- LeBron James was attracting huge offers before he even reached college
- The four-time NBA champion shared the story on the Kelce brothers’ podcast
- LeBron turned down the deal to sign with Nike
LeBron James has always been a big deal. Even since high school. So it should come as no surprise to discover the four-time NBA champion was courting offers from the biggest sportswear brands in the world years before he even turned pro. But even still, by LeBron’s ridiculous standards, the deal he turned down from Reebok boggles the mind.
Appearing on Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast, James revealed that he had meetings with Reebok, adidas and Nike during his senior year at high school, where he had already exploded into a phenom, garnering signifcant attention around the country as one of the hottest prospects of all time for the NBA.
But, despite the fact he would go onto sign for Nike, the 20-time All Star revealed Reebok made him a jaw dropping offer – $10m so long as James didn’t go and talk to any of the other brands.
After being flown in to talk with Reebok’s CEO, James had the offer slid across the table to him (around the 40 minute mark) .
“The guy slides over the check to me at the end of the table. It’s me and my mom and Maverick Carter at the end of the table, and he says, ‘If you don’t go talk to any other companies, this is yours.’ And I look at it, I look at it, 10 million f***ing dollars.”
But, despite not having much waiting for them back in Akron, Ohio at the time, James’ mother, Gloria, gave her son some timeless advice which helped inform his eventual rejection of the deal.
“I was a high school senior, man; they gave me a check for $10 million, and if I promise not to go see anybody else. I told them I need a break. They stepped out, I needed a timeout. I sat there, my mom looked at me, and me and my mom, we’re living in an apartment, and you know Section A housing in Akron.
“I’m going back, I don’t have s**t whatever, and my mom looked at me, she said, ‘Son, trust your gut. If they’re offering you this, then who knows what the other companies may offer.”
James would of course go onto sign with Nike, who offered him an $87m contract across seven years. In 2015, James signed a $1b lifetime deal with the Oregon based sportswear behemoth, the first athlete to ever do so,
