News of Stephen Curry officially launching his own sub-brand with Under Armour making headlines earlier this week prompted a lot of discussion about LeBron James, with many questioning why he hasn't established his own Nike sub-brand. A move in that direction seemed inevitable when James inked a "lifetime" deal reportedly worth more than $1 billion with Nike in 2016, but he hasn't followed in the footsteps of Michael Jordan just yet. However, the idea is very much in his mind—so much that he recently had a vision of exactly which player he would have liked to build his brand around.
During an appearance on Uninterrupted's Road Trippin Podcast, James revealed that he wanted to sign Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić to the would-be LeBron Brand, apparently running the idea by Nike during Dončić's sneaker free agency last season.
"I don't even know if Luka knows this, but he will know it now," said James. "I wanted Luka to be the first signee of Team LeBron when he was going through his situation."
Team Jordan or Team LeBron? @KingJames revealed that he wanted to build around @Luka7Doncic on @roadtrippinpod 👀 pic.twitter.com/JU4IatJlOP
Dončić ended up signing a lucrative multi-year deal with Jordan last December. While Jordan hasn't confirmed a signature line for the Slovenian superstar, the brand has released a Dončić-inspired Air Jordan 1 Mid and will reportedly drop a special Air Jordan 35 SE PE in May.
It doesn't appear that James' idea for a Dončić-led LeBron Brand moved past exploratory discussions—he's not sure if Dončić is even aware that it was a possibility.
"I don't believe that my guys at Nike was ready for that," he said. "And obviously they were not, because he ended up going to Jordan."
