LeBron James was a superstar even while still playing high school basketball. 

His games were already being aired on National TV. 

During an appearance on Kevin Durant’s The Boardroom on ESPN +, LeBron spoke about the exploitation of young athletes, using his experience as the catalyst for the discussion.

“Freshman year to my sophomore year they moved our home games to the [University of Akron]… My first game of my sophomore year was at the University of Akron and there like 6,000 people… and they sell season tickets,” LeBron said. “Right then and there as a sophomore at 15-years-old I knew that this was a business.”

KD also had a lot to say on the issue, explaining how he used to see his college jersey being sold but not making a single dollar from the sales.

“I seen a 35 jersey on the rack and I’m just wondering like, why my name’s not on the back of it,” KD explained. “Everybody knows this is my jersey and it was just kind of confusing at that point because it was this in between period where it was like is this always about ball or they might be making money on the other side of this too. So I didn’t know who to turn to, I had no guidance, and I was going to the NBA the next year. So it was like, I just want to play ball.”

KD and LeBron are a few of the lucky ones. 

They’ve made that back, and a whole lot more. 

You can watch the full episode on ESPN + 

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