The NBA was founded in 1949 when the two rival leagues, the Basketball Association of America and the National Basket League, merged together. There were 17 teams in the league and the Minneapolis Lakers won the championship.

Over the last couple seasons, a rivalry between two of the sport's most talented players, Lebron James and Steph Curry, has formed. Fittingly, they are the leaders of the two best teams in the NBA.

Lebron was always special. Throughout high school he was frequently talked to by NBA teams. This lead to him be the first pick in the 2003 NBA draft straight out of high school. He signed a 3-year contract worth 13 million dollars when he was 18 years old.

Today, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest players of all time. He has lead his team to the last six NBA finals and won three of them. Over the course of his career, he has won four MVP awards and averaged 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists.

Stephen Curry had a very different journey to stardom. Out of high school, he had no offers from major division 1 colleges, and he ended up going to Davidson. He played there for three years before going to the NBA, being drafted 7th overall to the Golden State Warriors.

Today, he is highly considered as one of the greatest shooters ever. In the 2014-2015 season, he set the record for most 3 pointers in the regular season with 286. The following year he broke his own record and made 402. He also has the record for most 3 pointers in a game with 13.

In 2013, Curry signed a sponsorship deal with Under Armour worth a little under $4 million. When he became a star two years later, they launched a shoe line for him. After the Curry 1s came out, Under Armour's shoe sales went up 40% for the quarter.

Lebron has always been signed to Nike and he always will be because they signed him for life. The amount of money the sponsorship is worth is undisclosed, but it is said to be somewhere from 750 million to a billion dollars. His shoe line has been running since 2003, his first year in the NBA.