Lebron James Does Not Need Your Approval

*This piece was written as a literary journalism project for a Creative Nonfiction Writing Class. The work, which chronicles the basketball career of Lebron James, contains dozens of media archives and was originally written with footnotes at the bottom of each page. On this digital version, the footnotes can be found at the very bottom of the text.

An (admittedly biased but ultimately factual) account of Lebron James' career.

*Disclaimer: I am, myself, a massive fan of LeBron James. When I was six years old, I received his rookie year jersey as my birthday present. I wore it all of the time. and referred to LeBron by his first name often. We grew up alongside each other in a way. He began his career at the same time that I was beginning school. He is, probably more than I realized at the time, the primary reason I grew in my love for basketball. As time has progressed, I have only grown in my love for James, who I consider to be the greatest basketball player, both on and off of the court, ever.

That personal anecdote being admitted, James’ is career is composed of facts and events. These facts and events are laid out honestly, but the way in which one can interpret them can, and does, vary greatly. As we have come to realize with the onset of different forms of media, every narrative presented on the television screen is infused with opinion. Events’ objective happenings exist the same way for everyone that is able to witness them, but their subsequent interpretations hold a much wider range. The following account is admittedly biased, but rooted in truth. In this recounting of James’ career, I hope to shed different light on the events and decisions that went into James’ storied career. Now, without further ado, let’s begin.

In March of 2019, ESPN released their list of the top 100 most famous athletes in the world. Cristiano Ronaldo unsurprisingly clocked in at the top spot, carrying a massive social media following to go with being arguably the best player in the world’s most popular sport. However, his biggest challenger to the throne just so happens to be an American basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James[1]. Now recognized as perhaps the greatest player to ever play basketball, James has changed the sport of basketball forever, both on and off the court. His swiss-army-knife on court presence set the stage for the position-less basketball that now rules the NBA. Off the court, he has pioneered efforts for social justice, player empowerment, and youth development. LeBron James has transcended everything – the media and his circumstances – to become the individual that he is, an individual with immeasurable amounts of power and influence. But, despite towering over the world’s greatest athletes in soccer, tennis, and fighting, “King James’” story starts far before 2019. In order to understand how LeBron James got to where he is now, we must go back to 1984. In the blue-collar city of Akron, a sixteen-year-old Gloria Marie James holds her baby LeBron in her arms for the first time.

Gloria James was born raised in Akron, Ohio, just like her son would be. For the first three years of LeBron’s life, Gloria’s mother, Freda helped her daughter bring her son up. After only a few years, though, Freda died of an unexpected heart attack. LeBron’s father, Anthony McClelland, held an “extensive criminal record”, and was uninterested in raising a child, Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian said. Gloria was nineteen and alone, tasked with raising a child years before she could legally raise a drink.

Times were tough for the duo. While Gloria herself got into trouble with the law, LeBron grew up on the fly. The young man was exposed to the dark side of his city early on, describing that he witnessed shootings and crime constantly as a child. Akron boasts of the tougher crime rates in the entire nation[2]. Nevertheless, working class town would become home for the young man. He grew to love the city, despite its flaws.

As a poor, young black man growing up in the nineties, LeBron James dealt with an array of issues. He moved a dozen times before his mother eventually became unable to take care of her son and sent him to live with a local football coach in the Akron area, Frank Walker, and his family. Until this point, James’ life had been marked by disarray. Crime consumed his childhood, and independence was learned on the fly. Because of the maturity, James could take care of himself quite well on his own, and he hadn’t even turned ten years old yet. This independence would continue to permeate his life from thereon forward. LeBron, early in life, learned that nothing is handed to you, and that you must make a way forward for yourself. All that this attitude needed was a bit of discipline, and LeBron would become unstoppable.

And discipline is what he received. Under the Walker household, LeBron won his school’s attendance award, only one year removed from missing 100 days of class. He became a diligent worker in the classroom. Finally, when Walker signed him up for organized sports, others began to see LeBron’s potential actualized.

It began with AAU basketball. The AAU basketball system allows for young players to play on a variety of teams, alongside their friends, and travel across the country competing in tournaments. In a way, this system gave James the autonomy to pick and choose the situation he wanted to be in, the situation that would be most beneficial to his growth as a player. James traveled to Florida for a tournament and returned to a much more stable life in Akron with his mother and her newfound boyfriend.

James decided to transfer from public school to St. Vincent-St. Mary Catholic High School before his freshman year. He came into a prestigious program with great facilities, a good coaching staff, and most importantly: a chance to win a State Championship. The decision to transfer fell in line with what his personal philosophy had been to this point. He would not sacrifice the opportunity to put himself in a better place for anyone’s approval.

James dominated the entire state of Ohio in football and basketball for four years. He became one the best pass catchers in the history of Ohio High School Football. “I’ve been around a lot of great receivers” Mark Murphy, defensive coordinator for St. Vincent St. Mary’s football team told ESPN’s Tim Graham. "I tell people that I rate my top receivers -- coaching, playing or watching -- as James Loften, Jerry Rice, Steve Largent and LeBron James.” It is telling enough that Murphy, who played 11 years as a Strong Safety in the NFL, did not hesitate to add James’ name alongside three Hall of Fame receivers.

But even more impressive was his ability to dominate top tier basketball talent night in and night out. Perhaps the most iconic example of James’ talent came when he put 52 points on Westchester California’s five-star recruit and UCLA commit Trevor Ariza. Ariza, one of the top players in the nation at the time, now plays for the Washington Wizards. His career high for points scored currently stands at thirty-two, twenty below what High School LeBron James hung on him as a junior in High School.

