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LeBron joins Lakers and they become a betting favourite

LeBron James has already beaten the odds just by rising from the poor son of a single teenage mother to become one of the world's highest paid sports superstars.

Now the three-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist, ranked by Forbes magazine as the sixth-richest athlete in the world with annual income of US$85.5 million (S$117 million), is going to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Agents for the 33-year-old playmaker said on Sunday that James has agreed to a four-year contract worth US$154m with the Lakers, who haven't reached the play-offs in a club-record five seasons.

James was born in Akron, Ohio, moving from apartment to apartment in rough neighbourhoods until his mother allowed him to move in with a prep football coach at age nine, when he became exposed to basketball.

"The odds have been against me since I was five, six years old. The odds have been stacked up against me since I was an adolescent," James said at this year's NBA Finals.

"I can never compare the adversity I went through when I was younger compared to playing basketball.

"This is just basketball. This is not adversity. Not with the things I've been through in my life. This is fun."

With LeBron, the Lakers suddenly a betting favourite.

The Los Angeles Lakers won a grand total of 35 games last season in the NBA's tough Western Conference, but guess who just became one of the bookies' favourites next season?

While the Golden State Warriors, winners of three of the last four NBA titles, remain the favourites at minus-110 - meaning that a gambler would have to wager US$110 to win US$100 - the Lakers and the Boston Celtics are next at 7/2, followed by the Rockets at 7/1.

The Lakers last won a championship in 2010. James has played in eight straight NBA Finals from the Eastern Conference, with the Miami Heat and then with the Cavaliers.

- AFP, REUTERS

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