‘I Want A Team In Las Vegas’

LeBron James has a message for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver about Las Vegas.

“I would love to bring a team here at some point, that would be amazing,” he said after scoring 23 points in the Lakers preseason loss to the Suns Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“It’s the best fan base in the world and I would love to bring a team here… I want a team here Adam, thank you.”

James, who turns 38 in December, has a net worth of $1 billion, Forbes reported in June.

He is the first active NBA player to make the billionaires list. (Michael Jordan, the only other basketball billionaire, didn’t hit ten figures until 2014 after he retired.)

“It’s my biggest milestone,” James told GQ in a prophetic 2014 interview. “Obviously. I want to maximize my business. And if I happen to get it, if I happen to be a billion-dollar athlete, ho. Hip hip hooray! Oh, my God, I’m gonna be excited.”

James has earned more than $385 million in salary from the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers as the NBA’s highest-paid active player. Off the court, he has raked in upwards of $900 million in income from endorsements and other business ventures, per Chase Peterson-Withorn of Forbes.

James has said he wants to play his final NBA season with his son, Bronny James, now a senior at Sierra Canyon High School in Los Angeles. Bronny wouldn’t be eligible to play in the NBA until 2024 under current draft rules.

Las Vegas features the NFL’s Raiders, who moved there in 2020 after team owners voted nearly unanimously to approve the Raiders’ application to relocate in 2017.

The WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, who are owned by Raiders’ owner Mark Davis, won the WNBA title this year.