My Favorite Basketball Player
Lebron James
GROWING UP
Lebron James was born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio. His mother, Gloria James, was only 16 at the time. His biological father, Anthony McClelland, was an ex-con uninterested in being a parent. Gloria raised Lebron on her own, and to this day he goes by her last name.
Life was often a struggle for Lebron and his mother. Gloria battled personal problems during much of his childhood. Some of those were brought on by the death of her mother, who passed away when Lebron was an infant. Bouncing between retail and accounting jobs, Gloria was never able to land steady work, and she and Lebron moved from apartment to apartment. The pair got to know all the seedier neighborhoods of Akron, a city of more than 200,000 located less than a hour south of Cleveland.
Despite her failings, Gloria worked hard to be a loving mother and shield Lebron from the poverty and violence of the streets. This was no easy chore, and at times made her choice of boyfriends seem puzzling. When Lebron was two, she started dating Eddie Jackson. In and out of trouble with the law, he went to prison in 1990 for aggravated cocaine trafficking. (In 2002, he pled guilty to mortgage fraud and mail fraud.) Nevertheless Lebron formed a bond with Jackson, and Gloria liked having a man around who was willing to serve as a father figure. Her brothers, Terry and Curt, also helped out.
From an early age, Lebron showed tremendous instincts for basketball. Gloria gave him a miniature hoop and ball when he was an infant and he amused himself for hours each day with the toys. Lebron also had the genes necessary to spawn a long-limbed basketball phenom. Though Gloria stands only 5-5, she has relatives who are much taller.
ON THE RISE
It didn’t take long for Lebron and his crew to gain recognition around Akron. They learned the fundamentals of basketball from Drambot and developed tremendous chemistry with one another. Literally and figuratively, Lebron was head-and-shoulders above his friends. By the eighth grade he was six feet tall, could play all five positions and had a sixth sense for the game.
Calling themselves the Northeast Ohio Shooting Stars, Lebron and his pals—coached by Joyce’s father—made a splash on the national scene in 1997 by qualifying for the Under/6th Grade AAU National Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah. Two years later they went all the way to the AAU Under/8th Grade final, in Orlando, Florida. The Shooting Stars won their first five games to set up a showdown with the Southern California All-Stars. They lost a heartbreaker, 68-66, but Lebron was the big story with his sparkling play.
By then Lebron, Joyce, Cotton and McGee—the self-proclaimed “Fab Four”—had arrived at a decision. They were a package deal, and pledged to continue their hoops careers together. The foursome settled on Saint Vincent-Saint Mary High School, a parochial school in downtown Akron. Best known for its tradition of academic excellence, SVSM was about to establish a new legacy, with Lebron leading the way.
MAKING HIS MARK
Lebron began the summer after his sophomore year in Colorado Springs at the USA Basketball Development Festival. The first underclassman ever invited to the camp, he broke the festival scoring record with 120 points in five games and was named MVP.
At his next stop, adidas’s ABCD Camp at Fairleigh-Dickinson University in New Jersey, Lebron officially arrived on the national scene. Going into the week, the player attracting the most attention was Lenny Cooke, a 6-8 forward from New York.
Cooke, who was planning to enter the NBA draft, was completely overshadowed by Lebron, who took control of the camp. With a camera crew from ESPN’s “The Life” following his every move and college and pro scouts looking on, he flashed his full offensive arsenal and played suffocating defense. But what blew away everyone were Lebron’s passing skills. Up until this point, most had labeled him the next Jordan. Now comparisons to Magic Johnson started.
LEBRON THE PLAYER
Lebron’s quickness and strength are off the charts, his court vision and ball handling skills are highly developed, and his rebounding and defense are improving with each season. Lebron’s passing ability is nothing short of extraordinary. He not only sees the whole court, but anticipates the movement of team-mates and defenders. Lebron knows he will be double-teamed whenever he egts the ball, so the first thing he does is look to see where the help is coming from—then thinking one or even two passes ahead before the second man arrives. Not surprisingly, he is considered to be one of the NBA’s best passers.
Lebron’s willingness to share the ball and get others involved is one of the things coaches love about him. His unselfishness underscores his innate understanding of basketball and how fully he embraces the fundamentals. Of course, when it is time to take charge and make a momentum-changing statement—or score a key bucket—he is almost impossible to stop.
All of the things he has accomplished is why he is my favorite basketball player.