As his fame grew to a nationwide scale, it became increasingly clear that James was primed to become the future of American sports. LeBron James was “the finest 17- year old basketball prospect I have seen in the past 20 years” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said in his 2003 column.[3]In February of 2002, Sports Illustrated Magazine’s cover depicted LeBron in high school with the words “The Chosen One” plastered across the front in bold letters. LeBron, to the vein of some criticism, subsequently had the phrase tattooed across his back shortly thereafter. Some saw this as an indulgence into narcissism, but James would wear the phrase proudly. This would mark the beginning of James’ tumultuous relationship with the media. Following his 25-1 senior season at St. Vincent-St. Mary that had garnered a national following, LeBron officially declared for the NBA draft.

Another factor that led to the legend of James growing was happening less than forty miles north of Akron. By draft night, the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers had just concluded an abysmal 2002 season in which they won only fifteen of their eighty-two games. Holding the worst record in the league, the Cavaliers subsequently had the best shot at landing the #1 pick in the 2003 draft.[4]They would win the lottery, and the Cavaliers made it immediately clear that their sights were set on the homegrown star from Akron. On June 26, 2003, LeBron was officially selected by the Cavs with the first overall pick.

The story of Cleveland the city coincides to that of Cleveland sports. Once a bustling city full of life and commerce, Cleveland slowly degraded due to a variety of economic factors, such as the closing of factories in the 70s and failures of banking that persisted through the eighties and nineties. Likewise, what was once a thriving sports city became stagnant with time. When it was conceived in 1946, the Cleveland Browns held the standard as a model franchise in the emerging National Football league. The Cleveland Indians likewise had become MLB champions near the middle of the century. Dominating the 40s, 50s and early 60s, Cleveland became one of the centers of sports in America. However, as the city began to decline, their sports teams followed. The “Cleveland Curse” had since haunted the city, which had not won a championship since 1964. The Cavaliers, which were established in 1970, did not even have any rich history to hang their hats on. At least the Browns and Indians had achieved success, albeit a long time ago. But the Cavaliers’ woes were unimaginable from the very beginning. In the 33 years before James was drafted, the Cavs had gotten past the first round of the playoffs only 3 times. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that they had never even come close to competing in the NBA Finals. Now seen as a homegrown savior, an 18-year-old LeBron James was supposed to change everything. And that’s exactly what he did.

James hit the ground running from the get-go, being named the 2003-4 Rookie of the Year. The following year, before he was legally allowed to drink alcohol, LeBron was named to the All-NBA second team along with his first All Star bid. The following year he was named to the All-NBA First Team, denoting his status as one of the five best players in the league. From his third year in the league onward, James has been named to the All-NBA First Team every year but 2007, when he was named to the All-NBA Second Team.[5]

Success did not come without growing pains though, and the young star found trouble in propelling the team to playoff success. In 2006, James watched from home as Dwayne Wade, taken fifth overall by the Miami Heat in the 2003 draft, won an NBA Championship against the Dallas Mavericks. Wade and James, inexplicability linked by the 2003 draft, became popular points of comparison in regard to their young careers.

James was seen, by many, as a failure to this point in comparison to Dwayne Wade. Many cited Wade’s ability to capture a title as what put him above James as a player. However, it is probably fairer to point out the supporting casts of each superstar, as basketball is an intensely team driven sport. Wade’s 2006 Heat were supported by Hall of Fame players Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton, and most notably, superstar center Shaquille O’ Neal. LeBron James, on the other hand, had yet to play alongside a player to average more than 17 points a game.

These criticisms never got to the young star though. The very next year, James led his ragtag group to the NBA Finals for the first time in the 37-year history of the Cavs. The run was highlighted by one of the most incredible individual accomplishments in the league’s history, where LeBron scored 29 of his team’s final 30 points in a double overtime game against the Detroit Pistons. This quite literally single-handed victory serves, to this day, as a microcosm to James’ individual determination and resilience, as well as highlights just how, to put it frankly, bad his supporting players were during his first stint on the Cavaliers.

The Cavs were eventually swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2007 Finals. This Spurs team, coached by Hall of Fame lock Gregg Popovich, boasted at least three Hall of Fame players as well: Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker. Needless to say, not many people gave the Cavaliers a chance in this series to begin with. After 2007 though, LeBron had solidified himself as a superstar, and the Cavs were officially seen as contenders.

But the NBA’s Eastern conference was blossoming with stars. The 2008 Eastern Conference All Star roster consisted of a few aging stars but was primarily composed of rising talent like Miami’s Dwayne Wade, Orlando Magic Center Dwight Howard, Toronto Raptors Forward Chris Bosh, and Atlanta Hawks Guard Joe Johnson. Most importantly of all, the Boston Celtics had acquired two All-NBA performers Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to join the incumbent Paul Pierce to vie for a championship.

Supported by blossoming point guard Rajon Rondo, the 2008 Celtics eliminated James in a grueling seven game playoff series. The Celtics would go on to win the title against the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. The following year in 2009, James captured his first of four NBA MVP trophies and finished the season with a franchise record 66 -16 record. LeBron looked primed to finally reach his elusive Larry O Brian Trophy.[6]He squared off in the Eastern Conference Finals against another rising star in center Dwight Howard. In shocking fashion, the Cavaliers ultimately fell to Howard’s Orlando Magic in six games. Dwight Howard capped off the series’ final win with a 40-point, 14 rebound effort that would punch his ticket to the Finals. He would eventually lose the 2009 Finals to the Lakers.

