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LeBron James signs 2-year, $8M deal with 76ers, taking 92% pay cut
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LeBron James signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers on July 24, 2026, a 92% pay cut from his $52.6 million salary the previous season. The 41-year-old forward, whose net worth is $1.4 billion, became the first active athlete to reach billionaire status in 2022. He is the fourth-highest-paid athlete globally with $85 million in off-court earnings over the past year. James' career on-court earnings total $581.3 million, the most in NBA history. His recent investments include participating in a $575 million funding round for wearable device firm Whoop. James said he 'thought I was done when the season ended' and his move to Philadelphia ends an eight-year tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers that included a 2020 NBA championship.
Source report
Topline
LeBron James signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday, extending his historically long NBA career. The deal represents a significant pay cut for James, whose earnings and investments both on and off the court have cemented his billionaire status for years.
Key Facts
- James signed an $8 million deal with a player option, allowing him to extend his contract for an additional season at a set salary or become an unrestricted free agent, NBA insider Shams Charania reported. This marks a 92% pay cut from his $52.6 million salary the previous season.
- Forbes named James—whose net worth is valued at $1.4 billion as of Friday—a billionaire in 2022, making him the first athlete to reach billionaire status while still active in their sport. He is one of four active billionaire athletes, joining Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Tiger Woods.
- The 41-year-old forward is the fourth-highest-paid athlete in the world. James' off-court earnings totaled $85 million over the previous 12 months before taxes and agent fees, the second-highest total among active athletes behind the Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani ($125 million).
- Among James' recent investments—joining equity deals and endorsements from DraftKings, Hennessy, and Richard Mille, among others—is his participation in a $575 million funding round that valued the wearable device firm Whoop at more than $10 billion, though it's unclear how much James contributed.
Big Number
$581.3 million. That is James' career on-court earnings across his 23 years in the NBA, the most of all-time ahead of Kevin Durant ($501 million) and Stephen Curry ($470 million), according to Spotrac.
Surprising Fact
James is one of only eight athletes that Forbes has measured with at least $70 million in off-field income in a single year, including Curry, Messi, Ohtani, Ronaldo, Woods, Roger Federer, and Conor McGregor.
Key Background
James, in a statement on X announcing his signing with the 76ers, said he "thought I was done when the season ended." His move to Philadelphia marks weeks of speculation about where James would likely end his career, though some NBA fans believed James foreshadowed a preference for the 76ers after saying earlier this month he was "trusting the process," an apparent reference to a phrase often used for the franchise's rebuild around Joel Embiid. James' signing marks the end of his eight-year run with the Los Angeles Lakers, which ultimately culminated in the team winning the 2020 NBA Championship.
Further Reading
- Forbes: LeBron James Will Join Philadelphia 76ers—Extending His Historic Career Another 2 Years by Antonio Pequeño IV
- Forbes: The World's 10 Highest-Paid Athletes 2026 by Brett Knight
Source
Forbes - BusinessWestern
Part of this Story
LeBron James Signs with Philadelphia 76ers for Record 24th NBA Season