LeBron James put on a show in Lakers preseason defeat The sun in Las Vegas on Wednesday, scoring 23 points in front of a Sin City crowd. If James gets his way, Wednesday’s game will be the chapter of many to come for him and Las Vegas basketball.
After the preseason showcase, James stopped by NBA commissioner Adam Silver to not only add a team in Las Vegas, but to become a team owner.
“I would love to bring a team here at some point. That would be awesome,” James said. “I know Adam is in Abu Dhabi right now, I guess ( Bucks and Hawks play a preseason game on Saturday). But he probably sees every interview and transcript that comes from NBA players.
“So I need a team, Adam. Thank you.”
This is the second time in as many months that James has said he wants to have an NBA team in Las Vegas sometime in the future. It first happened on his YouTube show The Shop.
FOX Sports’ Shannon Sharp believes that James is simply sending the commissioner a reminder of what he wants to do in the future.
“LeBron’s basically saying, ‘Adam, don’t forget your boy,'” Sharpe said Thursday. “Indisputably.” “Obviously you’ve got to partner with someone because the value of these franchises seems to have skyrocketed.”
LeBron James is in favor of owning an NBA franchise in Las Vegas
Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe react to LeBron James’ comments about owning a team in Las Vegas and consider whether he will become a better NBA owner than Michael Jordan.
Sharp mentioned how the prices of NBA franchises have increased since Steve Ballmer took over Clippers for $2 billion in 2014. Most recently, Joe Tsai completed a $3.3 billion purchase to own 100 percent of the stock Networks in 2019, and Tillman Fertito bought Rockets for $2.2 billion in 2017.
Although James recently became a billionaire, Sharp believes that the four-time NBA champion will not be able to own the team alone.
“He’ll probably have to be a minority owner to start, like Michael Jordan did with Hornets before he bought the rest of the team from Bob Johnson, Sharpe said. – But I saw how it happens.
James already owns a stake in several sports teams. In recent years, he and Maverick Carter merged with Fenway Sports Group, making James part owner Red Sox and FC Liverpool
If the opportunity presented itself in the near future, Sharp believes James would give up the game to have an NBA team in Las Vegas.
If James does become involved in ownership of a future NBA team, Bayless believes he will face one major challenge.
“I don’t think he would be a good owner, he would be a great owner,” Bayless said. “It also raises the question … is he going to insist on being the CEO, the same way Jordan insisted, to his own detriment, on being the CEO? I can’t say it for sure, but history tells you that LeBron wouldn’t make a great GM. It’s just hard. You should be removed completely. The bigger the player, the harder it is to know who can play because none of them will be as good as you. Not one. Zero.
“It’s unlikely that if he owns a team in Vegas for 20 years, there will never be a player as good or better than LeBron James. This is his problem.”
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