LeBron James recently became the first active NBA player to become a billionaire, and now he has his eyes on an even bigger prize: owning an NBA team in Las Vegas.
“I wanna buy a team,” James said on a new episode of “The Shop.”
“I rather own a team before I talk. I want a team in [Las] Vegas. Yeah… I want the team in Vegas.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver recently spoke about expansion in his annual State of the NBA prior to Game 1 of the Finals. Silver didn’t dismiss the idea, but he explained that talent disparity is causing issues for the league to expand in the near future.
“As I said before, at some point, this league invariably will expand, but it’s not at this moment that we are discussing it,” Silver said.
Things can change — and money talks.
In late March, Oak View Group unveiled plans to build a $3 billion stadium near the Las Vegas strip, with reports that the investment group is banking on an expansion to Sin City.
Other professional sports teams have expanded to Vegas in the past five years including the NHL’s Knights, NFL’s Raiders, and the WNBA’s Aces.
The goal isn’t far-fetched: LeBron already has ownership stake in the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Liverpool FC.
Not to mention, in March, Bill Simmons said on his podcast: “I have some intel… I think the top contender to get the Vegas team is going to be Fenway Sports Group”
One of the partners at FSG? LeBron. “He wants to be an owner.”
James turns 38 in December, and even though he’s still averaging more than 30 points per game, he’s already thinking about what his portfolio might look like when it’s time to retire — perhaps around the same time the NBA is ready to expand.
