CHARLOTTE, N.C. — LeBron James, team owner?
It could happen. But James isn’t looking for it to be anytime soon.
All-Star weekend has laid fertile ground for comparisons between Michael Jordan, the NBA’s star of the past, to James, the league’s star of today. Both have won multiple championships. Both have won multiple league MVP awards. And both are high on the league’s all-time statistical lists, with James poised to pass Jordan on the scoring list this season if he can stay healthy.
The next natural step to be like Mike would be team ownership. Jordan is the principal stakeholder of the Charlotte Hornets, the hosts of this year’s All-Star Game, and is the most prominent former player who is now an owner. Grant Hill owns a stake of the Atlanta Hawks. James has expressed keen interest recently, saying there was “no maybe about it” in an interview with the Athletic.
During Saturday’s All-Star media availability, he had put the idea at least temporarily on the backburner.
“It’s not that it’s intoxicating to me, and I don’t think about it on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “I was asked a question and I answered it how I felt at that point in time. I believe if I wanted to, I could own a team or be part of a basketball team. I know I got so much knowledge of the game that I don’t want to – once I stop playing – (want to just) get away from the game.”
In November, Forbes estimated that James has a net worth of $450 million, and money is always a key piece of team ownership. He also has a minority stake in Liverpool FC in the Premier League, so ownership would not be a totally new game.
There’s a special kind of reverence for what Jordan has accomplished. No other former player is a majority owner, and there have been only two African-American owners in league history, including Jordan. It represents a type of power that is out of reach for nearly all of the NBA’s stars, millionaires that they are.
“Just getting there is probably the hardest part,” Lakers forward Kyle Kuzma said. “Then putting on top of that is being an African-American owner, which is almost unheard of. You never see no type of African-American owner in any sports and almost never in the business world.”
But James, who has three more years remaining on his contract, insisted there’s time left for his team ownership ambitions. He also has hopes for playing with one or more of his sons (oldest son LeBron Jr. is in the eighth grade), and as one of the league’s leading scorers and assist men, his production suggests retirement is some time off.
James loudly trumpeted that sentiment.
“I got a lot more game to play – I got a lot,” he said. “A ton more years to play this game and suit up and be in a Lakers uniform. Once we get to that point, we’ll cross that path. Hopefully, I can sit up here and answer questions as a player for a long time.”
KUZMA QUICKLY BOUNCED FROM SKILLS CHALLENGE
For all the buckets he scored the night before, Kuzma could not get a key one as he was knocked out of the eight-man Skills Challenge by Dallas’ Luka Doncic in the first round on All-Star Saturday night.
It was easy-come, easy-go for Kuzma, who scored 35 points in an MVP performance in the Rising Stars game on Friday.
“The practice round, I didn’t miss,” Kuzma quipped. “But that doesn’t count for the real thing.”
The contest was won by Boston’s Jayson Tatum, one of Kuzma’s rivals from the 2017 draft class. The Skills Challenge is the least prestigious of the three contests. Brooklyn’s Joe Harris won the 3-point contest, while Oklahoma City’s Hamidou Diallo won the Slam Dunk in a total rout, with a highlight of dunking over Shaquille O’Neal.
Kuzma said he was pleased to have concluded his second straight All-Star Weekend, and teased that he has bigger ambitions for next season.
“It’s been very, very fun,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed every minute of this and can’t wait till next year.”
NBA, FIBA ANNOUNCE PLANS FOR PRO LEAGUE IN AFRICA
The NBA is bringing a pro league to Africa.
The Basketball Africa League, a new collaboration between the NBA and the sport’s global governing body FIBA, was announced Saturday. The initial plan is for the 12-team league to begin play in January, and former President Barack Obama is among those who are expected to have direct involvement with the league’s plan to keep growing the game in Africa through the league and other initiatives.
The scope of what Obama’s involvement will be remains unknown, and it’s yet to be determined which existing club teams will be part of the league. Qualification tournaments will be held later this year to determine those clubs, with teams from Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia expected to be among those taking part. No nation will have more than two teams in the league.
“As we’ve been talking about this concept over the last several months, there’s been a tremendous reception from many of our NBA team owners … and in addition, several of the partners of the NBA have expressed a strong desire to work with us in Africa,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.
Silver said Pepsi and Nike’s Jordan Brand – Charlotte owner Michael Jordan was among the owners in the room where Silver made the announcement – are among the partners who have reached out to the NBA and said they want to be part of the Africa league. Silver also said that Obama, an enormous basketball fan, has told him he wants to “be directly involved with these activities in Africa.”
Silver said talks between the NBA and Obama are ongoing. Obama spoke on a video that was shown during the event where Silver announced the league.
“I hope you know through sport, that if you put in effort, you will be rewarded,” Obama said. “I hope you learn through sport what it means to play as a team, and even if you are the best player, your job is not just to show off but your job is to make your teammates better.”
The NBA and FIBA’s involvement will include financial support and resources toward continued growing of the game on the continent, as well as providing training for players, coaches and referees and some infrastructure for the new league. Silver said there are 438 companies in Africa that generate more than $1 billion in revenue annually, but that sport there has not seen the same growth – yet.
The NBA has held three games in Africa since 2015, all of them selling out – two games in Johannesburg, the other in Pretoria. Many of the league’s current players and coaches, along with several legends and Hall of Famers, have been part of those trips.
“I went with them last year,” Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said. “The NBA reaches out across the world.”
Thirteen players who were born in Africa were on opening-night NBA rosters this season. The league also built an academy in Senegal that opened nearly two years ago.
The NBA says more details about the new league will be released in the coming months.
News services contributed to this notebook.
