Ask The Business Lawyer

Whatever you may want to say about today's professional athletes, I think it's smart that they're expanding their options.  Too often you hear about stellar careers cut short because of injury . . . and if the athletes haven't come up with a "Plan B," they're sunk.

So I was intrigued to learn that LeBron James, basketball forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers, is also a partner in LRMR Marketing, a sports marketing firm he started two years ago with three other childhood friends.  And that, as reported in the Coschocton Tribune (of Ohio), according to the Associated Press, that he recently signed another friend, Ted Ginn, Jr., a rookie wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins, to a five-year contract worth more than $13 million.  James himself has become extremely wealthy from endorsement's and seems to want to share this marketing expertise with others.  As Ginn commented, "knowing James for years made the decision to enter into a business partnership an easy one."