The Los Angeles Lakers megastar, a four-time NBA champion and the league’s No. 2 career scorer, made $121.2 million from May 2021 to May 2022 in on-court salary and off-court earnings, according to Forbes. The total trailed only that of Lionel Messi, who made $130 million, on Forbes’ highest-paid athletes list.
Reaching $1 billion is something James has been thinking about for some time.
“I want to maximize my business,” James told GQ in 2014. “And if I happen to get it, if I happen to be a billion-dollar athlete, ho. Hip hip hooray! Oh, my god. I’m gonna be excited.”
Although the Lakers struggled in 2021-22 and James missed the playoffs for just the fourth time in his career, he did become, at 37, the oldest player to average 30 points in a season (30.3 PPG).
