Courtesy of Getty Images
While watching the Cleveland Cavaliers struggle at the beginning of the final year of Lebron James current contract, many are speculating his next move this up-coming off season. All of the sports commentators believe his decision will be predicated upon the Cavs winning the 2017-2018 NBA championship, but here at Push It FWD Media we have some counsel on this matter.
Our advice to the King is to not re-sign to the Cavs unless Dan Gilbert promises/include (if it’s legal) a sizable portion of ownership in their next offer. Here’s why.
Left: Warren Buffett, Middle: Lebron James, Top: Dan Gilbert
In 2003 at the beginning of Lebron James Career, the Cleveland Cavaliers were worth roughly ~$222M. From that point until 2009 that Cavs enjoyed a median growth rate of ~$38M per year.
After “The Decision”, The Cavs value went from roughly ~ $477M to ~$476M. The year the Cavaliers drafted Kyrie Irving, the value of the fell to $329M and made its way back up to around ~$500M in 2014.
In 2015 when The King came back home he added a whopping ~ $400M of value to the Cavaliers making their value ~$915M. Now in the last year of Lebron’s contract the value of the Cavs sit at an impressive ~$1.2B. That means that Lebron has added a total of ~$940M to the value of the Cavs while being under contract.
Courtesy of Statista
If Lebron was a lawyer and the Cavs was the firm, he would definitely make partner with this type of performance.
So why is this an issue? Why isn’t Dan Gilbert been holding the man that has added almost $1B to his net worth close to his side?
For these purposes, we can only speculate, but there appears to be a trend of professional sports franchise owners asserting their dominance over the growing financial impact that they’re players are starting to have over a franchise. This can be seen in the scathing letter that Dan Gilbert wrote to Cleveland during the aftermath of “The Decision”.
The idea of Lebron James being the greatest player to the play the game may be a debate, but no one can deny his contribution towards putting the power in the hands of the players.
If Lebron James is able to pull this off, it will be one of the most game changing events in Sports history.
He's already broke the mould when it comes to building management team, by empowering his childhood friends.
Left: Maverick Carter, Right: Lebron James
Nonetheless, for now we can just hope that The King shares our mindset.