LeBron James has continued his business activities off the basketball court by acquiring a professional pickleball team. He has teamed up with a couple of NBA stars in the process.
Through their family office, LRMR Ventures, James and his long-term business partner, Maverick Carter, will join the pickleball ownership ranks, while Draymond Green and Kevin Love are also poised to invest.
Fuelling the Pickleball craze
Pickleball has attracted a wealth of celebrity investors, and the game, an amalgamation of tennis and padel, has surged in popularity.
Indeed, with additional funding, Major League Pickleball (MLP) is set to expand from 12 to 16 teams in 2023, and the values of teams have continued to grow exponentially.
And when asked about what attracted him to pickleball, Carter said: “When I started playing pickleball, I immediately connected with the sport’s community and its capacity to be fun and competitive.
“To see the sport growing in communities all over is exciting, and we’re looking forward to bringing our expertise together to try and build a championship team.”
Details relating to James and Carter’s team are not yet known, and there has been no disclosure of how much James paid to acquire his chosen team.
There is also no rule suggesting that James would be barred from playing in the MLP, and there was a case where a retired professional tennis player, now one of the owners of Florida Smash Pickleball, was drafted by his team.
Earlier in the summer, the MLP announced another round of investments for pickleball, with Super Bowl champion Drew Brees and former World No.4 tennis player James Blake among those jumping on the bandwagon to join the sport.
Getting Back on Track
But as far as James is concerned, there is no sign of him slowing down off the court even though he is spinning many plates. On the floor, however, the Lakers will be hoping to improve on last season, which was a mitigated failure as they didn’t qualify for the play-in tournament. The four-time NBA champion signed a new two-year contract extension in August and will be expected to spearhead this campaign.
Indeed, the Lakers will start the new season as the underdogs, and it is interesting to see the outright odds generated by top bookmakers. For example, PointsBet has priced the Lakers at a short-looking -275 to make the playoffs, while the same operator has priced them at a much longer +1800 to be crowned NBA champions.
At sites like these, NBA bettors can tap into some of the best offers to keep their bankroll ticking.
In the meantime, James hopes to patch up his relationship with Russell Westbrook after rumors emerged over the summer that he tried to pressure the Lakers to trade Westbrook for Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving.
Darvin Ham doesn’t have much time to get the Lakers ready to fire on all cylinders for the new season. However, it will be fascinating to see how things pan out.