Tiger Woods and LeBron James Are Officially Billionaires
Tiger Woods and LeBron James have reached new financial heights. Forbes recently released its list of new sports billionaires and the two have made the cut as Woods has a net worth of $1.1 billion while James' net worth is $1 billion. And as mentioned by Fox Business, Woods and James are the first two billionaire athletes while still playing their sport.
Woods has pulled in more than $1.7 billion in endorsements tournament winnings and other income before taxes and agents' fees. His net worth could have been higher had he accepted a nine-figure deal to join the Saudi-back LIV Golf tour.
James, who broke the NBA all-time scoring record in February, is set to make $124.5 million on and off the court this season from his Los Angeles Lakers contract and endorsement deals with Pepsi, AT&T and Nike. James has used his earnings to invest in real estate, his company SpringHill and stakes in Blaze Pizza, the fitness company Tonal, a team from Major League Pickleball and Fenway Sports Group which owns the Boston Red Sox.
Along with earning a lot of money, Woods and James (who share the same birthday of Dec. 30) are still playing at a high level. Woods has dealt with multiple injuries due to his car accident that happened in Feb. 2021, but he made the cut at the Masters tournament earlier this year at the age of 47 years old. James, 38, is coming in a season where he averaged 28.9, 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game. He won his fourth NBA title at 35 years old and currently has the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.
Earlier this year, Woods praised James for breaking for NBA's all-time scoring record. "What he accomplished is absolutely incredible of just the durability, the consistency and the longevity," Woods said, per Mirror. "I never thought- I mean, I grew up watching Kareem here and never saw him play in Milwaukee, but he was the Cap, you know? That's all I remember, the Showtime Lakers and watching Cap run down there with the goggles and hitting the skyhook. That record we never thought would be surpassed. But what LeBron's doing, also the amount of minutes he's playing – no one's ever done it at that age, and what he's done and be able to play five positions, that's never been done before, especially at this level for this long."