Despite the Cavs’ star’s incredible individual play throughout the series[7], the media began to murmur once again about LeBron’s legacy, and whether Howard had received the baton from LeBron. Perhaps the so called “Chosen One” had missed his opportunity for greatness. My personal favorite take on this came from an Orlando based writer: “Get used to it, LeBron. Get used to it, Kobe. Get used to it, NBA. This could be the beginning of your worst Dwightmare” Orlando Sentinal’s Mike Bianchi wrote during the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals. “If Dwight and the Magic can close out the Cavs, the league might finally start to realize that Dwight -- not LeBron -- is the one who is poised to be the NBA's most dynamic, dynastic champion over the next decade. … Isn't it entirely possible that LeBron could turn out to be Karl Malone, one of the greatest players of all time who happened to be unlucky enough to play in the era of Michael Jordan”. In hindsight, Bianchi’s words are laughable, but they were not written without at least a bit of truth rooted in the league’s climate. Howard was in the Finals. LeBron was not. Team success would always be valued over individual accolades.

Pressure, from the city, the media, and most importantly, James himself, began to mount. He was only 25 years old going into the season, but it was already his seventh in the league. Seven years of amazing individual play did not satiate Cleveland’s sports championship hunger, and came nowhere near satisfying LeBron’s plans for his own legacy. He knew he was the best player in the league, but he still had to taste the sweet victory of being the only team standing in April.[8]

During the 2009-10 season, “the King’s” demeanor became much more intense. He was once again named to the All-NBA First Team, All Star team, and even captured

his second straight MVP award.

The Cavs reached 61 wins, the best mark in the entire league. This number becomes even more impressive when considering that LeBron James had still not played alongside someone who had averaged more than 17 points per game. This season, his best teammate was Mo Williams, who was the only person on the team to average double digit scoring while also playing in more than 65% percent of the season’s games. If you were to lower the game percentage qualifier to 40% percent of games, 37-year-old Shaquille O’ Neal’s 12 points per game would then qualify. Arguments can be made that this was his worst team support ever. But, in spectacular (and now expected) fashion, James had transformed the group into title contenders.

After breezing by the Chicago Bulls in round one, the Cavaliers met a familiar foe in the Conference Semifinals: The Boston Celtics. The Celtics had stumbled to an uninspiring 50 wins, barely squeezing into the #4 seed in the Eastern Conference. Whatever rust they had accrued over the course of the season, however, seemed gone by the playoffs. The Celtics beat the Cavs in six games behind a spectacular series by Rajon Rondo, who averaged over 20 points, 6 rebounds, and almost 12 assists per game in the series. This same Celtics team would go on to upset the Magic in the next round before finally falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in a rematch of the 2008 NBA Finals. Even though he was not able to reach the Finals for a second consecutive season, the fact remained that Dwight Howard had reached Eastern Conference Finals and LeBron James did not. The shouts in favor of Howard’s superiority were growing louder by the second.

The Cav’s second round exit drew the ire of many pundits and fans alike, who saw LeBron’s body language as disengaging, and proclamations that he “quit” on his team began to arise. Some of these criticisms are completely fair. Many plays LeBron seemed lackadaisical in his defensive rotations or unwilling to completely take control of the game on the offensive end. However, other people seemed to be reaching in their critiques. One instance of this can be seen when James was forced to shoot his free throws with his left hand because of an injury to his right elbow. The elbow injury’s severity was never clarified, leading some to believe that he was not injured so much asdisinterested. Conspiracy theories such as this began to pop up, mostly linking instances of bad body language to a lack of intensity. Nevertheless, His body language seems to get far more attention from this series than his 27 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists per game, or the fact that his second leading scorer was 37-year-old Shaquille O’ Neal with just over 13 points and 5 rebounds per game. If one were to quite literally split LeBron James’ average statistics for the series in half, he would have still been the best player on his team. But the media cared less about the transcendent performance than his body language, and twisted thatinto a narrative of narcissism and selfishness. He had quit on his team, in their eyes.

Well, the media would not have to nitpick much longer to find ways to advance this narrative further. There were no games going on, but the next few months would prove to be some of the most important in LeBron James’ career, and, in a grander scale, perhaps the history of the NBA.

The King’s contract was up in Cleveland, and, bucking tradition, he opened up his recruitment to the entire league. This is not to say players have not done such a thing in the past, but it was almost unheard of for anyone of James’ caliber. A superstar of his own stature had a script to follow: Toil away in the playoffs until you finally get some help. Once the team around you is good enough, you will be able to finally get that first title and bring it back to your city. This script became even more pronounced for LeBron in particular. He was still a kid from Akron, playing for the hometown Cavaliers. He was the supposed savior of Cleveland. But this script proved to be different, as the main character decided to snatch the author’s pen for the first time ever.

Remember back to LeBron’s first experiences playing basketball on the AAU circuit. The advantages of playing with your friends and composing the optimal team made the system such a joy to young players. LeBron James simply took these ideas and transposed them onto the biggest basketball league in the world. He would seek out the position he wanted to put himself in. No matter where he went, LeBron would be offered a hefty contract. On top of that income, he had already signed a 90-million-dollar shoe deal with Nike right out of High School. He would go on to sign a 400$ million-dollar shoe deal just a few years later. These factors are important insofar as to say that LeBron James’ main stream of revenue was nothis salary as a basketball player—it was his value as a brand. He did not need to sign the biggest possible contract, because his brand would be where his value grew from. And that brand, more than anything, needed a title.

So, he decided to go south, to the Miami Heat. LeBron proceeded to sign a team-friendly contract, with not as much money for himself, in order to help make room for the Heat to bring in other great players. Along with the aforementioned Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh[9], the Heat transformed from a middle of the road team to an absolute powerhouse. Three of the league’s top tier players had simply decided that they wanted to win a championship, so they joined forces to do just that.

