LeBron James and the '$50 million' high school game

But now that the hype train for Wembanyama is fully rolling, it's important to remember that LeBron Mania didn't get going until about a year-and-a-half before he went No. 1 in the 2003 Draft. And as ESPN's Brian Windhorst explained on an episode of "The Hoop Collective," there was one game, in December 2002, where LeBron James truly exploded on the scene.

"We didn't have the awareness of young stars like we do now. Wembanyama has been on our radar for 18 months now, and is on a lot more people's radar now," Windhorst explained. "I have argued that he made $50 million that night. He might have made even more. Because the stakes to get him increased dramatically, and it ended up being an all-out war between Reebok, Adidas and Nike."

The game pitted LeBron's St. Vincent-St. Mary's team against the No. 1 high school team in the country, Oak Hill Academy. ESPN televised it, a rarity back in 2002, as it was their "first regular-season prep game since 1989." It was a big event, with Bill Walton and Dick Vitale flown in to announce the game. LeBron had endured narrow losses to Oak Hill in the previous two seasons, falling 79-78 against them his sophomore year. In 2001, Oak Hill beat St. Vincent-St. Mary's behind Carmelo Anthony, the top high school senior in the country, in a game held in Trenton, New Jersey.

James went for 36 points, eight rebounds, five assists and six steals in the game, while Carmelo scored 34 points in a 72-66 win. And while there was plenty of media at the game, plus NBA luminaries like Danny Ainge in attendance, the game wasn't on TV. So while the basketball world knew about James, and he appeared on his first Sports Illustrated cover in February 2002, the general public hadn't seen James dominate yet. YouTube was still three years away, and the only other way to watch James was on pay-per-view.

That changed in the rematch with Oak Hill in fall of 2002. This was on national TV, and ESPN didn't shy away from the hype. The opening of the telecast featured a montage of single-named NBA stars: Kareem. Magic. Larry. Michael. Shaq. Kobe. Would LeBron join them in the pantheon of stars?

The answer was yes. James scored 31 points in a 65-45 rout, and his team went on to go 26-1 his senior year. And the one "loss" was only due to sanctions for LeBron accepting replica jerseys of Gayle Sayers and Wes Unseld, leading to a single forfeited game. In four years, he lost just five games on the court. James went No. 1 the draft that fall — Carmelo went No. 3 — and signed a $90 million deal with Nike before playing a single pro game.

It wasn't simply a big-money game for LeBron. Windhorst reported that, "The day after Nike announced they had gotten LeBron, and Reebok, who was thought to be getting him, didn't, Reebok's stock went down. They had to put out a statement to their stockholders to try to keep the stock from going down." He concluded, "That's what the stakes were at that time, and gasoline was poured on it by LeBron's performance in that game."

How much money did Wembanyama make for himself against G League Ignite? He played arguably as well as LeBron did in his big game, against better competition. Sonny Vaccaro estimates the Wembanyama deal will be north of $100 million, and if there's a bidding war, it may turn out that last week was even more than a $50 million game for the big Frenchman.