LeBron James. Image via: Allen J. Schaben/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
LeBron James pledged $2.5 million in November 2016 to the Muhammad Ali exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. The 6-foot-9 forward pointed to a debt he believes every pro athlete owes. Ali had died that June at age 74. James has an estimated net worth of $850 million. Through the 2025-26 season, he earned $581.4 million in NBA salary, the most in league history. His rookie deal with Cleveland paid $18.8 million over four years, and his last Lakers season paid $52.6 million. He signed with Nike at 18, before playing an NBA game, on a seven-year deal worth $90 million, and he passed on more upfront money from Reebok. In 2015, Nike gave him a lifetime deal widely valued above $1 billion. Front Office Sports reported in September that Polymarket pays him $15 million a year, almost four times his 76ers salary.
Because people there helped James and his family when he was a kid, according to foundation executive director Michele Campbell, akron gets the focus. On the court, he has won four NBA championships and become the league’s all-time leading scorer.
James said every professional athlete, no matter race or gender, “owes a huge debt of gratitude to Muhammad Ali. Thomas said Ali carried the racial and social tension of his era and blurred the lines between politics and sports, and between activism and entertainment. She said the exhibit will teach young visitors about her husband’s humanitarian work and his stance on social justice for all people. James has said he planned to give back even before he reached the NBA.
Maverick Carter, his business partner, was part of the gift, and it added the LeBron James Family Foundation and Carter to the museum’s list of founding donors. Ali boxed and James plays basketball, so a shared sport was never the link. The display was not a boxing showcase. It ran across the Sports Gallery and the Making A Way Out of No Way Gallery, and it included the heavyweight champion’s headgear and the training robe he wore at Dundee’s Fifth Street Gym. Visitors saw Ali through community activism, resistance, politics, spirituality, and culture. He also appeared in the Michael Jordan Game Changers Hall, which covered people whose actions changed their sport and the country around it. He placed Ali beside Jackie Robinson and Jesse Owens as figures who used sport to push civil rights forward. In his view, every generation should study that legacy. Lonnie Ali, the champion’s widow, thought about children first.
Damion Thomas, curator of the Sports Gallery, called James “the most socially active superstar in sports today. She added that “if Muhammad was alive today he would be honored.
