There is a lot of talk right now about LeBron James leading the rest of the Big 3 in taking pay cuts to help land Carmelo Anthony. The leading thought is that the players would make the money back in endorsements and according to this ESPN report, LeBron made $30 million off the Apple acquisition of Beats by Dre:
In a recent example, while James was leading the Heat to a victory over the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals, sources say the 29-year-old was finalizing what is believed to be the biggest equity cash payout for a professional athlete in history as part of Apple’s recent $3 billion purchase of Beats Electronics. Sources briefed on the situation say James realized a profit of more than $30 million in cash and stock in the Beats sale after he had struck a deal to get a small stake in the company at its inception in 2008 in exchange for promoting its high-end headphones.
Relatively speaking, LeBron could make up a good chunk of the lost salary with good deals like this. Besides all that, this was amazing business sense to take stake in the company up front but they hit it big. This is just another example of LeBron’s business acumen.