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Maverick Carter: "I left Nike in '06 to work to be full-time with LeBron. LeBron had an agent at the time, fired his agent. The same one Kevin (Durant) fired soon after. And we started a company to manage LeBron. And frankly, I didn't know what the f*ck I was doing, the truth. I mean, I knew the only thing I knew is I had to get smart people. I knew the buckets, like we need some legal, we need accounting. I knew those things and I knew how to find people."
Maverick Carter: "We thought about partnering with the NBA and we had a conversation and David Stern, rest in peace, who I actually always really admired. David Stern basically told them, 'F*ck do I need you for? I'm the NBA. I own basketball in the world.' And he said, 'So if I'm not going to do it with the NBA, I'm not. The next best person to partner with me on building a basketball business and league in India is LeBron James.' And that's why I wanted this deal."
Brendan Haywood: "I tell you another thing in Miami that was a microaggression that Pat Riley did. LeBron, I didn't realize it at the time until I played with LeBron in Cleveland. I was like, oh, that's what happened. LeBron wanted Rich Paul, Maverick, Randy, and Lynn Merritt. He wanted their season tickets to be right beside the Heat bench. Oh, yeah. And you remember where were their tickets? They were right beside the bench, but it was the other team's bench. See, these are the little petty things that go on and little things become big things. Pat Riley was like, nah, we don't want you to have your crew right beside the bench that you can talk to. He could have put them anywhere, but he's going to be a funny guy. So he puts them all the way at the other. They used to sit beside our bench. I always thought that was weird in real time and then when I got to talk to LeBron and Mike Miller and all those guys, I realized, oh, Pat Riley was taking a microaggression. That is just my example to show you that these type of little things happen all the time. And LeBron James felt like Pat Riley took a shot, and I guarantee you he felt Rob Pelinka took a shot by not giving that game ball to him."
LeBron James’ longtime business partner has been laying the groundwork to grow the basketball superstar’s business when he steps away from the game. In an appearance at last week’s Semafor World Economy gathering, Maverick Carter said that changes in the tech and media landscape allowed James some flexibility in terms of his next moves once he retires — which could be as soon as later this month, if the Lakers fall to the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA playoffs, or after next season.
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Carter told Semafor that 15 or 20 years ago, James’ primary option for remaining in the public eye would’ve been a career in sports broadcasting. But the evolution of digital media has allowed Carter and James to build up their independent entertainment business. “We have a team of people that can produce and create at a high caliber,” Carter said. “So he is actually going to come to us with what his vision is. How does he want to keep creating content and telling stories that connect with his fans? And how do we build a suite of shows around that? And then the beauty of it is, today, distribution is everywhere. So someone like LeBron’s caliber is a big draw. You can get distribution anywhere and really connect with people and build a show, just us, without anybody else.”
The emerging global basketball league currently known as Project B, which has already signed several top women’s players, is now eyeing the men’s game. And LeBron James’ right-hand man is involved. Grady Burnett, one of Project B’s co-founders, told The Athletic Tuesday that the new league plans on “extending the careers of established players” when it launches next fall and is also working once again with Maverick Carter, a longtime friend and business partner of James. Carter, 44, who oversees day-to-day operations of James’ businesses, had been a consultant for Project B until this fall but is now back in the fold as an adviser and board director, Burnett said.
An NBA source close to James said the global superstar currently has “zero” involvement in Project B. The source, who was granted anonymity to speak freely about James’ plans, said LeBron is “focused on finishing his last years in the NBA,” and when his NBA career is over, he “will turn his focus elsewhere if he chooses.”
While the new global basketball venture is moving forward, people with NBA backgrounds have interviewed for jobs in the new league, multiple league sources told The Athletic. It was not immediately clear why Carter is no longer a part of the group or when the split occurred, but a league source said Carter was taking meetings about a new league as late as last week. The Athletic has also identified at least three people with backgrounds in the NBA who have interviewed for jobs in the league.
Maverick Carter is no longer involved with the planned international basketball league that aims to disrupt the sport, multiple sources told Front Office Sports. “Project B,” as it has been called behind the scenes for nearly two years, still plans to launch next fall with 5-on-5 men’s and women’s basketball leagues. Led by Skype cofounder Geoff Prentice and former Facebook executive Grady Burnett, the investor group also includes tennis stars Novak Djokovic and Sloane Stephens; former WNBA stars Candace Parker, Alana Beard, and Lauren Jackson; and ex-NFL quarterback Steve Young. The group would not yet disclose the official name for the planned league.
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ESPN Podcasts: "The group of investors want to create a league that would compete with the NBA. They don't want it to be a US league, they want it to have a European flavor." @WindhorstESPN , @TimBontemps & @espn_macmahon on LeBron James and Maverick Carter planning to form a new international basketball league, which plans to launch in fall 2026 👀
Private equity firm BC Partners had been in talks late last year to invest in EuroLeague, but those talks ran aground as the NBA’s ambitions in the region became clearer. A separate plan to create a new competition straddling Europe and Asia — spearheaded by Maverick Carter, business partner of basketball superstar LeBron James — has also been gaining support from backers.
A proposed international league described as the F1 of basketball gained attention over the weekend when Misko Raznatovic, the agent for Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, posted a photo on Instagram of him meeting in shorts and bare feet with LeBron James and the Lakers star's business partner Maverick Carter on a yacht off the coast of the French Riviera.
Raznatovic accompanied the photo with an intriguing comment: "The summer of 2025 is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of 2026! @kingjames @mavcarter The post triggered speculation that perhaps James and Jokic could team up on either the Lakers or Nuggets, but more likely it suggests James has more than a peripheral interest in the new league. Front Office Sports reported in January that Carter was advising a group of investors trying to raise $5 billion to jump-start the league but that James wasn't involved. That may have changed.