LeBron James and Draymond Green join forces to buy pickleball team

LA Lakers superstar LeBron James and Golden State Warriors star player Draymond Green are venturing into a new business. The two NBA rivals, who are also off-the-court close friends, are buying a pickleball franchise.

These two NBA stars are real-life best buddies with four NBA Finals matches, play-in games, and countless Christmas games. LeBron James even attended and partied at Draymond’s wedding. While Draymond signed a deal with LeBron’s Klutch Sports and guested at his HBO show.

It’s not surprising that they are now teaming up on a new investment. On Wednesday, Major League Pickleball announced that NBA stars will now have their ownership rights. In addition, pickleball is a sport that’s a cross between tennis and badminton. 

LeBron James, Draymond Green and Kevin Love are leading a group of investors purchasing one of four expansion teams in the pickleball league next season.

Drew Brees and Milwaukee Bucks governor Marc Lasry are also investors in the league. pic.twitter.com/pj1JYbqOT9

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 28, 2022

Along with LeBron James and Draymond Green, Kevin Love and Maverick Carter will also own pickleball teams. In the past months, pickleball gained popularity. The sports attracted several celebrity investors, making it a big business now.

The NBA players’ interest in the sport is rooted in also playing it. Some of them played it together in the last few years. Maverick Carter told CNBC, “When I started playing pickleball, I immediately connected with the sport’s community and its capacity to be both fun and competitive.”

Carter added, “To see the sport growing in communities all over is really exciting. And we’re looking forward to bringing our expertise together to try and build a championship team.”

LeBron James, Kevin Love & Draymond Green investing in Major League Pickleball pic.twitter.com/aFWvsC1lIb

— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) September 28, 2022

Carter and James will lead as the team’s owners through their family office, LRMR Ventures. In addition, MLP also said it is increasing from 12 to 16 teams. Pickleball players will also play in six tournaments in different US states. It will have prize money for those events that would go over $2 million.

According to MLP, this year’s season finals with 48 players will compete for the biggest event in pickleball history with $319,000. The Winning team will have $100,000 for the event held on October 14-16 in Columbus, Ohio. Students from the LeBron James Family Foundation’s I Promise school will also attend the pickleball finale.

James, 37, has expanded his investments in the past years. This made his net worth more than $1 billion in June. Some of his earnings came from other sources. He closed a lifetime deal with Nike in 2015. While he also has other endorsements with Walmart, AT&T, Walmart, and PepsiCo.