08/19/2022

One of the best players in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA), LeBron James, who has been playing for the Los Angeles Lakers for the last four seasons, has agreed with the club to extend his contract. Under the terms of the new two-year deal, which includes an option to extend for another season, James will receive $97.1 million, which will allow the American forward to become a basketball player with a record earnings of $532 million.

The fact that the brightest star of the NBA LeBron James extended the agreement with the Lakers, the American TV channel ESPN said the player’s agent Rich Paul. The new contract, worth $97.1 million, runs for two seasons and includes a so-called player option. She will allow James, if he wants to, to stay at the California club for another year after the agreement expires.

James’s salary for the season will be about $48 million. Only one player in the NBA receives more than him – Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry. Last summer, he signed a four-year deal under which earns $52.2 million annually.

If we talk about other major North American leagues – baseball (MLB) and football (NFL), then compete with LeBron James in this indicator maybe only one athlete is the famous quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who plays for the Kansas Chiefs of the NFL. In 2020, he signed a unique ten-year contract with his team, according to which he is entitled to $ 0.503 billion, that is, more than $ 50 million per season.

But LeBron James now holds another NBA record. The new deal turned him into the basketball player with the highest total earnings of $532 million.

Previously this status possessed Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant, who managed to make $ 508 million in his entire career in the NBA.

It is noteworthy that the salary in the clubs of the league brought LeBron James, who is the only current billionaire player in the NBA, only a third of his fortune. Estimated Forbes, he received more than $900 million from advertising fees and investment income. Of these, $ 300 million was generated by SpringHill, which James founded in 2020 with the American entrepreneur Maverick Carter and which specializes in the production of television and film products. Another $ 90 million was brought to him by shares in the sports holding Fenway Sports Group, which owns the football Liverpool, the baseball Boston Red Sox, and the hockey Pittsburgh Penguins.

However, the requirements of LeBron James were not limited to a high salary.

Four-time NBA champion, clarifies The Athleticin an interview with the club’s management at the signing of the contract, he named several conditions that are no longer related to finances.

So, James asked the Lakers to strengthen the roster, and more specifically, to sign Brooklyn Nets point guard and part-time his former Cleveland Cavaliers partner Kyrie Irving.

With the figure of Irving, LeBron James, it seems, connects his main hopes for overcoming the crisis in which the Los Angeles Lakers have been for several years. In the spring, the 17-time basketball league champion, who spent the season in a catastrophic way (for 79 matches – 31 wins), did not reach the playoffs of the championship. A year before, the Californians broke through there, but could not overcome the starting stage.

The Lakers’ new agreement with LeBron James, meanwhile, has caused controversy among experts. There are no questions about his performance: last season, the forward scored an average of 30.3 points in 56 games, made 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists. He also scored a unique achievement, having managed to cover three frontiers – score 10 thousand points, make 10 thousand rebounds and 10 thousand assists. If James does not miss matches due to injuries and scores at least 27 goals per game, then in January he will break the record of the legendary sniper Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he has 38,387 points in the regular season during his career).

But the forward’s age can be embarrassing: now he is 37 years old, and in the 2024/25 season, James, if he uses the “player option”, will be 40 years old at all. The American is also highly injury-prone: over the past three years, he has averaged 52 court appearances per season, missing 30 games a year. According to Los Angeles TimesIf the Lakers had not renewed James, they could have bought younger players and restructured the roster with the money saved. But instead of starting the hard work of returning to greatness, the Lakers, clinging to an aging star, agreed to be the attraction again.

Ekaterina Remizova