ESPN banner says that the Cavs are offering LeBron James $80 million for 5 years.

That really should be enough money for him to stay. But I read somewhere there is a clause that his endorsements will give a $100 million bonus if he goes to one of the major markets-- NY, LA or Chicago. I don't have a link for that, I read it somewhere on this forum during the Pistons/Cavs series. Could be a NBA rumour without merit.

Anyway, $80 million. That's alot of money.

When LeBron is available to be bid upon by other teams (assuming he doesn't sign an extension before he hits the market), the most another team can offer him is...

$12,000,000 over 5 years with fixed 8% raises based on the first year.

So

Year 1 ~ $12,000,000
Year 2 ~ $12,960,000
Year 3 ~ $13,920,000
Year 4 ~ $14,880,000
Year 5 ~ $15,840,000

That's $69.6 million. The loss in guaranteed income is $10.4 million. BUT... I'm assuming the Cavs are offering a 6 year deal which is actually disadvantageous to LBJ because his next contract will make him even more money. Let's not forget that he'll by 27 or 28 when he's shopping for his 3rd contract.

Anyway, do you blow off $10.4 to get $100 million in a major market? Maybe. The big market teams don't have their finances in place to be far enough under the cap at the end of next season. He might have to actually take less guaranteed salary to hit his endorsement bonus, in which case the actual total income difference between say, playing in NY vs. Cleveland begins to shrink.

If he wants out, it will be because his endorsement money is guaranteed and he forces a sign & trade to NY, LA or (I'm assuming) Chicago.

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Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

Today, LeBron looks like a hall of fame lock with titles and multiple league MVP awards before he's done. But what if he gets hurt and doesn't come back from it all the way? Unless he can get insurance against that type of injury, I think he's smarter to sign the extension now. It's still an insane amount of money, and it's safer. And if he decides he doesn't like Cleveland someday, he can probably just whine his way out of town.

lurker, that is why Amare re-upped, and look at how smart that was.

I agree wholeheartedly with your reasoning.

LBJ has said that he wants to be a billionaire. It's a specific goal of his.

Playing in small market Cleveland however runs counter to that goal if the rumours about endorsement money are correct.

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Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

I had forgotten about the billionaire thing. It's a very laudable goal that I'm sure we all support. In fact, I'm going to go max out my credit card on LeBron gear to help him out.

With NBA salaries being what they are, it's hard to make real money without the major market endorsements. I just hope LeBron remembers to conduct himself in an appropriate manner at all times (e.g., don't get arrested for doing something weird).

The League would love for King James to be in New York or Chicago. They already have Wade in small market Miami so King James will likely be on the move. He is saying all the right things but like it has been said he leaves a lot of the endorsment money on hte table if he stays with the Cavs. The Cavs really don't have much of a team around Lebron now so I could see him leaving.

I don't understand why James, Wade, and Melo are taking all this money from there teams. How are they suppose to build a team around them with the money the superstar is making. Wade I guess is an exception because of Shaq but in 2-3 years when Shaq can't grab rebounds or block shots and can only dunk the ball there gonna have to go to a youth movement also.

If your boss wanted to give you a huge raise, would you tell him no? That you'd rather take less money so that he could bring in other talented people to work there as well?

Its not the employee's responsibility to manage the company's books. If they're offering the money, as a player, you take it and laugh all the way to the bank!

Maybe someone already pointed this out but:

Lebron 5 years at 80 million = about 16 million a year

Ben 4 years at 60 million= 15 million a year.

Am I missing something??? (seriously)

I mean..Lebron is young. He can do it all.

Ben...OK, he plays D very well, but he's getting up there in age and cannot even hit a doggone free throw for all the tea in China.

I can't blame Dumars for not signing him. I don't like the way we ended up with nothing, but I think it was just an unfortunate sequence of events that led up to it.

I think this is an important year for Joe. It should tell us a lot about some of the choices he's made in the past.

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"Quite simply captain, I examined the problem from all angles, and it was plainly hopeless. Logic informed me that under the circumstances, the only logical action would have to be one of desperation. Logical decision, logically arrived at." -- Spock

I was under the impression that LeBron's deal is just the same maximum contract for the 2003 draft class that Wade and Melo are getting. (If I'm wrong I'm sure I will be immediately corrected and subjected to a barrage of noncreative insults.)

So what would LeBron get if there was no limit? I bet someone would offer him something like $25M.