LeBron Earned $30 Mil in Dr Dre's Apple Deal

Defending NBA champion, LeBron James, who may see his dreams of The Heat three-peat dashed if they don't win the next 3 straight games has public aspirations to become the first billionaire active athlete. Another thing he will have in common with Air Billionaire, Micheal Jordan, owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, who he is often compared to. Dr. Dre who appeared with James on the cover of the February 2013 issue of ESPN The Magazine, assisted him on that quest. It's been reported that Lebron James acquired $30 million in stock and cash after the Beats by Dre sale by Apple.

Even though his Heat are one game away from elimination, King James does have something to smile about since he has reportedly raked in 1% of the $3 billion sale of the headphone and music streaming company. Dr. Dre and partner Jimmy Iovine gave James prototypes of the Beats headphones back in 2008, prior to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Lebron James was given a share in Beats by Dre in exchange for promoting the headset. According ESPN, this deal is being dubbed “the biggest equity cash payout for a professional athlete in history”. 
Apple announced its plans to acquire Beats by Dre and Beats Music and bring both Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine into the Apple fold in May. The acquisition is expected to close in Q4 2014. It is still unclear if James will continue to work with Beats following the closing of the Apple acquisition. James who is in position to make another Decision, and can test the market again in the 2014 free agency, is well-known to be the top spokesperson for Apple's main rival, Samsung. 

Air Billionaire: MJ Joins The Billionaire Club

Michael Jordan, considered by many as the G.O.A.T. becomes a Billionaire (yes we said Billion with a B). Now CNBC and others are reporting MJ is the first billionaire athlete, while Golf Magazine gave the honor to Tiger Woods in February. All we know is whether he is truly the first athlete or not, it's a incredible accomplishment that needs to be uplifted.
CNBC reports Tiger Woods is supposedly on track to reach $1 billion next year, though his agent Mark Steinberg told CNBC he doesn’t keep an official tally anywhere. Mention by many, LeBron James is the dude who is thought to be most likely to follow Woods. But even six and a half year after MJ played his last game, five years after being inducted in the Hall Of Fame, he still setting the bar. 

According to Mike Ozanian of Forbes, Jordan recently increased his ownership stake in

the Charlotte Hornets from 80 percent to 89.5 percent, which put MJ over the billionaire threshold. Given the 2014 sale prices of the Milwaukee Bucks ($550 million) and Los Angeles Clippers ($2 billion), Forbes now estimates Jordan’s Hornets are worth between $600 million and $625 million.

Mike Ozanian writes: Our net worth figure for Jordan uses the $600 million figure. The Hornets have $135 million of debt, which makes Jordan’s equity in the team worth $416 million. After subtracting all the cash Jordan has invested in the team, we estimate his net worth outside of the Hornets to be $600 million, giving him a net worth of a $1 billion. 

In addition to that, his Nike brand, Jordan, topped $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time, according to CNBC. It appropriately comes 23 years after Nike reached $1 billion in revenue for the first time. At more than $1 billion in sales, the Jordan brand now makes up roughly 5 percent of Nike’s overall revenues.

This come just after Dr. Dre, the rapper/producer-cum-mogul recently became hip-hop's first billionaire, when Apple paid $3 billion to acquire Beats Electronics, the headphone manufacturer and music streaming service in which Dre and partner Jimmy Iovine had around a 50-percent stake.

In an era where everyone post and repost whatever there hear and see without checking the facts, in the matter of whose first, I figured I'd check Forbes for myself and this is what they had to say in an article online on the matter: So is MJ the first billionaire athlete? Sort of. In September 2009, Forbes bestowed that title upon Tiger Woods. Two month later, Tiger crashed his Escalade and began his fall from grace. He's not currently listed on Forbes comprehensive list of the world's billionaires. 

First or not, one thing is clear, from this point forth, you must now refer to Michael Jordan as Air Billionaire!

