Courtesy-Sky Sports
LeBron James, the four-time NBA MVP, may have been the most popular athlete in the world since he was a child. James, who was born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio, was a multi-sport star as a child. He went on to become just the second of three NBA players to be selected first overall out of high school (and the only one to go on to win Rookie of the Year).
In King James’ career from Cleveland to Miami (and back to Cleveland) to L.A., there are these six amazing facts:
1.Gloria James was 16 when she gave birth to her only child, and when her mother died a few years later, she and baby LeBron were left without a family. They bounced around between couches and apartments in Akron’s ventures for about six years.
James then met Bruce Kelker, who was putting together a youth football team, when he was nine years old. Kelker took LeBron under his protection, and the Jameses moved in with him to give the young LeBron some security.
Frank Walker, another youth football coach, gave LeBron the opportunity to live with his family by the end of the year. LeBron drew attention after skipping 80-plus days of fourth grade due to their tumultuous living situation.
2. In a now-iconic Sports Illustrated cover story in February 2002, soon after turning 17, the pride of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School was dubbed “The Chosen One” (LeBron went on to get “CHOSEN 1” tattooed across his back).
James would have joined the NBA draught that year if the league had allowed it, but draught eligibility required graduation from high school, so LeBron ended his senior year with his high school team, the Fighting Irish. They secured their third Division II title, and because of the media attention surrounding LeBron and his teammates, they were able to fly for high-profile games that were featured on ESPN2. Time Warner also provided pay-per-view options for their games.
3. Via middle and high school, James played both football and basketball, and others have suggested that he may have gone pro in football. However, he fractured his wrist during an AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) game in June 2002, shortly before his senior year. Because of the two-month retention interval, James opted to skip football season in order to be completely recovered in preparation for his senior basketball season.
4. Before LeBron, only two men had ever graced the cover of Vogue: Richard Gere and George Clooney. However, speculation surrounded LeBron’s cover. Observers pointed out that the Annie Leibovitz photoshoot, which starred James alongside supermodel Gisele Bündchen, was eerily similar to racist US Army photos from World War I, which depicted King Kong as a “crazy brute” alongside a white damsel in distress.
5. In February 2019, Akron’s brightest completed a four-year stint as first vice president of the National Basketball Players Association, the NBA’s trade union. As the organization’s No. 2 guy, he was instrumental in pressing for increased wages for retiring veterans and recognizing a massive increase in the league’s salary limit in 2016, which altered the financial futures of pro players in the upper and middle levels.
6. James was the NBA’s highest-paid player overall in the 2016-17 season, but he had already been in the league for a dozen years before becoming the highest-paid player on his own team. At his first spell with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he was surrounded by a host of league veterans, including an ageing and injury-plagued Shaquille O’Neal, and he famously decided to take less than his maximum market worth in order to join a super-team with the Miami Heat in 2010. During his second stint with the Cavaliers, he rose to the top of the pay scale, and his latest four-year contract with the Lakers sets him on track to become the highest-paid player in NBA history.