What was LeBron thinking...

[Morgbug]

A parallel thread to one currently over at spawn.com I'm involved with.  Just curious what you guys think of LeBron James fires agent, hires high school friends to handle financial aspects. 

I'd suggest it's not a particularly bright move. 

[JediMAC]

Yeah, probably a dumb move.  I wondered if his buddies talked him into doing it.  You know, "Hey, why give your money to some stupid agent who doesn't really care about you, when you could be supporting a couple of your best friends instead?"

Kid seems pretty savvy and smart though, so hopefully he's not about to screw everything up with this surprising move.  We'll see how it works out, I guess.  His contract is up after next year, right?  If that's the case, you can expect the usual bull****: "Sign me to a 7-year maximum contract before next season starts, or I'm gonna be a whiny bitch all year and demand a trade."   

[Nicklab]

This story has been developing for a while.  Apparently Russell Simmons and Jay Z are also involved in advising LeBron from a financial standpoint.  This was actually something that was ahot talk radio topic.  And if you think about it, he might actually be trading up.

First look at his NBA contract.  He's gonna get the max contract that the NBA's collective bargaining agreement allows.  All that would have to be negotiated are any perks that get thrown in with his deal.  He can get  a lawyer to do that for him.

The rest of his agreements are with endorsers.  In that respect, I think having someone like Russell Simmons on his side is actually pretty smart.  The guy is a guru for marketing and promotion as is Jay Z.

If you keep LeBron's friends limited in their roles, handling his day to day finances, he probably won't get in trouble.  I can see someone who is in this fantastic position wanting to help his friends.  As long as he has good financial advisors giving him solid investment advice to backstop his friends, he'll probably be fine.

I think the upside might be that he won't be paying 10 or 15% of everything he's making to an agent now.  Sure, people are going to get their cut, but it looks like he's trying to take an almost Michael Jordan approach to marketing himself right off the bat.

[JayDouble]

A parallel thread to one currently over at spawn.com I'm involved with. Just curious what you guys think of LeBron James fires agent, hires high school friends to handle financial aspects.

I'd suggest it's not a particularly bright move.

What's your screen name on there? 

[Morgbug]

Same as here.  Am I arguing with you there Jay

I completely agree on the NBA contract, btw, he'll get the max and has no need for an agent there. 

If you keep LeBron's friends limited in their roles, handling his day to day finances, he probably won't get in trouble.  I can see someone who is in this fantastic position wanting to help his friends.  As long as he has good financial advisors giving him solid investment advice to backstop his friends, he'll probably be fine.

Then what's the point of having his friends do anything?  You've got a bunch of guys with maybe high school education handling a guy's day to day finances?  Ok if you're not handling millions I suppose. 

And it's cool to help your friends, but that can backfire big time.  All you need is one guy to get pissed off, bitter and greedy.  It can happen pretty easily, I'd imagine more easily in a world filled with glitter and candy like the NBA. 

I just want people to be realistic about the qualifications of his friends.  They are friends, not business managers.  And no, I'm not saying education is everything but experience counts and these guys haven't got it.  One guy works for Nike (wonder if he got the job on his own merits or if LeBron had some input) and another guy is LeBron's personal assistant?  PA?  Doing what?  Really? 

[Nicklab]

Oh, I agree that him helping his friends can backfire on him.  They're not professionals, definitely.  But in the same regard, there have been plenty of professional agents who have ripped off their clients.

With regard to his shoe deal and other major endorsements, I think he's probably going to have people like Jay Z and Russell Simmons handle those deals.  They're smart, modern business men.  If he leaves other small business to his friends, they can probably handle some of the personal matters.  They'll probably screw a few things up.  But, LeBron needs to take responsibility for putting them in those positions of responsibility for his money.