LeBron, Inc is a behind-the-scenes look at the business that is LeBron James. The book assumes a fairly detailed knowledge of LeBron’s basketball career and successes and provides a reasonably deep dive into the commercial decisions that have shaped LeBron’s brand and his wealth.
What makes LeBron’s story unique is his decision to trust his friends and inner circle with important business decisions. His friend, Maverick Carter, emerges as the dominant influence in LeBron’s commercial ventures and a hugely impressive businessman who demonstrated strong commercial acumen and proved his doubters wrong. Surprisingly, there is much less coverage in the book about LeBron’s other close friend and adviser Rich Paul whose sports agency business is having a huge impact on basketball.
One of the most significant decisions LeBron and his team made was not to sign typical sponsorship deals and instead seek an ownership stake for any products he backed. The book details his involvement with Beats by Dre headphones and the brilliant marketing results achieved by LeBron simply gifting the headphones to friends and other famous athletes. Another major feature in LeBron’s success has been his ability to wisely pick his professional advisers and choose people who could open up significant doors for him. He has ended up getting involved in an incredibly wide array of ventures including a share in Liverpool FC and his own mulitmedia platform.
Importantly the book also shines a light on LeBron’s philanthropic endeavours, and his I Promise schools which are an incredible initiative. Much like Andre Agassi has done, LeBron has put a focus on improving education and opportunity for under privileged kids.
The book is pretty short but at times a little repetitive and could maybe have used a tighter edit. The author, Brian Windhorst, clearly has significant access and contacts with LeBron’s team which gives an inside track on the reasons and motivations for different decisions. I do wonder if the book might be a bit too positive and lauding of LeBron. While it does recount some mistakes, the tone is undoubtedly very pro-LeBron and perhaps it could have been a little more objective. That said, I’m not aware of anything negative that has been left out that should have been included.
Overall however this is a short, fascinating read and a relatively rare insight to the commercial life of a global superstar.
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