“The Decision”, as it is now called, did not come without scrutiny. One of the more popular critiques of James’ decision to sign with the Heat was not the signing itself, but the wayin which he announced his decision. A television special. An exclusive, drawn out interview. An admittedly gaudy “welcome party”. James’ infamous words, “I’m taking my talents to South Beach”, became low hanging fruit for media members wishing to push his narrative. It once again drew on this idea that had been passed down since LeBron’s high school years, that his self-absorption would be his own downfall. His theatrical announcement confirmed every concern about his ego. The “Chosen One”, a name first thrust upon him by the media, now became James’ scarlet letter, tattooed straight across his back.

But some elements of James’ announcement seem to be pushed under the rug, elements that, if highlighted as much as the “welcome party”, would have completely driven the narrative away from selfishness and toward humility. First, the mere fact that James took less money than the market commanded of him showed that he was willing to sacrifice his own gain for the greater good of the team. To this day, I am still struggling to understand how taking less money, so that the entire team as a whole could be stronger, is an example of selfishness. Quite the contrary, this seems to be the best example of being a “team player” imaginable. Kobe Bryant, for comparison, signed a two year, fifty-million-dollar contract in the twilight of his own career, far past his prime. This signing crippled the Lakers for yearsafter he retired. James, in the prime of his career, sacrificed money for the good of the team, but was vilified for the move.

The second and probably more important example of selflessness from James came within the television broadcast of his decision itself. “The Decision” television broadcast garnered about 10 million viewers, per ESPN. With that many eyes comes a lot of revenue. LeBron, understanding the opportunity that this single hour television program presented, coordinated with business partners to turn it into an opportunity for good. Over 3 million dollars were raised for The Boys & Girls Club of America to due LeBron’s fundraising efforts around the announcement. "Very few people, with one hour of their day, one hour of their life -- that's all that show was -- can impact this many people," said Boys & Girls Clubs Vice President Frank Sanchez about James’ fundraising efforts around the announcement. The very moment that most people point to as the darkest spot on LeBron’s career was the same moment when he changed, in the words of Sanchez, “Hundreds of thousands” of children’s lives.

But the media, for the most part, turned a blind eye to this part of the story. They were much more inclined to focus on the various fan and owner reactions to the signing. Dan Gilbert, at the time owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, penned a scathing open letter addressed to James. The letter called him a “traitor” and vowed that the city of Cleveland would win a championship before James would. This prediction was laughable in its own right, but the basketball world seemed to back Gilbert’s sentiment.

Michael Jordan[10], Magic Johnson[11], and countless other former players criticized his joining up with other great players. The sentiment across the board was unified: Why would a great player wantto leave their team and join another with a potential rival player in Wade? What does this decision say about his competitive spirit? Well, to answer that question retrospectively, it says a lot about James’ competitive spirit. Leaving for the Heat did not, by any means, guarantee James a title, but it sure got him closer to one. If anything, the decision should have bolstered James’ standing as a competitor, as he refused to put himself in bad positions to win anymore.

The most interesting critique of all though pointed past basketball. Cleveland was a city long abandoned. The working-class attitude of the blue-collar town seemed to be embodied in their homegrown star. They loved him because he represented them. A poor, black man from a rough area of Ohio, had risen against all odds to become their savior. He would carry the baton of the people forward and give the city newfound hope. The Cleveland curse had been broken with James’ arrival to the Cavaliers.

But now it all looked like a façade to the Clevelanders. James, the media said, was more concerned with his own legacy than that of his city. He decided that the glitz, warm weather, and chance to win titles that Miami offered was better for him than the city of Cleveland. And here’s the interesting thing: All of that is true.

Thinking about the issue outside of the NBA can provide context. Imagine you were an amazing student in college. You completed all of your coursework in, let’s say, finance, and graduated at the top of your class. But there was a catch. This year, the world of finance had decided to assign the best new talents out of college to the worst companies in America in order to more evenly balance the market. You graduated first in your class but were assigned to a poorly managed company in your own hometown. You are excited though! You are in your hometown making great money, and you are doing fantastic financial analysis for the first seven yearsof your job. After a while though, you begin to look around at other financial analysts. They live in big cities with lots of opportunities and seem to be advancing their career at lightning pace while you feel like you’re running in mud. On top of that, your company’s CEO is a laughingstock in the business world. The company has come close to folding multiple times. After your contract is up with the company, what would you do?

The answer seems obvious. For what you want, and the betterment of your career, you should switch companies. You will be able to manage bigger accounts and perhaps reside in a city that you actually want to live in. Home will always be a special place, but doesn’t everyone leave home at some point? It’s not evil to leave your hometown, and the company you were forcibly assigned to, to pursue bigger and better things.

This was precisely the mindset of LeBron James during his free agency. Cleveland was home, but his management, coach, and supporting players were simply not enough. He had lived in northern Ohio for his whole life and wanted to experience something different. Perhaps he could reach heights in Miami that were simply unimaginable in Cleveland. He decided to leave the Cavaliers, which was by no means a betrayal in any other context but sports. But alas, the entire world, seemingly overnight, had now turned on their once beloved star.

And the media ran with the story of betrayal. They realized that the league had been long dominated by heroes. Jordan had fought for Chicago until he could overcome those pecky Detroit Pistons[12]. Bird and Magic had embodied their respective cities en route to their own hero narratives[13]. But James had lent himself to an entirely new mold for narrative: What if the league’s best player was not a hero, but a villain?

James’ homey roots became a holy mandate to bring Ohio a championship. Once that becomes the mandate, James becomes an apostate when he decided to leave. The individuality and autonomy engrained in him from childhood became ego and entitlement to the media. As journalists tried to psychoanalyze and evaluate LeBron, basketball fans’ collective consciousness lost what made them love him in the first place. He had become a villain.

