The 4-time NBA champion, Lebron James has hit yet another milestone, this time doing something no other NBA player has ever done.
After another monster year of earnings, totaling $121.2 million last year–Forbes estimates that James has officially become a billionaire, while still playing .
The 37-year-old superstar has a net worth of $1 billion, according to Forbes’ count.
The 18-time NBA all Star, who’s missing the playoffs for just the fourth time in 19 seasons, is the first active NBA player to make the billionaires list.
“It’s my biggest milestone,” James told GQ in a prophetic 2014 interview. “Obviously. I want to maximize my business. And if I happen to get it, if I happen to be a billion-dollar athlete, ho. Hip hip hooray! Oh, my God, I’m gonna be excited.”
James has done just that–maximized his business, to the tune of more than $1.2 billion in pretax earnings.
He has commanded more than $385 million in salary from the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers as the NBA’s highest-paid active player.
Off the court, he has raked in upwards of $900 million in income from endorsements and other business ventures.
JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA/GETTY
Michael Jordan is the only other basketball billionaire who didn’t hit ten figures until 2014, more than a decade after he retired, thanks to a well-timed investment in the Charlotte Hornets basketball team.