He was still in high school.
Yet he had the chance to become the Ten Million Dollar Man.
And he said no.
Before ever stepping foot on the NBA hardwood as a pro, LeBron James said on a digital series released Wednesday that the first real big financial decision of his life came in 2003 when he met with then-Reebok head Paul Fireman.
James recalls being flown to meet with Fireman and bringing along his longtime friend, business partner and fellow St. Vincent-St. Mary alumnus Maverick Carter for the endorsement meeting.
“Being, like, the first generational moneymaker in the household is a scary thing,” James recalled. “For an 18-year-old, I went from sitting in a classroom in May and graduating high school to being a multimillionaire a month later.”
But first he had an important decision to make in the Reebok boardroom in Massachusetts.
“It was one of the longest damn tables I have ever seen in my life,” he said. “I had no idea what he [Fireman] was doing on the other end of the table. I just saw him writing. He was talking. He had his head down. He was making sure he didn’t get anything wrong on that check.”
And when Freeman slid the check in front of James it had lots of zeros — seven to be exact.
“I was lost for words at the beginning,” James said. “I mean [expletive]. I flew in from Akron, Ohio, from Spring Hill, from the projects. I mean our rent was like $17 a month and now I’m looking at a $10 million check and I had to go back to the classroom the very next day.
“I’m going to homeroom the next morning. Holy [expletive].”
Carter said he was not at a loss for words. He had one word in mind — YES!
“It was like, holy [expletive], we are sitting in this room and this [expletive] is real,” Carter said.
This is the second Kneading Dough podcast for Carter, who hosts it in partnership with James and Chase bank, in which athletes talk frankly about their finances. It’s part of Carter and James’ Uninterrupted digital entertainment venture.
“He wrote you a $10 million check in that room and you turned it down,” Carter recalled the fateful meeting. “I can’t think I would have turned it down. I think in the room I said, ‘let’s take this check and get the hell out here.’ ”
But James said something clicked in his mind as he stared down at the check.
“If he is willing to give me a $10 million check right now,” James said, “what is it to say Nike or Adidas aren’t willing to give me 20 or 30 upfront?”
So he walked away from the table empty-handed and eventually signed with Nike prior to his rookie season. As of the end of last year, he’d earned somewhere in the area of at least $240 million over the years from the shoe giant.
He has since inked a lifetime deal with Nike that — while the exact terms were not released — is billed by the company as the first lifetime contract it ever handed out and has the largest guarantee the company has ever made to a single athlete.
But that’s not to say James has not been willing to walk away from a lucrative endorsement deal.
James and Carter talked about how just as his game on the court has matured over the years, so has his business sense.
From signature shoes to entertainment ventures like NBC’s game show The Wall, James said, he now prefers to produce products and ideas in-house, then seek a suitable partner, rather than having the ventures come to him.
This is how his partnership with Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza came about.
His $14 million to $15 million endorsement deal with McDonald’s was about to expire and instead of inking another contract, James said he and Carter visited the pizza chain’s first store in California to sample it.
He said he was hooked at the first bite and loved the thought of being part of a food venture on the ground floor, to “actually build something” rather than buy in later.
“I remember going to Ponderosa as a kid,” he recalled. “Walking up to that buffet. I want some of that and that and that. And boom, you eat in two minutes. It was the same thing with the [Blaze Pizza] pie. I want this and I want that mix, I want that sauce, I want that ingredient and that topping. Two minutes later you have a fresh pie.”
As on the basketball court, James said, in the world of business he likes to be an active part of the team and not just rely on others.
“I was like, if we can’t [make this work], who doesn’t love pizza?” he said. “I don’t know a person in the world who doesn’t love pizza. I don’t care what kind of diet you are on. Everybody loves pizza.”
And unlike on the court at Quicken Loans Arena where he is King, James said, he has learned some humility in the area of business and is willing to ask questions.
He readily admits that he has fewer days of playing basketball ahead of him than he has already played, so he must hone his business skills for the next phase of his life.
“I still have to live life beyond the hardwood.”
Craig Webb can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3547.