On The Road To Riches And Championship Rings: THE 2014 NBA FINALS

The defending Champs, The Miami Heat are out to repeat as The San Antonio Spurs wants to avenge last years finals. Both teams have something to prove. 10-Time All-Star, LeBron James and 14-Time All-Star,Tim Duncan lead their teams in a Finals rematch with legacies on the line and rings on their mind.

For the Spurs don't call it a comeback they've been here for years. Its been much blood, sweat and tears to get in position to erase the game 6 collapse, where they literally saw their demise with a Ray Allen trey that led to their championship trophy disappear before their eyes.
The Heat want to accomplish the feat of the three peat joining Jordan's Bulls and the Kobe and Shaq's Los Angeles Lakers. We are witnessing the best two teams of the NBA go for broke and show they ain't no joke. 

Neither team is going out without a fight as records were broke in game three in American Airlines Arena. The Spurs take game three, convincingly to go up 2-1, but I have a feeling it's far from over. One thing is for certain this going to be a long series. It will come down to who wants it more, I expect the Heat to bring the noise in game four!

LEBRON JAMES: U CAN HATE ME NOW!!!!!

YOU CAN HATE ME NOW
It's been a long time, been a long time comin
Looks like the death of me now
But you know, there's no turning back now
This is what makes me - this is what I am
You can hate me now.. but I won't stop now..

Ok I think I've been quiet long enuf! What’s with all the LeBron James hating! I said I wasn't gonna say nuthin, but after watching jersey burning fans on the news, reading all the comments on twitter, Facebook and everywhere else people can possibly have an opinion, I just couldn't keep it to myself any longer!!!!!! I have read and heard everyone else, now here goes my 3 ½ cents on the matter, welcome to another long over due AJ ROK Rant!!!!!

First off, most of the comments have no validity! At least know what you are talking about before you run ya mouth all over the world wide web! And to all you bandwagon fans looking for the next superstar to pledge ya undying love and support to as long as he wins this year, Lebron on Miami Heat with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh even with Pat Riley pulling the strings and backseat coaching does not guarantee the Heat will win 3 out of the next 5 championships and be the newest dynasty! With that said I am rooting for them but just know they gonna have to go out and get that, aint no one laying down for them!

THE IDIOT OF THE WEEK AWARD

Oh yeah and before I forget the Idiot of The Week Award goes to majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Daniel "Dan" Gilbert for his open letter to the fans regarding Lebron going to Miami! Now like I said his mere presence on the Heat don’t make them champions but if history has shown us how LeBron responds to ignorance like your ‘open letter’ Mr. Gilbert, you have inspired LeBron James to do whatever to win one in South Beach in year one! Lets be straight you mad he left you for a better situation before you could trade him for a better situation. I hope you make better business decisions at ya day job as the Chairman and Founder of Quicken Loans Inc. and Rock Financial. Cause that was the bonehead move of the month!!!!!! Can you say Sore-Loser!!!!!! Gilbert is also the owner of Fathead company that makes life-size vinyl wall graphics of professional athletes and cartoon characters that retail for $50-$100. Well Dan has cut the cost of LeBron's Fatheat to $17.41, the year most notorious traitors in American history, Benedict Arnold was born! Great marketing strategy of how you can milk LBJ's image for a few extra dollars now that he is gone!!!!

