LeBron James' new dream: owning an NBA team in Las Vegas

 LeBron James has assured that he wants to own an NBA team and that he aspires for that team to settle in Las Vegas, where there is currently no franchise in the League. "I want to own a team. I want to buy a team, of course (...). I want a team in Las Vegas," LeBron said in a preview released Thursday of the new installment of his television show "The Shop." .

LeBron, who co-owns the Premier League's Liverpool and baseball's Boston Red Sox, has insisted of late that he wants to own an NBA team when he leaves the courts. However, the expansion to Las Vegas that LeBron imagines is not among the imminent plans of the NBA for now.

"Not true (talk about expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas). Maybe some in the league are talking about potential expansion after the 2024 season. At some point this league will expand, but not right now," Adam said. Silver, commissioner of the NBA, at a press conference last Thursday prior to the start of the Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors (2-1 so far).

These statements by LeBron come a week after the Los Angeles Lakers star became the first active NBA player to amass a fortune of more than a billion dollars, according to Forbes magazine, which compiles the lists of the richest in the world.

The publication dedicated an article to LeBron and revealed that he has accumulated some 385 million dollars playing (with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers) plus 900 million from his advertising collaborations and other businesses.

LeBron is the second professional basketball player to make the list after Michael Jordan, who made it ten years after retiring from the NBA when he invested in the Charlotte Hornets team.

Known throughout the world for being "the city of gambling", Las Vegas has also stood out in recent years for its impressive growth in sports. Thus, this February it became the first city in history to host two All-Stars at the same time: the NFL Pro Bowl and the NHL All-Star game. Las Vegas has also played its cards to attract top-level franchises, something it has recently achieved with the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights (created in 2017), the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders (arrived in 2020 from Oakland) and the Las Vegas Aces. of the WNBA (landed in 2018 from San Antonio).

Two milestones have crowned the idyll between Las Vegas and sports. On the one hand, the inauguration in 2020 of the Allegiant Stadium, a splendid stadium with a capacity for 65,000 spectators that is the home of the Raiders and that last year hosted the Gold Cup final between Mexico and the USA