LeBron James wants to own an NBA team in Las Vegas

Passionate about basketball and with a good nose for business – not for nothing he is one of the richest athletes on the planet – LeBron James has a very special dream, which combines these two facets of his life (player and businessman). ) and what he hopes to make a reality in the future. The Los Angeles Lakers star wants to own an NBA team based in an iconic US city, which today has no franchise in the league.

“I want to be the owner of a team. I want to buy a team. I want a team in Las Vegas,” confessed the striker before a new episode of the TV show. shop, where he is one of the speakers. The complete chapter can be seen from this Friday on the channel Uninterrupted from YouTube.

LeBron already has an idea of ​​what it means to lead a team of professionals. He is Liverpool’s co-owner of the English Premier League football, del Boston Red Soxone of the most traditional of the Major League Baseball (MLB), and the Pittsburgh penguins of the NHL (United States Ice Hockey League).

And there is no shortage of capital to buy an NBA franchise. As indicated a week ago by the magazine Forbes, James recently became the first active player in the American basketball league with a fortune of over a billion dollars. He is the second basketball player in the league to make that list of billionaire athletes, after Michael Jordan. But the legend of the Bulls did so ten years after his retirement, thanks to the investment made with the Charlotte Hornets.

According to that medium, which lists the richest in the world, the native of Akron, Ohio, has amassed about $ 385 million playing (he visited the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Lakers shirts) and pocketed another 900 million. through advertising agreements and other activities.

But the four-time NBA champion will have to wait for that wish to come true. Firstly, the league collective agreement, signed in 2016 and valid until the end of the 2023/24 season, provides that players cannot be partial or total owners of any team. Therefore, LeBron will have to wait until his retirement to take that project forward.

But also because the NBA has no plans to expand to Las Vegas in the near future. That was Adam Silver at a press conference last Thursday, before the start of the finals between the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors.

“It is not true that there is talk of expansion in Seattle and Las Vegas. Perhaps some in the league are talking about a potential expansion after the 2024 season. At some point this league will expand, but not at this time,” said the commissioner.

The one known as “City of games”however, he will be ready to open the doors to LeBron and company when the rules permit. For years now, the imposing metropolis of Nevada has been gaining more and more importance in the world of sports.

In February it became the first city in history to welcome two of them all Stars immediately: the Pro bowl of the NFL (American football) and the game of the stars of the NHL.

It also managed to attract top-tier franchises, such as Golden Knights of Las Vegas of the NHL (created in 2017), Las Vegas Raiders of the NFL (arrived in 2020 from Oakland) e The axes of Las Vegas of the WNBA (landed in 2018 from San Antonio).

In 2020, it also celebrated the inauguration of the Allegiant Stadiuma lavish 65,000-seat stadium that hosts the Raiders and last year hosted the final of the golden cup CONCACAF, which the United States beat Mexico 1-0. Super Bowl 2024 will also be played there, the game that defines the NFL champion, who will land in Nevada for the first time.

And next year, the city will once again receive the highest category in world motorsport when it celebrates in November the Las Vegas Grand Prix Formula 1, a night race on an urban circuit, which has already ensured its presence on the calendar until 2025.

Rumors of a possible NBA expansion aren’t the only ones related to Vegas, as in MLB also released a version that spoke of a move by the Oakland Athletics in that place. Although for now nothing is confirmed. Perhaps it will be LeBron James who will win that match and in the not too distant future, the most competitive basketball championship in the world will land in that city.

Source: agencies