THE UNPRECEDENTED ESPN SPECIALHate on me, I blew but I'm the same ol G
People warn me, when you're on top there's envy

The Decision got everyone talking, I have heard and read so much about this program. Even NBC Sports wrote a piece of their site titled, Was LeBron special ESPN's deal with devil? Could that be some str8 hate because of the staggering Nielsen ratings, sounds like jealousy to me. I wonder if it would have been all good if it aired on NBC, things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm!
Ok so King James held a one hour press conference to announce his choice and sold exclusive rights to air it on ESPN! What amazed me most is damn near everyone who had something to say didn't miss a minute of The Decision! Now if you command that much attention, what’s wrong with what he did? And I can’t get mad that he had the business sense enough to make a deal with ESPN for exclusivity, and get them to give up all proceeds from the commercials to the Boy’s & Girl’s Clubs of America. They complaining about how he only thinking about himself and don’t care about nobody else, but he turned your curiosity to millions of dollars to organizations that save madd youths lives each year! He did more than the communities of the six cities he was considering than their own people! Don’t get madd people that even your beloved Kobe aint pull off nuthin like that!!! Frankly I would have waited for the you tube clips of the Kobe press conf, ya heard!!!!!!

THE CITY OF CLEVELAND GETS THE GAS FACE!!!

I feel the pain and emotions of the city of Cleveland, I mean you aint had a champion since Jim Brown and damn that was what like 50 years ago. But come on, I mean is it that serious? We are talking about a professional basketball player not a congressman, or mayor or state representative, but an athlete! Yes one of your own, will be one of the greatest and probably his mere presence put a certain amount of dollar bills in the economy. It’s alright to be hurt, but is that how you treat one of your own, who wants to do better for himself and his family! He may have literally had the entire city on his shoulders but seriously he is a basketball player, a damn good one, but just a basketball player, who an NBA team and entire city looked to for leadership at the age of 18! It’s been seven years, how many players have held it down for seven years in one city! Burning the jerseys and almost rioting are ridiculous. Like Bone Thugs N Harmony he will always be singing ‘Cleveland is the city that we come from, Cleveland is the city- City that we come from’ but for real now there’s a remix, Miami is the city where we won, where we won!

This is where this man is from, Cleveland, where his family lives, it had to be a hard decision, but sometime to get what we want we gotta leave home, ya heard, So don’t hate the player for moving and wanting to win. For all his real fans, friends and family in Cleveland he is ‘gonna miss everybody [He’s] gonna miss everybody, And to Dan Gilbert, ‘(So you won't be lonely)
[He’ll] See you at the crossroads!

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – BIG CITY OF DREAMS

Aight everyone who knows me knows I’m a die-hard New York Knicks fan, yes I said it out loud! Even when your team gives you nuthin to cheer about real fans don’t bail on their team. Now that said lets be real what did the Knicks have to offer LeBron for comin to New York. Madison Avenue, cool, a mega media city cool, but what about the possibility to, as he put it, win now and later, hmmmmm. Think if we are real, NY we fell a little short there! And to boo this brother at Carmelo Anthony’s wedding, what’s that all about? You only made him wanna torch the Knicks every time he steps foot in the worlds most famous arena!!!!! It would have been nice but lets be real Jordan and others thru New York’s name up as well to get their teams to come out their pocket or make others dig deeper, so don’t hate Lebron for playing the game, hate the game!!!! And let’s be real New Yorkers are the hardest on our professional athletes, ya love and ya
hate em in the same breath! Who wanna come to all that especially since the Knicks didn't have all their pieces and are 40 years removed from their last ring!

HOW WILL LEBRON JAMES BE REMEMBERED?

Will he go down in history as one of the greatest to play the game? Will he get multiple rings in South Beach? Will this turn out to be the single greatest move or biggest mistake in his career? Hmmmm, only time will tell. But one thing I do know if he stayed in Cleveland, Lebron James goes down in history as a King with no Ring!!!!! Everyone may not agree with me, but like that title said you can hate me know, but I’m telling the truth!!!!!!! All I’m saying is let Lebron live. In am era where you don’t have franchises anymore cause of free agency, lets not forget teams who dump roll players a month after winning a championship (remember Robert Horry and Sam Casell in Houston, just to name one example). You can’t get mad at a brother who got in front of the game and made a move he thought was best for him and his family! This has been A FEW WORDS FROM DA ROK, holla at ya boy, I wanna hear what you gotta say!!!!!!