LeBron Took A Pay Cut For The 76ers—Here’s Why He Can Afford It
LeBron James on Friday signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers to extend his historically long NBA career, a sizable pay cut for James, whose earnings and investments on and off the court have cemented his billionaire status for years.
James signed an $8 million deal with a player option, allowing him to extend his contract for an additional season at a set salary or become an unrestricted free agent, NBA insider Shams Charania reported, marking a 92% pay cut from his $52.6 million salary the previous season.
Forbes named James—whose net worth is valued at $1.4 billion as of Friday—a billionaire in 2022, making him the first athlete to reach billionaire status while still active in their sport, and he is one of four active billionaire athletes, joining Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Tiger Woods.
The 41-year-old forward is the fourth-highest-paid athlete in the world, as James’ off-court earnings totaled $85 million over the previous 12 months before taxes and agent fees, the second-highest total among active athletes behind the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani ($125 million).
Among James’ recent investments—joining equity deals and endorsements from DraftKings, Hennessy and Richard Mille, among others—is his participation in a $575 million funding round that valued the wearable device firm Whoop at more than $10 billion, though it’s unclear how much James contributed.
$581.3 million. That’s James’ career on-court earnings across his 23 years in the NBA, the most of all-time ahead of Kevin Durant ($501 million) and Stephen Curry ($470 million), according to Spotrac.
James is one of only eight athletes that Forbes has measured with at least $70 million in off-field income in a single year, including Curry, Messi, Ohtani, Ronaldo, Woods, Roger Federer and Conor McGregor.
James, in a statement on X announcing his signing with the 76ers, said he “thought I was done when the season ended.” His move to Philadelphia marks weeks of speculation about where James would likely end his career, though some NBA fans believed James foreshadowed a preference for the 76ers after saying earlier this month he was “trusting the process,” an apparent reference to a phrase “trust the process” often used for the franchise’s rebuild around Joel Embiid. James’ signing marks the end of his eight-year run with the Los Angeles Lakers, which ultimately culminated in the team winning the 2020 NBA Championship.