Who is Maverick Carter?

Maverick Carter is an American businessman, media personality, friend, and business partner of LeBron James. He is the brain behind all of James’ business establishments and has served as James’ manager and business partner for years. Carter is the most popular name to reckon with LeBron James. He is also one of the architects of Team LeBron and the powerful force behind 'King James’ throne. The relationship between Carter and LeBron James is one that has continued to grow and inspire other African-American athletes. Carter has a net worth of $15 million.

Early life and education

Maverick Carter was born on October 10, 1980. He spent his childhood in Akron, OH, and Atlanta, GA with his mother Kathrine Powers who was a social worker, and father, Otis carter. He met his lifelong friend LeBron James at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School (SVSM) in Akron, where they both played basketball and football. After graduating from high school, Carter was admitted into Western Michigan, where he played college basketball until he transferred to The University of Akron and he decided to pursue other interests apart from basketball.

Career

Carter withdrew from college to intern with Nike as a Nike field representative. His experience as Nike opened him up to the world of business, as a successful marketer. Unlike LeBron James who continued on the path of professional basketball, Carter opted for business and has been James’ business manager since 2006.

Carter, together with James, Rich Paul, and Randy Mims founded the sports-marketing company LRMR. With his years of business experience, Carter arranged a deal between LRMR and Fenway Sports Group which was able to secure LeBron James a partial stake in a football club, Liverpool F.C. and boosted his international profile.

Carter is the founder and CEO of LBMR, the management company that handles a good percentage of LeBron James’ publicity, promotional deals, and marketing. The firm also advises LeBron James on entertainment investments.

The Decision, LeBron James' TV Special 

Carter was also responsible for creating The Decision, a television special, and The LeBrons, a series of commercials that featured caricatures of LeBron James. Most recently, Maverick Carter and LeBron James founded SpringHill Entertainment, a collaborator of Warner Bros. SpringHill Entertainment was created to give the underrepresented African-American communities a voice, as well as reach the underserved Black audience. Some of its projects also feature Disney XD series Becoming, the NBC game show The Wall, the Starz series Survivor’s Remorse, the Bleacher Report spinoff Uninterrupted, and film Space Jam: A New Legacy which features Maverick himself.

Maverick Carter and LeBron James Relationship 

Mr. Carter and LeBron James have enjoyed years of friendship and partnership. Carter credits the success of their working relationship to the fact that they are totally honest with each other, since their childhood days.

The James-Carter Team

“Carter and I were introduced in 2006,” James said. At the time, James was 21 and had just completed his third NBA season with Cleveland. While Carter was 24.

According to James, the idea of bringing Carter on board wasn’t necessarily to earn him a fortune but to establish power and influence in the industry. For over 18 years, James and Carter began painting the kind of future they wanted, and their partnership became a lifelong commitment.

“I thought the most important thing was just establishing a mindset of empowerment,” Carter would later say. Rather, he discovered that understanding the mindset of empowerment wasn’t for him [Carter] alone, but also included “trying to get LeBron to understand the mindset of empowerment, which he absolutely embraces and lives every day.”

The focus wasn’t to only empower James but to also empower those that worked with him, including James’ first agent, Aaron Goodwin, an African-America.

In 2018, Carter told The Undefeated that establishing a business empire wasn’t all about building wealth but empowering other Blacks. He said he had seen many Black talents who got on the sports “conveyor belt” that transported them out of their communities and distributed them among rich white businessmen for their own enrichment.

“Being on the conveyor belt wasn’t what we wanted to do,” he said. “It seemed like everybody who had been on that conveyor belt was getting the same results, and we wanted different results.”

When Carter and James, teamed up with two other close friends to start up the former sports marketing company, LRMR, the NBA star was ridiculed for choosing to work with close friends on his new company.

“I remember one reporter saying LeBron hiring his friend to run his business is like when he needs knee surgery, hiring his plumber,” Carter said.

The critics and ridicules only motivated Carter and James to do more, admitting that the road was going to be a bumpy one, but they were determined to stay till the end.

“So we took a lot of flak, and along the way there’s a lot of bumps and bruises. But you have to be in it for the long term; you can’t be in it for the one hit.”

Maverick Carter's Personal Life

As of 2020, Maverick Carter is not in a relationship with anyone. He has had at least one girlfriend in the past but has never been engaged. He is known for keeping his personal life private.