New billionaire LeBron James to open multimillion-dollar health center in Ohio to offer affordable healthcare

NBA star LeBron James is to open a multimillion-dollar medical facility in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. A statement posted by the LeBron James Family Foundation on Instagram announced that the facility, I Promise HealthQuarters, will be available to provide services to students who attend his I Promise School and the neighboring areas.

“When our families expressed a need for more health care services… we went to work,” the LeBron James Family Foundation wrote on Instagram, sharing the news. “We’ve come together with three organizations, AxessPointe, Coleman Services, [and] Peg’s Foundation to create I Promise HealthQuarters to offer a variety of services ALL under one roof.”

The facility will offer medical, dental, optometry, mental health, pharmaceutical and lab services.

“Access to affordable health care has always been a critical need for our families – and further heightened by the pandemic – so we began rallying our community to bring the experts together under one trusted roof,” Michele Campbell, executive director of the LeBron James Family Foundation, shared with CBS News. 

“Being able to provide this important resource for the entire community is only possible because we have incredible partners that share our We Are Family philosophy.”

According to the CNBC News, the health facility will “open in 2023 and will be within walking distance from the I Promise School and across the street from House Three Thirty, a centre that assists in job training and financial literacy.”

James was recently certified by Forbes as a billionaire, making him the first active NBA player to become a billionaire.

Forbes said that the Los Angeles Lakers star has “maximized his business,” to more than $1.2 billion in pretax earnings. “He has commanded more than $385 million in salary from the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers as the NBA’s highest-paid active player. Off the court, he has raked in upwards of $900 million in income from endorsements and other business ventures,” Forbes wrote.

Born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio, James started playing basketball in his infancy. Basketball soon became a way of life for him and when he joined his elementary school basketball team, he excelled. His Nike endorsement deal came when he was only 18 years old. The basketball star’s partnership with Nike and his deals with brands like AT&T, PepsiCo and Walmart, made him the second-highest-earning athlete in the world last year.