NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - LeBron James has got to be the only underpaid multimillionaire teenager in history.

The No. 1 draft pick in the National Basketball Association who went straight from high school to the pros started his on-court career with an impressive 25 points Wednesday night, and followed it up with 21 points in Thursday's game. But his off-court economic impact on his team and sponsors is even more stunning. Despite endorsement deals worth more than $100 million, he's likely to bring his employers far more dollars than he costs.

Both the Nike and Sprite commercials starring LeBron James joke about the hype and pressure on the young star.

The clearest winner is his team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, which filled a league-low 55 percent of its available seats last year, or 11,497 a game. It's possible the Cavs will come close to covering the first four years of his contract, worth a total $15.6 million, with incremental ticket and concession profits this year alone.

For the NBA as a whole, the Cavs are a much hotter ticket this year than at any time in memory. But any increase in Cav road game ticket sales is probably balanced by a drop in Washington Wizards ticket sales on the road due to the retirement of Michael Jordan.

Where the other NBA teams will benefit is from licensed merchandise apparel sales. James' uniforms are already the top-selling licensed apparel throughout all U.S. sports since they went on sale in mid-July. More than 425,000 jerseys have been sold, according to sporting goods sales tracker SportsScanINFO.

James' Nike shoe is due in stores Dec. 20.

"We have not seen a new phenomenon hit the licensed apparel market like this before," said SportsScanINFO spokesman Neil Schwartz.

Profits from those sales are split between the league and the players' union, with the league's share being split evenly between teams. James and the Cavs see no additional money from the sales.

Despite these bargain deals, it's not necessary to have a telethon to raise money for James. He has a seven-year contract worth about $90 million with athletic shoe and apparel maker Nike (NKE: Research, Estimates). His line of shoes -- the Air Zoom Generation, costing $110 a pair -- are due in stores Dec. 20. He also has a line of personally licensed apparel from Nike, branded LJ23 for his initials and number that hits stores in early December.

James gets to wear his own branded Nike apparel in his Sprite commercial.

He wears one of the LJ23 shirts in the first commercial he did for Sprite, which also started airing this week. The Coca-Cola Co. (KO: Research, Estimates) brand is paying him a reported $12 million for six years.

Executives with both companies say their deals with James will be economically justified even if James does not reach Jordan's level of on-court success being projected by some.

"I definitely believe he doesn't have to win six titles for this to be a successful endorsement for us," said Ralph Greene, Nike's global director of basketball. "Obviously how it plays out, nobody knows. If he tries hard on court and continues to show the personality and sense of humor he's already shown, then I think it will be a good deal."

Experts agree, pointing out that despite the eye-popping contract total, on a per-year basis even the Nike deal is pretty affordable given the potential gain in sales.

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The various versions of Jordan shoes sold about $170 million a year for Nike each of the last two years, according to SportsScanINFO. Given demand for his uniforms so far, James may approach Jordan-like numbers in shoe sales. And even if he sells only half as many shoes, his contract is probably cost effective for Nike even before the apparel sales are taken into account.

"If Nike hadn't signed the deal, Reebok (RBK: Research, Estimates) would have come in to grab the share," said University of Oregon professor Paul Swangard. "This is justified just on a defensive basis."

Sprite also believes that James is the key to reaching the teen and young adult consumers it is targeting for the soft drink.

"A big part of the relationship is because of his lifestyle and his relevance to teenagers right now," said John Carroll, Coke's group director for Sprite. "It's not just the way he plays on the basketball court."

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If James does not live up to his potential on court, the deals are clearly worth less to the sponsors. But Swangard thinks that the companies could see enough incremental sales in the early years of the deals to justify the cost even if James is an unexpected flop as a player.

Swangard said given James' age as well as the public's hope for his potential, "He has a couple of years to prove himself, where some athletes would have less than that. There is a halo over LeBron."