And LeBron embraced it. “I’ve kind of accepted this kind of villain role that everyone has placed on me” James said in a 2011 interview. Really, the entire Heat team seemed to embrace their role as agents of chaos. They were trailblazers in the most classical sense, paving their own path toward greatness. But no matter what happened on the court, James sat at the forefront of the movement.[14]

The Heat’s first regular season was a success. Finishing with 58 wins, they secured the second seed in the Eastern Conference bracket, behind only the Chicago Bulls, who were led by their own homegrown star and MVP in Derrick Rose.[15]They tore through the Boston Celtics, and later Rose’s Bulls, before reaching the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. In the Finals, James struggled relative to his usual heroics. He still poured in averages of 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists a game for the series. For any other player, it would have been extraordinary, but for LeBron, he was seen as a disappointment. Often times during the series he took a backseat to Dwayne Wade, and seemed sometimes to disappear in big moments. Losing to the ever-likeable Dirk Nowitzki, the Heat fell to the Mavericks 4-2, and LeBron James was still without a title.

The 2011 Finals loss tortured James for a long time. He has since admitted to overthinking and underachieving that year, which resulted in sleepless nights and a sort of existential crisis. The media gushed over the poetry of Nowitzki’s victory over the “bad guys” in Miami. The contrast between Nowitzki, who had called the Dallas Mavericks home since 1998, and LeBron, who had just moved to Miami, was stark. The headlines wrote themselves: Loyalty vs Treason, Good vs Evil.

The 2011-2012 season became monumental for James. A championship would put to rest, in his mind, much of the noise that haunted him. Not from the media, not from the fans, but from himself. 2011-12 became not so much a season for LeBron, but rather a mission. He had made mistakes on the court the year prior and was determined not to make them again. He easily cruised into his third MVP during the lockout shortened 66 game season. He upped his averages almost across the board and the Heat won almost 70% of their games, finishing 2ndin the conference once again to the Chicago Bulls. As the semi-truck that was the Miami Heat plowed through the Eastern Conference, LeBron James was looking more unstoppable by the minute. He met the OKC Thunder in the NBA Finals, led by a budding core of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook, all experiencing their first shot at a title.[16]

Quite simply, the Heat (and most importantly, LeBron James) decimated the Thunder in five games. LeBron had finally won his championship. He had, in the words of some media outlets, been “vindicated” of his decision to leave– not by way of clearing his name so much as justifying his decision in the first place. Others, however, doubled down on the traitor narrative. As James soaked in the sweet victory of a championship, he felt the urgent tug of next season on his jersey, beckoning him to prove himself once again. That feeling quickly overshadowed the joy of his first championship, and LeBron got back to work.

The next year would his best yet and has since gone down as one of the best seasons in the NBA’s history. He led the Heat to a godly 66 wins and captured his second straight and fourth overall MVP award. For those not counting at home, James turned 29 years old during this 2012-13 season.[17]He was on pace for one of the great careers in NBA history, and he hadn’t yet even hit thirty years of age. He was no longer chasing a ring, he was chasing a legacy.

The Heat won the NBA Championship again in 2013 against the San Antonio Spurs, proving that last year’s success had not been a fluke. James received heaps of praise from players around the league for his efforts, but the media remained reluctant to give his titles legitimacy. Some people still point to Ray Allen’s Game 6 tying shot as “saving” LeBron. LeBron’s 32 points and 11 assists don’t seem to get mentioned as contributing to the win as much as Ray Allen’s only three point make of the night.

Furthermore, the Spurs, who had been recognized as a model franchise for years up until this point,[18]epitomized traditional team building. For reference, in my twenty-one years of life, there has never been a season where the San Antonio Spurs are notvying for a championship. Their core of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker[19], and Kawhi Leonard were all drafted by the Spurs, and their retention by the team stood as a testament to loyalty, and how a franchise “should” win championships.

LeBron’s beating the Spurs, however, in some ways proved that his ownsystem was working. Sure, a team could, and always would be able to, build a dynasty through the draft and retaining their players. But the players themselves had a voice now. More than that, they had options. Star players looked around the league and saw three other All-Stars forging their own path to greatness in Miami, and seeds began to be planted in their own heads. Those seeds would, although not immediately, eventually grow to become a way for players to take hold of their own destinies.

The next year could be the final of James’ contract if he were to exercise his Early Termination Option (ETA)[20]. After this year, he could become an unrestricted free agent once again, and possibly bid farewell to Miami in search of the next challenge. He plowed through the next regular season, but not quite in the dominating fashion as the 2012-13 season. James would return to face the Spurs for a Finals rematch in what some hypothesized would be his last games as a member of the Miami Heat.

That cloud of free agency hung over LeBron, and the entire Heat team, throughout the 2013-14 campaign. They dropped twelve wins from the season prior, from 66 down to 54. After barely escaping the Indiana Pacers in 7 games during the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron and the Heat stumbled into the Finals against a hungry San Antonio Spurs team. Those Spurs obliterated the Heat in just five games, posting the best Finals margin of victory ever at that time.[21]

This is not to say LeBron did not perform well during the 2013-14 regular season, piling in his usual 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists per game. In the Finals, he was easily the best player on either team, scoring ten more points per game than anyone else on either the Heat or Spurs. The issue had more to do with his teammates, who were beginning to show signs of age. If you were to combine the per game statistics of the other two stars on the Heat during the 2014 Finals, you would have a marginally better stat line than LeBron. Wade’s 15.3 points per game in the Finals may have indeed given LeBron déjà vu about his early playoff years in in Cleveland. Now just turning thirty, LeBron seemed to be in the peak of his prime; his teammates, however, seemed to be just now exiting their own.

