Want more from Front Office Sports
in your search results?
LeBron James joins the 76ers as their jersey patch deal with Crypto.com is set to expire after this season. His presence, should it continue past this year, could turn the next jersey sponsorship into one of the NBA’s most coveted sponsorship opportunities.
The partnership between the 76ers and Crypto.com was announced in 2021. Although no terms were disclosed, reports at the time said it was a six-year deal worth more than $10 million annually. The Golden State Warriors are believed to have the league’s most lucrative patch deal, with an artificial intelligence company paying the team more than $50 million annually.
The Sixers’ deal will expire at the end of the 2026-27 NBA season, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Front Office Sports.
It’s not clear whether the two sides may look to renegotiate and extend the agreement, if the 76ers will look for a new jersey patch sponsor on the open market, or if Crypto.com has a right of first refusal. A representative for the 76ers declined to comment, and a representative for Crypto.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Although the 41-year-old James agreed to a two-year deal with a player option for the second year, his agent Rich Paul has said he could play up to four years with Philadelphia, which would open a significant window for the 76ers to capitalize on his global star power.
It’s hard to overstate the significance of James joining the 76ers just ahead of a potential bidding war for the jersey patch, according to consultant and former Citi executive Ian Cropp.
“It’s a huge deal to have him there from a sponsorship perspective,” Cropp tells FOS. “I know he’s not quite [Lionel] Messi going to Inter Miami in terms of his ability to win games single-handedly, but from a global star power perspective it’s on par.”
The star power James brings could widen the field of interested suitors, according to Cropp, who runs sports consultancy 575 Partners. The 76ers could receive calls from international companies, as well as those in sectors that in the past may not have considered an NBA jersey patch.
“James opens the 76ers up to a global audience,” Cropp says. “Brands that maybe wouldn’t have considered the team might decide to now. Philadelphia is a great basketball city, but when LeBron goes there, it becomes a different ballgame.”
Another reason this particular jersey sponsorship will be highly sought after is the slate of nationally televised games the 76ers will have in any season that James is on the roster. Philadelphia is expected to get the maximum of 34 nationally televised or streamed games across Disney’s ABC/ESPN, NBCUniversal’s NBC Sports/Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video, a league source previously told FOS.
That would more than double the 14 national games that the team had last season, when their primary stars were Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George. Philadelphia also has added Jaylen Brown in a trade that shipped George to Boston.
“Look at the audience the 76ers will command with James,” Cropp says. “The jersey will appear in all those games, on live TV, with all those people watching.”
He says the 76ers will also experience more people attending games who may not have been interested in the past, just to see James before he eventually retires. Not to mention jersey sales: “How many people are going to be rocking brand new LeBron-76ers jerseys?” he says.
Cropp says there’s an even bigger opportunity for the 76ers’ parent company, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment: using James not simply to land a richer jersey patch deal, but to permanently elevate the franchise’s commercial business.
“What I envision they’ll do is more than simply securing a larger deal today,” he tells FOS. “It’s using this window to prove the business impact that a sponsorship deal with the team can have; setting a benchmark that will outlast LeBron.”
The 76ers declined to comment, and a representative for Crypto.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Other Crypto.com sports partnerships include the naming rights to the Lakers’ home venue, plus sponsorships with Paris Saint-Germain, Formula 1, and the UFC.
Download the FOS App
The business of sports, in your pocket.
Scan the QR code to get the app now.
