Be like Mike: LeBron James wants to own an NBA team

The result was a landmark deal that has matured into one of the great team purchases in recent history. Jordan got the Bobcats for a reported value of $275 million, but most of it was the assumption of debt. The NBA approved the purchase with Jordan putting up just $30 million in cash, according to the Charlotte Observer, an arrangement the league would almost certainly not approve today.

Jordan has subsequently bought more shares in the team and now owns about 90 percent of the franchise. His ownership has lifted Jordan's net worth by hundreds of millions over the past decade. This month Forbes estimated the Hornets (nee Bobcats) are now worth more than $1.2 billion.

The Hornets have typically operated in the red but are buoyed by a robust revenue sharing system that funnels tens of millions to Jordan annually to help make his team profitable. For example, between 2012 and 2017, league documents showed Jordan's fellow owners sent him more than $130 million in revenue assistance.

This week, Jordan will host one of the NBA's signature events when the All-Star Weekend comes to Charlotte. The city spent $34 million to help renovate the Spectrum Center to prepare for the event.

When LeBron James arrives to lead Team LeBron against Team Giannis, he will do so with admiration for what Jordan has done. The six championships and Hall of Fame career, of course, but James has been in awe of Jordan's on-court accomplishments since he was a young boy.

Jordan's maneuvers and deal-making to become the controlling owner of an NBA franchise has captured James' attention anew as James matured from basketball star to businessman.

James and business partner Maverick Carter have made it clear their goal is sports team ownership in the future. Just as with his playing career when James has charted his own course but often looked toward Jordan for inspiration, someday James hopes to be hosting his own All-Star Weekend.

In reality, James is already a sports team owner. As part of a deal in 2011 with Fenway Sports Group, James received a small percentage of the English soccer powerhouse Liverpool FC. FSG bought the team for $477 million shortly before it did the deal with James. The club is now valued at roughly $2 billion. That James investment has gone quite well.

"I see LeBron owning multiple teams someday," Fenway Sports president Sam Kennedy said. "Not just NBA, but perhaps international soccer and maybe in esports. One thing we've learned working with LeBron is that he sees the big picture. He has a track record of making smart decisions and looking for opportunities. He's also been very successfully financially, and that's what you have to do to become a sports team owner."

There aren't many former NBA players who've gone on to become owners of NBA teams. It's one of the reasons James has been drawn to two of them: Jordan and Magic Johnson, who owned 10 percent of the Los Angeles Lakers at one time and is now one of the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Grant Hill has a piece of the ownership of the Atlanta Hawks and is the team's vice chairman. Shaquille O'Neal has a small ownership stake in the Sacramento Kings. Elliot Perry has an ownership share in the Memphis Grizzlies and is the team's alternate governor.

"I had the chance to see my father [Calvin] pursue ownership in teams," said Hill, whose father was a Pro Bowl NFL running back and was a part of groups that tried to buy the Washington Bullets and New England Patriots.

"That planted the seed for me. It's one of the reasons why I wanted to get to know and learn from the owners that I played for over the years. But not many NBA players get that seed planted when they're in high school like I did."

Even now when NBA ownership is more diversified than ever, with several controlling owners who are women and international ownership on the rise, James doesn't have many peers in his pursuit.

Successful players often go on to become coaches or general managers and, of course, excel in the business world with the money they've made in their careers. But James -- who has a net worth of $440 million, according to Forbes -- is one of the few who has vocalized his desire to advance to the ownership level.

"Almost no players have come to me over the years to seek council how I did it," said Perry, who got an ownership position with the Grizzlies when they moved from Vancouver in 2001 through a relationship with minority owner Staley Cates. "I've only had a few conversations about it. More players could absolutely do it, and I would've thought there would be more by now."

With the NBA's business booming, the barrier of entry to become an owner is outrageously high. James has done very well financially. By the end of his current four-year contract with the Lakers, he'll have earned a record $390 million in NBA salary. He has earned several hundred million from Nike and has a lifetime contract with the brand that has the potential to earn him hundreds of millions more. He has made tens of millions from Coca-Cola over 16 years of endorsement deals. He cashed out an ownership position with Beats headphones that made him more than $50 million when Apple bought the company for $3 billion in 2014.

He has a large position in the Blaze Pizza chain and is a central owner in two media companies, SpringHill Entertainment and Uninterrupted, among other investments. He's on his way to being a billionaire.

But he might not have to spent it all on a team outright to have ownership power. Former New York Yankees great Derek Jeter reportedly has just a 4 percent share of the Miami Marlins, which investor Bruce Sherman bought in 2017 for $1.2 billion. But it's Jeter, who was the face of the bid to buy the team and who runs the Marlins' baseball and business operations, acting as the lead decision-maker.

That's the type of deal that James, who has developed numerous partnerships with wealthy individuals and companies, might seek to gain a de facto controlling ownership position within the next decade. James probably would be able to front an ownership group within days of his retirement if he wanted.

Finding the right backers and right opportunity is another story. Like Jordan, who became a minority owner of the Washington Wizards shortly after his second retirement, it's something James is already working on as his playing days wind down.

"LeBron has figured the league out and taken ahold of his career in a unique way," Perry said. "He's tremendously smart in the way he conducts himself on and off the court. It's been intentional, and he can change the conversation about cracking the ceiling [for more players to become owners]. He'll find the right place and time. That's what Michael [Jordan] did and that's how LeBron will do it too."

THE TIMBERWOLVES HAVE made two major changes during the season hoping to shake up what has been a disappointing roster. After a monthlong standoff with Jimmy Butler, they traded him to Philadelphia in November. And in the first week of January the team fired coach Tom Thibodeau, replacing him with the energetic Ryan Saunders, whom the players seem to love.