The Summer of 2015 was set up to be another frenzy when James exercised his ETA. Once again, LeBron was putting his destiny into his own hands. The three suitors for James’ services seemed to be the Heat[22], the Los Angeles Lakers[23], and (somewhat shockingly) his former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

It is worth taking stock of James’ relationship with the media at this point. He had been coronated early in his career and seemed to love being the “good guy” in his first years with the Cavs. However, that feeling quickly eroded with the onset of his playoff failures, and the narrative changed to his lack of postseason success. When he chased after that success by signing with the Heat, he was called a traitor and characterized as the villain. In short, James had discovered that the fickle media members do not, and should not, and will not, define his decisions. Many talking heads wanted to tell LeBron what decision to make, and why he should make it. But in the end, the decision was his. So, after fielding offers for a bit, he made a decision for the second time: He was coming home.

The media’s narrative arc of James’ career to this point called to mind a story that many learned at an early age in Sunday school. In the book of Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a father and his two sons.[24]The younger of the two sons grew tired and impatient of working with his father, and he demanded that his father give him his inheritance immediately. His father obliged, and the younger son went off and spoiled himself. He became absorbed in the glamour that he could provide himself with his wealth. After time though, the son had gone through all of his money, and decided to come home to his father. His father was waiting by the door and embraced his son[25]before throwing him a big “welcome home” feast.[26]The story is referred to as simply “The Prodigal Son”.

Such was the alleged scene when LeBron James returned to his native Ohio. Some Cavs fans were willing to embrace him, just as the father had in the story. Others, however resembled the parable’s older brother, who grumbled when his father reaccepted his brother into the family.[27]

The problem with this comparison is that it, in a way, concedes that LeBron’s initial decision to leave was “wrong”. As I pointed out before, there was nothing wrong with James’ decision at all, that it was merely a strategic business move, and a chance to put himself in a position for himself to be happier. The Bible’s the Prodigal Son knows he has done wrong and owns up to his mistake. James, however, had not committed any wrongdoing whatsoever. In fact, the city of Cleveland was far more hostile to James in the years after he left than vice versa. If anything, James had accepted the city of Cleveland back just as much as they had accepted him. But he did. He put Gilbert’s heavy-handed letter aside, the countless fans who burned his jerseys in the streets. He accepted the city back because he loved them.

LeBron did not return just for sentimental value though – he wanted to win. He wanted to bring Cleveland up from the ashes and finally catapult the city to a title. And, most important of all, he wanted to prove to himself that he could do it.

The situation he inherited was surprisingly good in Cleveland. Kyrie Irving, who was selected first overall by the in the 2011 NBA draft, had become a sensational point guard for the Cavaliers. And while his talent was undeniable, Irving’s skills had not yet translated into team success by any means. By the time LeBron had returned to the Cavs, Irving’s team had never won more than 33 games in a season and had finished no higher than tenth in the weaker Eastern Conference. Maybe, just maybe, he could become a second option though.

The Cavs had also chosen Andrew Wiggins with the first pick in the 2014 draft, who at the time was seen by General Managers as a potentially franchise altering talent. Once James had arrived though, he kickstarted Cleveland’s rebuild into high gear. Wiggins was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for All Star Forward Kevin Love before even logging a minute in Cleveland. Many said that the move was pushed by James, and they have good reason to think so. LeBron was not going to sit and wait for young talent to mature – he wanted to win now. With his new “Big 3” of Love and Irving, LeBron settled into his redemption tour as a Cavalier.

His first season on the team was admittedly rough. James and his co-stars seemed like a bit of an unnatural fit alongside one another. David Blatt, a wildly successful coach in Israel, was hired to man LeBron’s new team, but never seemed to connect with his star. There was “A wide river” separating he and LeBron, Blatt recalled of his time in Cleveland.

Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love’s youth were likely also catalysts to this messy season. In the second game of the regular season against the Chicago Bulls, Kyrie Irving was caught on tape asking his teammates if the intensity of the current game was at all comparable to a playoff environment. The soundbite plays sort of as a high school freshman asking a senior if a rivalry game is what the proverbial “Big League” is like. It was not a great look for Irving, and probably not too encouraging for James, who had his eyes set on a championship then and there.

Despite the challenges though, LeBron’s team still experienced moderate success. James was still playing alongside two All-Stars in Irving and Love and had enough of a supporting cast around him to crank out 54 wins in the regular season.

LeBron did not see much competition in the playoffs until the Finals. The Atlanta Hawks put together an impressive 60-win campaign under newly hired head coach Mike Budenholzer. Budenholzer was a former assistant of Gregg Popovich, who beat LeBron in the finals the year before. Implementing great team passing schemes and balanced offensive attacks, the Hawks looked to replicate the Spurs’ “Team First” strategy to take down LeBron. The tactic was proven to be extremely unsuccessful in this case. Their regular season success proved a mirage as James’ squad swept the #1 seeded Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals. LeBron’s Cavaliers met the Golden State Warriors, an emerging dynasty, in the NBA Finals.

Understanding the Warriors’ story is critical to LeBron’s own, as they would become a key part of the second half of James’ career. After drafting their own “Big 3” of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, the Warriors looked poised to breakout on basketball’s biggest stage in 2014-15. They had just won an ungodly 67 games with the help of an elite supporting cast. Golden State was able to combine teamwork with legitimate star power in perfect fashion for the first time since LeBron’s first title three years prior. Even more so, the Warriors, led by the “Splash Bros” combination of Curry and Thompson, ushered in an entirely new era of basketball that focused on maximizing the use of the three-point shot. This young team was stealing headlines from the King, and most analysts favored the Warriors going into the series. “The Warriors are just better”, said Dan Favale of Bleacher Report, joining in with the ensemble of hundreds of other sports writers watching the NBA that year.

