It didn’t take long for LeBron James to establish himself as one of the most promising high school recruits in the history of United States basketball. After scoring 15 points in his St Vincent-St Mary debut as a freshman, it was all uphill for him. It got to a point where James was being offered a reported $9,000,000 contract by an overseas team to come play for them when he hadn’t even entered his senior season of high school basketball yet in 2002. Luckily for him, his surrogate father stepped in and made sure this wouldn’t happen.
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By the time James had completed his junior season at SVSM, he had already done everything from grace the cover of Sports Illustrated as ‘The Chosen One’ to being named the Gatorade National Player of the Year. His rise to the top was as unprecedented as could be and despite the monumental hype surrounding him, in hindsight, he still surpassed all expectations given the career he’s had.
LeBron James was offered a deal by an Italian team in his sophomore season
LeBron James was a sought-after commodity in all aspects. Brands wanted to feature him in advertisements, shoe brands like Nike and Adidas hounded him to sign with them, and as expected, professional teams wanted him before the NBA could sign him. The latter is exactly what happened to James in his junior season.
DIME Magazine, at the time in 2002, reported that LeBron had gotten an offer from an Italian team that would remain nameless to come overseas and play for them for $9,000,000. There wasn’t all too much concrete reporting regarding the semantics of the deal as some even claimed that the amount discussed was around $5,000,000.
“A Dime Magazine report that James has been offered a $9 million contract by an unnamed Italian team to play his senior season overseas is denied by Eddie Jackson, James’ surrogate father. One source says the deal was for $5 million and serious negotiations were never broached.”- An excerpt from an ESPN story by Darren Rovell.
Regardless of how much a 17 year old LeBron James was offered to play overseas, he would end up not taking the deal. His surrogate father, Eddie Jackson, stepped in and didn’t let talks progress past a preliminary stage.
LeBron James would accept a massive deal with Nike
While LeBron James may have turned down playing in Italy in his junior year, he did however, accept a much more fruitful offer from Nike before ever stepping foot on NBA hardwood. He signed a 7 year deal worth $87 million with Nike well over a month before the NBA Draft had even happened.
By the time James bid farewell to SVSM, it was a foregone conclusion that despite his absence from collegiate hoops, he was going to go 1st overall in the 2003 NBA Draft. As expected, this did happen as he was drafted by his home state team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
