LeBron James Starts Building Out Massive Media Empire
LeBron James and his longtime friend since childhood Maverick Carter are partnering together to build a multimedia empire and, armed with $100 million in cash and the upcoming Space Jam project to their names, they will probably succeed.
Forming the SpringHill Co, Carter and James hope to give voice to creators that have long been marginalized or “pandered to” as Bloomberg quotes the pair as saying.
L.A. investment banker Paul Wachter said of the platform, “This is ultimately a company that’s about point of view, the community you serve, and empowerment. This is a company designed to move the culture.”
Maverick Carter told Bloomberg, “When you grow up in a place like where we were, no matter how talented you are, if you don’t even know that other things exist, there’s no way for you to ever feel empowered because you’re like, I’m confined to this small world. That’s our duty. A lot of exposure.”
Named SpringHill Co after the apartment complex where LeBron James grew up, the company not only produces media but also markets and positions it so as to best maximize both the audience and the appeal of the company’s efforts.
“When we talk about storytelling, we want to be able to hit home, to hit a lot of homes where they feel like they can be a part of that story. And they feel like, Oh, you know what? I can relate to that. It’s very organic to our upbringing,” James said.
Even before the novel coronavirus outbreak, James and Maverick were planning big things for 2020. But the virus, and its impact on the African American community in particular, has refocused their efforts as a firm. Because of the devastating impact that the virus, and the subsequent racial tensions that have swept across the United States in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, SpringHill Co’s message and mission seem more relevant now than ever.
“I’m getting a lot of calls from other CEOs. A lot of calls on, ‘What are you doing? What do you think we should be doing?’ I’m explaining to people, ‘Don’t treat this as a moment,’” Carter told Bloomberg.
“This is bigger than a moment—the attention that issues of inequality are getting right now is ‘more like what this country should be, and what this world should be.’ We’ve always been about empowering people who feel like us and come from the communities that we come from and want to believe in our mission.”
As Devon Johnson points out, SpringHill Co has never had to convene a diversity commission but that doesn’t mean that they’re not willing to help other companies see what they should do within their organizations.
Luckily for James, the NBA shutdown has given him ample opportunity to turn his energies towards SpringHill Co’s efforts. Combining marketing savvy, cutting-edge media, and the unique opportunity presented by the current environment, James and Carter’s venture could lead to a new renaissance of content and opportunities for marginalized creators and communities.