Author Reveals How Tom Brady And Steph Curry Got Paid Fortunes By Sam Bankman-Fried For Just 60 Hours Of Work

Author Michael Lewis has written some of the best-selling books over the past quarter of a century (ie. Moneyball) and his new book comes out this week telling the story of Sam Bankman-Fried’s historic FTX collapse.

With Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon set to be released on Tuesday, financial author/journalist Michael Lewis appeared as a guest on 60 Minutes on Sunday evening. Lewis discussed the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire, the fastest a billionaire has gone broke in modern history, and he also discussed SFB’s relationship with Tom Brady and Stephen Curry.

Perhaps the wildest aspect of Michael Lewis’ book is it was in the works prior to Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX’s sudden collapse. He was afforded unfettered access prior to the house of cards collapsing. His anecdotes suddenly took on new life after all of the money evaporated.

This portion about SBF’s celebrity and sports spending is gaining attention after 60 Minutes shared the clip on X during Sunday night’s broadcast.

Author On Sam Bankman-Fried And Tom Brady’s Relationship

This exchange between Michael Lewis and Jon Wertheim reveals just how much money was being spent by SBF. These quotes from the 60 Minutes segment were published on CBS News:

Michael Lewis: He paid Tom Brady $55 million for 20 hours a year for three years. He paid Steph Curry $35 million for– same thing for three years.

Jon Wertheim: Pretty good hourly wage.

Michael Lewis: He spent 100 and something million dollars, buying the naming rights for the Miami Heat arena.

Michael Lewis: (laughs) For which he then paid Larry David another $10 million, you know. It’s breathtaking, what’s on that list.

Jon Wertheim: Did any of the people surrounding him, these celebrities, do it ’cause they found him interesting or was it all because he’s worth $20 some billion dollars?

Michael Lewis: It’s probably not fair for me to speak for them, but I will speak for them. Tom Brady, I think, adored him.

Jon Wertheim: Really?

Michael Lewis: I think Tom Brady thought he was just a really interesting person. I think he liked to hear what he had to say.

Michael Lewis: And he really liked Tom Brady. And Sam wasn’t, like, a big sports person. So it was funny to watch that interaction. It was like, “These two people actually get along.” It’s like the class nerd and the quarterback–

Jon Wertheim: The two high school tribes–

Michael Lewis: Yeah. Yeah. No. The nerd of all nerds. (laughs) Like, even the nerds don’t hang out with this nerd, he’s such a nerd. (laughs) The quarterback somehow likes him. And he somehow likes the quarterback.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Am0Ga8HwuhI

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For anyone keeping track at home, that’s $55 million to Tom Brady for 60 hours of work spread out over three years. That breaks down to roughly $916,666 for every hour Tom Brady spent working with Sam Bankman-Fried. Stephen Curry was earning roughly $583,333 per hour for his work with SBF over the course of 3 years.

It was previously reported that Tom Brady and Gisele lost a combined $48 million in the FTX collapse. If those numbers are still correct, and we believe they are, that would mean Tom Brady only ended up walking away with $7 million for his FTX work.

There is an ongoing lawsuit against Brady, Shaq, Curry, and other celebrities who worked with Sam Bankman-Fried at FTX. It will be interesting to see how that plays out, something that Michael Lewis also discussed a bit on 60 Minutes.

CNBC also has a lengthy documentary on the FTX collapse that just hit YouTube:

Michael Lewis’ new book comes out tomorrow, Tuesday, October 2nd.