Midas Touch: LeBron James

4-time MVP, 3-time NBA champion, 3-time NBA Finals MVP, 14-time All Star at just 33 years old, 2-time Olympic gold medallist...We could publish an entire post just relating LeBron's on-court accomplishments, but this is far too well known for even casual fans around the world.

However his outstanding performances displayed almost everytime he has stepped on the NBA floor for the last 15 years are not the only thing that separate the Akron native from the rest of the pack.

Since entering the NBA back in 2003 he has showcased business savvy very rarely seen in professional sports, which has enabled him to build a multimillion dollar empire outside his lucrative NBA contracts, through endorsements and investments.

As many readers will know, his main endorsement contract throughout his career has been his Nike contract. Back in 2003, even before he graduated from high school, Reebok CEO at the time, Paul Fireman offered James $10 million upfront as long as he promised that he wouldn't attend any meeting with Nike or Adidas executives. In what turned out to be an extremely profitable decision for himself, LeBron turned down the offer and ended up signing with Nike. The summer he got drafted, he inked a $90 million, seven year deal, unheard of, even more considering he had never played a minute of college or pro basketball. In 2010 he resigned a $150M-5 year deal, meaning he had made $240M in Nike money by the time he turned 30.

However he hit the jackpot in 2015, when he became the first Nike athlete to sign a lifelong endorsement deal. Although the exact details of the contract have not been released, it is known to be at least $1 billion, which in terms of total value it easily surpasses Durant's $350M-10 year deal with Nike and Harden's $200M-13 year deal with Adidas. This long term relationship has been beneficial for both sides, as LeBron's signature shoe sells the most out of any player, with annual sales around $300 million.

In his own words, one of the best financial decisions he has made in his career was partnering with Beats during its inception back in 2008. After Apple bought Beats in 2014 for $3 billion Lebron made $30 million in cash and stock.

Other endorsements include (or have included) Coca Cola and McDonalds, for whom he appeared in some iconic TV commercials such as the Beijing Olympics ad with Yao Ming or the McDonald's dunk off Super Bowl with Dwight Howard, but also Verizon, Samsung and KIA Motors, amongst others.

In terms of investments, he has never spoken publicly about his stock portfolio, but we do know that has hit a couple home runs in the last few years.

Back in 2012 the 4-time MVP became an early investor in Blaze Pizza, a company which only had 2 locations at the time. His $1 million investment granted him a 10% ownership stake in the newly formed partnership. In 2015 he decided to terminate his endorsement contract with McDonald's, by which he still had $15 million guaranteed, to focus entirely on the expansion of Blaze Pizza. After opening 200 restaurants in its first 4 years it became the fastest growing food chain in US history. With $185 million in sales in 2016, the company is targeting $1'1 billion in sales by 2022 and a billion dollar IPO somewhere around 2020-2022.

The Lakers' star free agent signing also secured exclusive franchisee rights for the Chicago and South Florida areas, operating 17 restaurants in both markets as of 2017.

Another successful endeavour for the former Cavaliers and Heat forward is his minority holding in Liverpool FC. He received a 2% ownership stake in 2011, when his marketing firm LRMR started a joint venture with Fenway Sports Group, which had bought Liverpool FC the previous year. His initial holding had a valuation of $6'5M, which has soared to $32M mostly due to the huge TV deal signed by the Premier League back in 2015 between the EPL and Sky and BT Sports, who pay 2’6B$ a year for the TV rights in the 2016-2019 year period.

From a founder's perspective, LeBron has launched Uninterrupted, a digital media company, which received a $16M investment from Time Warner last year. The platform enables other athletes to address off-court issues, such as finance, activism and philanthropy.

If you take all the aforementioned and add his humungous career earnings, it seems more than likely he will became a billionaire in the next 10 years. Do you think he will ever become a majority owner of an NBA franchise?