LeBron James Biography
“I think the reason why I am who I am today is because I went through those tough times when I was younger.” – LeBron James
I saw LeBron James on the 5th of April 2017. LeBron had a triple double tallying 18 points 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a 20 point win over the Orlando Magic. I felt his aura as I stood at the edge of the tunnel as he ran out onto the court. The roar of the crowd as he announcer shouted “6’8 Forward from St. Vincent-St. Mary high school, number 23 LeBron James!” It shook me as I had never heard a crowd get so excited for a single player. As he walked over to the score bench to do his iconic chalk toss I thought to myself.
I had witnessed greatness.
His achievements include:
LeBron James is easily the best basketball player of the generation. His statistics, work and achievements outside of basketball and his perfect 0 to 100 life story will eventually persuade everyone to believe as I do, that Lebron James is the greatest player to ever touch a basketball.
One of LeBron’s greatest achievements are his three NBA Championships along with the three Finals MVP’s in each of those years. The 2011-12 season where LeBron won his first championship was when he first captured my mind and showed himself to be a real big time player. During that finals run, LeBron and the Heat beat the Boston Celtics in 7 games to advance to the NBA Finals. The Heat then went on to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in just 5 games with LeBron averaging 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game which had him voted unanimously as the Finals MVP. His performance was ranked to be the second best in NBA history. Heading into the next season LeBron was hungry for more and wanted to achieve back-to-back championships, a feat that had only been achieved once in the last 10 years. That year LeBron lead his team to the best record in the league with 66 wins and 16 losses and made it back to the NBA Finals. At the beginning of the finals LeBron was widely criticised for his lack of aggression and his poor shot selection as the Heat fell behind 2-3. He silenced these critics by powering his team back to win the championship beating the San Antonio Spurs, setting a new record of most points in a game 7 win with 37 points. Post game, for the second time he was named finals MVP. On the biggest stage, the NBA Finals, LeBron James brings out some of his best performances to bring himself into the greatest of all time conversation.
LeBron didn't have the best situation when he was growing up in Akron, Ohio. He was born on the 30th of December 1984 to a 16 year old mother, Gloria Marie James. His father had a very extensive criminal record and to this day has not ever communicated with or seen LeBron. As his mother struggled to find a steady job they moved from apartment to apartment in the more dangerous neighbourhoods of Akron. This made her decide to allow LeBron to move in with Frank Walker a youth football coach. Walter introced LeBron to basketball at age 9. Lebron started to gain fame around his Freshman year, so many people wanted to see James play that his high school, St. Vincent-St. Mary had to move their home games to the University of Akron’s 5492 seat Rhodes Arena to satisfy demand. At the start of his junior year, age 17, LeBron appeared in the very famous basketball magazine, slam magazine. That year he was also on the cover of Sports illustrated and with his following growing was dubbed possibly the best high school player ever, without even being in his final year. During this time, it has been discovered that LeBron controversially used marijuana to deal with the stress because of the constant media attention. In his final year of high school LeBron’s team the Fighting Irish had some of their games nationally televised on ESPN 2 and at the end of his final season, James played in many paid high school all-star games. He then declared for the 2003 NBA Draft and was selected #1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Before even stepping onto the NBA court that season LeBron, aged still just 18, signed a contract with Nike, paying him US$90 million.
LeBron James also often contributes to many charity organisations. Even owning one himself, the LeBron James Family Foundation. On the 30th of July, 2018 LeBron opened his own public elementary school for at risk Akron kids called the ‘I Promise School’ that LeBron is mostly funding. At the school, students get access to free breakfast, lunch and a snack, free college tuition at the University of Akron when they graduate, along with a free bicycle and optional personal training at the school’s state of the art gym. Before the school opened, in 2015 LeBron also provided 2,300 kids with scholarships to college. He’s also quite involved in politics as he has publicly indorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. More recently LeBron has publicly criticized Donald Trump by claiming that he is dividing the country and challenging his ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan. Most memorably during a press conference and on twitter, James called Trump a ‘Bum’ for rescinding Stephen Curry’s invitation to the white house.