LeBron James turned down $10,000,000 offer when he was just 18 and 'cried on the way home'

With an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, LeBron James has made many sound financial decisions throughout his life.

James has won four NBA titles and four Most Valuable Player awards since he was drafted in 2003, and he holds the record as the league's highest ever scorer.

The basketball superstars is – alongside Michael Jordan – consistently at the centre of debates over who should be considered the greatest NBA player of all time.

And he has been richly rewarded for his efforts throughout his illustrious career, with his current contract with the Los Angeles Lakers worth around $48.7 million per year, while numerous endorsement deals have netted the 40-year-old a fortune.

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James was a star-in-the-making from a young age and, when he was preparing to enter the NBA as an 18-year-old, he was already regarded as one of the best basketball prospects of all time. As such, several companies were eager to partner with him. And James remembers one meeting with Reebok in which he was offered an extraordinary amount of money to sign with them immediately.

Exhibiting the kind of sound decision-making that has served him well on and off the court ever since, he elected to keep his options open.

“The guy slides over a check to me and he says ‘If you don’t go talk to any other companies, this is yours,’” James told Travis and Jason Kelce on their New Heights podcast. “And I look at it. $10 million f---ing dollars. I was a high school senior!”

James said he didn’t know what to do with the offer and that he'd “never seen that many zeroes in [my] life". But he also didn’t want to accept any deal before upcoming scheduled meetings with Nike and Adidas. He asked the Reebok executives for a moment to think and they left him alone with his mom.

“Me and my mom were living in an apartment," James continued. "Section 8 housing. I’m going back [after the meeting], I don’t have s—t.

“My mom looked at me. She said ‘Son, trust your gut. If they’re offering you this, who knows what the other companies may offer you?’”

When the executives returned, James handed back the cheque and told them he’d like to explore all his options before making a decision.

“I may have cried on the way home,” he said. “I was like ‘I could’ve bought the building that me and my mom was living in with that money!’”

James ended up signing with Nike, inking an $87 million deal in 2003. In 2015, he penned a lifetime contract worth $1 billion with the sports apparel company.