“LeBron James made $96 million in the last 12 months”: Kevin Durant and the Lakers star rep the NBA in Forbes’ list of top 10 highest paid sportspersons

LeBron James and Kevin Durant have recently been featured in the latest Forbes list of top 10 highest-paid sportspersons for 2020.

Forbes released a list of the sporting world’s highest earners from May 2020 to April 2021 this week. UFC legend and double champion Conor McGregor headlines the list, having made $180 million in this period.

LeBron James came in 5th in this list with earnings of $96.5 million. Dak Prescott pipped the Lakers star for the top berth among American sportspersons, finishing 4th at $107.5 million.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo maintained their stronghold near the top. La Masia’s finest tallied $130 million pre-tax in this period, while Ronaldo reportedly earned $120 million.

The top 10 highest paid athletes, according to Forbes 💰 pic.twitter.com/24P0iQXrG9

— ESPN (@espn) May 12, 2021

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Can LeBron James and Kevin Durant climb up the standings this year?

Space Jam: A New Legacy will be hitting theaters worldwide in July this year. Now if the Lakers can make a run to the Finals for a second consecutive year, they could be facing the Brooklyn Nets.

This would make it an inter-city rivalry between the USA’s biggest cities, pitting arguably the NBA’s two best players against each other. Kevin Durant and LeBron James will undoubtedly have big roles to play if their teams are to make runs to the Finals.

The movie is timed perfectly for it to generate maximum interest because it’s releasing alongside the NBA playoffs. It will likely be a big payday for James either way, but postseason success will undoubtedly enhance interest in the movie. This basically would mean more moolah for James.

and not enough talk about how space jam 2, a sequel 25 years in the making, is dropping the week of #NBA finals and will get more eyeballs on @KingJames and other superstars…it’s the #spacejam summer bull case

— Ham Zand (@24_8Media) May 2, 2021

Space Jam 2 comes out on July 16th, which would be around Game 5 or Game 6 of the NBA Finals (which will likely be Lakers vs Nets). From a storyline/narrative perspective, this is almost too perfect of a setup… pic.twitter.com/9ErT2sogrA

— Colton G (@ColtonG826) April 3, 2021

Kevin Durant, meanwhile, will be looking to add to his portfolio of startup investments through his firm ThirtyFive Ventures. His investment in Coinbase will also begin reaping higher dividends for him this year, given the meteoric recent rise of trading in cryptocurrency. KD invested an amount between $250k to $1 million, and Coinbase has since leaped to 53 times its 2016 valuation.

All in all, both James and KD have a great standing and future scope to increase their yearly revenue. Now whether or not that helps them climb up the standings the next year is best answered by waiting.

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