Financial Lessons from Spike Lee, James Brown & Basketball Tickets

From a bio on James Brown (rest in peace) to money lectures to his kid about expensive courtside seats, movie mogul Spike Lee has been making some smart moves lately.

James Brown -- who passed away at age 73 on Dec. 25 -- was the G-dfather of Soul and called himself the "hardest working man in show biz."

But now, according to Variety magazine, Spike Lee will be directing a movie about the soul legend. Smart move for several reasons:


1) Movies about music legends have been major money makers and the darlings of critics, including blockbusters about Johnny Cash and Ray Charles.

2) The recent box office success of Dream Girls will probably launch other me-too movies about African-American pioneers in the pop music business. Here's a quick Dream Girl factoid, which featured Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy (playing a James Brown-inspired character) and Jennifer Hudson.

"Big-screen musical movie "Dreamgirls" took the Christmas Day box office by storm, grossing nearly $9 million its first day in theaters across North America, according to studio figures issued on Tuesday." --source: Reuters

Savvy Courtside Financial Talk

Us magazine reported that Spike Lee recently took his 9-year-old son Jackson to a Knicks basketball game (no-fight broke out) and offered this advice about courtside seats:

“Someday he’ll inherit my courtside seats, but he’d better be making some money,” Lee has said. “Them seats cost!” --source: Us Magazine

Here's a link to the Spike Lee and Kid at courtside photo. It's the second one down on the page.

I had plans to take my kids to the Heat-Lakers game on Dec. 25 at American Airlines Arena. Ha! The $10 SRO tickets, which I have unwisely touted in newspaper articles and online were all gone. My secret is totally out. The only seats left were $302 each,which would have been about almost $1,000 total for me and my two boys.

Instead, we all watched the game for free at the Eden Roc, a luxury beach-side resort on Miami Beach. We don't have regular or cable TV. The outdoor sports bar was fun, and people kept buying my kids Shirley Temples. D-Wade scored 40 points and the Heat won the game.

Of course, there's another way to watch basketball games for free. I could emulate hip-hop Mogul Jay-Z (aka Sean Carter), who is part owner of the New Jersey Nets. He goes to a lot of courtside games with Beyonce. Check out this photo of Jay-Z and B from People magazine, a publication for which I occasionally report.

Jay-Z and Beyoncé whoop it up while watching the New Jersey Nets play the Cleveland Cavaliers in New Jersey on Wednesday. It was a good night for Jay-Z, who's a part owner of the Nets: They bested the Cavaliers, 113-111.--source People magazine

I'm actually an old-school Springsteen-loving Jersey girl, but I can't cheer for the Vince Carter and the Nets! My brain has gone South!










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