Loan details
Months before LeBron James signed a $154 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, a limited liability company he controls borrowed nearly $300 million from a pair of Midwestern life insurers advised by an arm of Guggenheim Partners, according to insurance industry records reviewed by Bloomberg and summarized by Sports Business Journal.
The financing ran through King James Funding, an LLC James controls. The two insurers, North American Company for Life and Health Insurance and Midland National Life Insurance Co., both owned by Sammons Financial Group, purchased the private bonds. The original bonds carried a 4.8% interest rate, matured in 2049, and were backed by future revenue from James's non-basketball earnings, including his lifetime Nike sponsorship. The sum was larger than the $154 million contract James signed with the Lakers in 2018, when he was still with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The structure is similar to so-called Bowie Bonds, pioneered by David Bowie's music catalog decades ago and now popular among athletes and entertainers seeking to unlock cash against future earnings without selling assets outright.
Subsequent Deal
James's LLC paid down some of the debt, but by the end of last year the insurers still held roughly $245 million. In August 2022, around the time James signed a $97 million extension with the Lakers, the same insurers bought nearly $60 million more in 34-year bonds at a 5.75% interest rate.
A spokesperson for James described the transactions as a securitization of his personal, non-basketball earnings, a structure the spokesperson said is common for people with his level of earnings. The spokesperson said both transactions were fully approved by the NBA and that James has no affiliation with Guggenheim or the firms involved beyond the transactions themselves.
Mark Walter and the Lakers
The lending dates back to before Mark Walter, then CEO, began acquiring the Lakers. Walter took a minority stake in the team in 2021 before obtaining a majority stake in 2025. This month, Walter agreed to sell the Lakers for a record $12.5 billion to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, pending NBA approval. The sale was reported amid federal scrutiny of parts of Walter's business empire: two Walter-controlled insurers, Delaware Life and Clear Spring, are under review by the DOJ and SEC over roughly $20 billion in loans that should have been disclosed as related-party transactions, as reported by The Los Angeles Times and Heavy.
However, the insurers that financed James — those owned by Sammons — are not the ones under scrutiny, and Bloomberg's reporting notes nothing ties the James bonds to the federal investigation. The Los Angeles Times also noted that there is no indication that the loans to James have anything to do with those inquiries.
Separately, Sammons said during an investor call that Guggenheim was the sole asset manager for its insurance unit until 2021, and that it has been selling down its stake in Walter's firm. Guggenheim also invested in digital media venture SpringHill Co. in 2020, which James co-founded, a tie between the parties beyond the bond transactions.
James left Los Angeles this summer and signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, a move that ended his tenure with the Lakers after playing out his contract.
Background on Securitization Trend
The deal sits beside a broadening trend among athletes and entertainers to treat future earnings like royalties and licensing deals as collateral for upfront capital. The Loop over-the-top, David Bowie remains the most famous example of taking such financial instruments to Wall Street, but the market for esoteric securities has grown.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the loan was a significantly larger deal than James's initial Lakers contract, highlighting Warren Walter's. The role of insurance money in private investments has drawn new attention, especially as Bob Winter's use of policyholder premiums has expanded into private credit, sports franchises, and player financing.