Want more from Front Office Sports
in your search results?
Draymond Green is fully supportive of LeBron James’s Polymarket partnership.
The four-time All-Star told Front Office Sports he thinks “it’s great” that James, known to be one of his closest friends in the NBA, has a deal with the prediction-market company.
“You can’t be in sports and think that it’s okay for the league to have certain partnerships but not the players. That’s hypocritical,” Green said in an interview with FOS’s Olivia Arciniega.
”You look around the league, there’s FanDuel partnerships. There’s Fanatics Sportsbook partnerships. DraftKings partnerships. There’s all these different partnerships in the betting space—and these are actual betting markets, betting houses, not actual prediction markets.”
The NBA named DraftKings and FanDuel, two sportsbooks, its co-official domestic sports betting partners in 2021. The league has several other domestic authorized gaming operators, including Fanatics, and nine international betting partners.
The league does not have a partnership with a prediction market, though a source told FOS earlier this month that they are closing in on a deal.
Green’s comments come weeks after James announced his role as an endorser of the prediction-market company. Front Office Sports reported last week that the Polymarket deal was worth $15 million per year. While the length of the deal is unclear, the deal is significantly more money than the two-year, $8 million contract he signed with the Sixers this offseason.
The Warriors star, who is promoting a docuseries about his career called Open Season, also said he’d “1000%” want his own partnership with a prediction market.
“I hope to one day have a partnership. I definitely have an interest in the different markets and the things that you can predict. There’s a prediction for everything, and I definitely have a ton of opinions.”
The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement allows players to partner with “Gaming Companies,” provided they comply with certain provisions. Article VI (c) in the CBA says deals must be “to (1) general brand promotion or endorsement, or (2) promotion or endorsement of betting on non-NBA League sports.”
Over the past few years, the NBA has been in the middle of several betting-related scandals involving its players. The league handed Johntay Porter a lifetime ban in 2024 for betting on his own games, while Terry Rozier and Malik Beasley are both facing federal cases related to betting.
Abolish the Salary Cap?
Green also spoke about the punishment the NBA dealt to the Clippers after it found that they circumvented the salary cap.
He initially viewed the punishment of five first-round picks and $30 million as “a lot,” then realized the monetary punishment is small compared to rising team valuations. The Lakers were sold for $12.5 billion last month.
Green then said that there would be no problem if there was no salary cap.
“I think a salary cap is irrelevant. I think get rid of a salary cap as a whole and we won’t have these types of things. Ultimately, the circumvention was because that guy was worth more than they could pay. So if he’s worth more than they can pay, why can’t he make that?”
The NBA’s salary cap rules, collectively bargained with players, are supposed to lessen the advantages of the wealthiest teams. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, whose net worth is $155 billion, is the richest owner across all U.S. sports leagues, according to Forbes. Mavericks owner Miriam Adelson is the second-richest NBA owner at $33.5 billion.
However, not all professional leagues have a salary cap. Notably, MLB has never had a salary cap, and there are wide disparities between teams’ spending. The 2026 Dodgers have a payroll that’s five times that of the lowest-spending team, the Guardians, according to Spotrac.
Download the FOS App
The business of sports, in your pocket.
Scan the QR code to get the app now.