Sadly, we will never know how exactly this series would have ended had everyone been healthy. The Cavaliers lost LeBron’s tertiary star Kevin Love to injury in the Eastern Conference Semifinals against Boston. Then, in the first game of the Finals, his secondary option in Kyrie Irving suffered a knee injury that would keep him out for the rest of the series. Once again, despite LeBron’s heroics, the Cavs fell to their adversaries in six games, losing the series 2-4.

But no one could argue that he was once again the best player on the floor every single night. James bulldozed his way to averages of almost 36 points, 9 assists, and 13 rebounds during the 2015 Finals. Many believed that he would be the first to win Finals MVP on a losing team since Jerry West won the award in 1969. Ultimately, the award was given to Andre Igoudala for his “defense” on James throughout the series. To this day I am admittedly bitter over this decision. Holding LeBron James to 36, 9 and 13 over six games is apparently enough of an accomplishment to warrant a Finals MVP trophy? I suppose the standards change when LeBron James is in the picture. In a way, I think that that the 2015 Finals MVP trophy stands as more of a testament to James’ greatness than Iguodala’s, despite the fact that the latter is the one who actually received it.

Hopes remained high in Cleveland after the Finals though. After all, the Cavaliers had just gone to the NBA Finals in their king’s first year back. With no clear-cut contender in the Eastern Conference to challenge LeBron, it was all but assumed that LeBron and the Cavs would punch their ticket to another Finals the following year.

That optimism proved warranted as the 2015-16 regular season proved much more successful than the season prior. The stars around James were beginning to mature and gel together more cohesively. Cleveland’s front office fired head coach David Blatt midway through the season and replaced him with assistant coach Ty Lue. This move was later revealed to be almost entirely orchestrated to appease LeBron, who had still not connected with Blatt. Lue, on the other hand, took a much more laid-back approach to coaching, and allowed James to have a more control over the team. With James and Lue calling the shots, the Cavaliers skated to 57 wins and locked up home court advantage throughout the entire Eastern Conference side of the playoff bracket.

But the biggest story of the year was happening over two thousand miles west, on the sunny coast of California, where the incumbent NBA Champion Golden State Warriors were stringing together an impossible season. It began with a twenty-four-game win streak (24-0!) to begin the season. That number alone marked the best start to an NBA season in the league’s history. Their success continued to grow into unprecedented heights that year. Led by soon to be back to back MVP Steph Curry, the Warriors finished the season with a 73-9 record, eclipsing the 1995-96 Bulls’ record of 72-10 as the best in league history. They broke an astonishing 35 NBA records by the end of the calendar year. The Warriors had officially produced the single greatest regular season in NBA history. But now, they had to prove it was sustainable into the playoffs.

They more or less rolled through the first two rounds of the Western Conference, beating both the Houston Rockets and Portland Trailblazers handily. The Western Conference Finals proved to be their greatest test yet though, squaring off against Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and the OKC Thunder.[28]The Thunder took a commanding 3-1 lead in the series, meaning that the Warriors would need to win three straight games in order to advance. The so called “Greatest Team of All Time” looked all too vulnerable against Durant’s Thunder. But in unprecedented fashion, the Warriors came back to beat the Thunder. Kevin Durant and his teammates were stunned by Warriors’ resilience, resilience that kept him from competing in the Finals yet again.

Interestingly enough, the public was split on the Warriors perception at this point. They were certainly fun to watch – their blistering pace, star power, and barrage of threes became must watch television. But they were undoubtedly cocky. One news publication deemed them “delightfully arrogant”, a sentiment that most of America had probably begun to resonate with. Their unprecedented success and hubristic attitude combined together into what the media found to be their most convincing villain yet.

Enter LeBron James. James, now in his twelfth year as an NBA basketball player, had already enjoyed what most would consider one of the best careers in the league’s history. To recap his history with the media, he had been deemed the “Chosen One” early on. After he had announced his decision to play for the Miami Heat, he became the league’s Public Enemy #1. He embraced his villainy for a time, but somewhere along the way thought less and less of what the media portrayed him as. In a deeply personal decision, James had returned to Cleveland to win the city that he loved a championship. With James’ return he shifted back into the “Hero” category for sports journalists. Now, with the rise of the dominant and arrogant Warriors, the media finally saw his chance to take down his very own “villain”.

The Cavs and Warriors met in the Finals both rostering completely healthy teams. The storylines wrote themselves. James’ quest to bring Ohio a trophy. Golden State’s quest to cement their legacy as the greatest team to ever take the court. James, still chasing the chance to become the greatest player in the sport’s history, had yet to have his own “signature moment.” Curry had not yet achieved a Finals MVP award. With so much on the line, the 2016 Finals garnered perhaps the most attention for a Championship playoff in recent memory.

The series started out ugly for the Cavaliers, who were blown out in their first two games. Game three marked a small shift in momentum, with the Cavs winning by thirty points, but any momentum that had been accrued swiftly dissipated after a Game four loss at home. LeBron and the Cavs were down 3-1[29], and needed to win three straight games against the greatest team in league history in order to bring Cleveland a title. No team had ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in the History of the NBA Finals. But LeBron was built different.

What happened next was the stuff of legends. James and Irving would combine for 82 points in a win-or-go-home game in the Warriors’ Oracle Arena. Draymond Green, the Warriors’ defensive leader and primary defender of LeBron James, would receive his 16thtechnical foul of the season, which, per league rules, meant he would be suspended for the following game.[30]The Cavaliers would take advantage of the shorthanded Warriors at home, and sent the series to a final, seventh game behind James’ 41 points and 11 rebounds in Game 6.

Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals became the most watched NBA game everon ABC, topping 30 million viewers. This attention came with good reason too, as the game would go on to become the single most important game in NBA history.

