At 18 years old, LeBron James rejected a $10 million offer from Reebok: "I might have shed tears on my way back home."

Despite being associated with Nike for over 20 years and becoming a billionaire, LeBron James rarely signed with the company that helped him achieve his success.

This week on the "New Heights" podcast, the NBA's all-time leading scorer revealed that he was almost tempted by a large sum of money from one of Nike's competitors.

In his final year of high school, James had to decide whether to attend college or go straight to the NBA, where he would eventually be drafted by his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. At the time, he was weighing his options for a shoe deal, considering Nike, Reebok, and Adidas.

James and his mother were flown out to a meeting with the CEO of Reebok, where they negotiated fiercely with the teenager.

"James recounted how a man handed him a check worth $10 million and said, "If you don't speak to any other companies, this is yours," before James realized he was a high school senior."

James was unsure of how to proceed as he had never encountered so many zeroes in his life. Despite this, he still had to attend meetings with Nike and Adidas. He requested a brief moment to consider his options and the executives granted him privacy. He was left alone with his mother during this time.

"My mom and I were living in an apartment that was Section 8 housing. After the meeting, I said, "I don't have anything." My mom looked at me and said, "Son, trust your gut. If they're offering you this, who knows what other companies may offer you?""

After the executives returned, James presented the eight-figure check and stated that he wanted to investigate all his alternatives before making a final decision.

"I may have cried on the way home," he said to the Kelce brothers. "I was thinking, 'I could've bought the building we were living in with that money!'"

James eventually signed with Nike and inked a billion-dollar lifetime contract with the company in 2015, which was worth a billion dollars at the time.

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