The pace of defense was set very early on, with the Warriors holding a 49-42 lead over the Cavaliers. The third quarter saw an eruption of offense from the Cavaliers though, adding 33 points and cutting the Warriors lead down to one. In a back and forth fourth quarter that saw only 31 total points scored, the pressure had begun to mount. With a little under five minutes left LeBron hit a three pointer to put the Cavs up by two points. Almost immediately after, Klay Thompson tied the game at 89 with a layup on the other end.

The entire game, series, season, perhaps legacy of LeBron James had come down to this moment. The years of being called a choker, then a quitter, then a coward by the media must have flashed before his eyes. The Warriors 73-9 record was beating down on him like the hot sun. A 3-1 deficit to boot. The collective pressures of the entire basketball world were on the kid from Akron’s shoulders. And then it happened.

With under two minutes left in the game, Kyrie Irving’s missed shot led to a rebound by Andre Iguodala[31]on the other end. He fired the ball up court to Curry, who delivered a bounce pass right back to Iguodala. Cavs shooting guard JR Smith was the only thing between Iguodala and the basket. Smith contested the layup slightly, but the effort looked futile as the much taller Iguodala double pumped before extending to lay the ball into the hoop. What happened next was immortalized forever in what has since become one of the most famous calls in sports broadcasting history.

“Blocked by James!” commentator Mike Breen shouted, “LeBron James with the rejection!” James had sprinted down the floor to send Iguodala’s shot off of the backboard in mesmerizing fashion.

In a 2006 story for the New York Times, David Foster Wallace described Roger Federer’s play in tennis as a religious experience. He describes “Federer Moments”, moments where the world class player makes a play that had never really been conceived of as possible until the moment actually transpires, leaving the crowd’s collective mouth open in a stupor.

LeBron James can be described similarly. If LeBron playing basketball was religious experience, his Game 7 block was Christmas Mass, delivered by the Christ himself from the Throne of Glory. It was Moksha and Nirvana, simultaneously exploding into a crescendo of emotions never before experienced within the essence of the human soul. Parts of my being were actualized that I did not know existed a moment prior. I realized, as many other people around the world who saw the play, that the beauty and power of LeBron’s block was the stuff of deity. If he wasn’t god himself, LeBron had at least performed the most convincing impression I have seen to date.

ESPN’s John Brenkus, the host of “Sports Science”, later revealed just how unbelievable this feat of athleticism was later on by the numbers. LeBron covered 60 feet in just 2.67 seconds. That number is faster than the Chief’s All Pro running back Jamal Charles, who James is 50 pounds heavier than. Even more impressive, Brenkus contends, is the timing of the block. There was only a .20 second window in which LeBron could block the ball before it hit the backboard. He hit precisely that window.

But nobody needed to know the science to understand how incredible the block was. The play was henceforth known as simply “The Block” and became the first truly positive sports moment for Cleveland in over half a century. The city would not have to wait long for another. With less than a minute left and a tie game at hand, Kyrie Irving shook reigning MVP Steph Curry with a hesitation dribble before stepping back into a fadeaway three-point shot. That shot went in, and the Cavaliers would finish the game as NBA Champions.

This series, and especially this game, became the pinnacle of James’ career. He put forth what many consider the greatest Finals performance of all time, winning another NBA Finals MVP award to go with Cleveland’s first ever basketball title. After the game and holding the NBA’s Larry O’ Brian Trophy, he declared loudly for all to hear: “Cleveland, this is for you!”. Such a declaration became his freedom: he didn’t need to do any of this, but he did, because he could. He came home because he loved this city, and won the championship not out of burden, but as a labor of love. From this moment on, any pressures that the media or the city could place upon him were annulled.

The story of LeBron could stop there, truly, even though James’ career is far from over. As far as his success, it has never, and may never again, be matched by the 2016 victory. However, continuing on with his story will illuminate his impact on the league as a whole even more clearly.

After the 2016 NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors were left confounded. They had done everything that the script had laid out for them in order to become a dynasty. They drafted well, used their money wisely, and epitomized team basketball.

Likewise, OKC superstar Kevin Durant had questions to be answered. As you’ll remember, he had just blown a 3-1 lead of his own. After his humiliating loss against the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, he was beginning to hear some familiar criticisms, criticisms that James heard during his first stint with the Cavaliers. The media made him out to be a choker. A quitter. A loser. So, Durant, facing his own free agency, took matters into his own hands.

Durant embarked on his own free agency quest that summer, fielding offers from a few different teams like the Spurs, Celtics, and Clippers. Ultimately though, he decided to sign with the Golden State Warriors in one of the most groan inducing moments of the past decade. One of the top 3 best players in the world was signing with a team that had just won 73 games in the regular season prior. The move all but ensured a span of even more impressive utter destruction from the Warriors for the foreseeable future.

Kevin Durant’s recruitment to Golden State allegedly happened only hours after the Warriors’ Finals loss. Rumor has it that Draymond Green, sitting in his car after the heartbreaking defeat, called Kevin Durant and begged him to come play in the Bay Area. Green denies that the phone call was about Durant’s recruitment, but admits that the call was certainly made.

The move came, just as LeBron’s own decision, with a lot of backlash. Media members and fans alike showed outrage over the move. Even many who had previously defended LeBron James’ decision to sign with the Heat were critical of Durant, citing LeBron’s situation during his first years in Cleveland as galaxies apart from Durant’s own in Oklahoma City.[32] Regardless of one’s opinion about the move’s justification though, one thing was for certain: LeBron James paved the way for such a decision to become possible.

The Warriors would go on to have another historic season with the addition of Durant, rematching and beating the Cavaliers in the Finals the next year. In the years following Durant’s decision, a host of superstars, including Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis all requested trades from their respective small market teams. This phenomenon signaled a shift towards player empowerment to choose their own destiny. This path, the path that we find ourselves on in 2019, has become more or less the norm. Players, especially star players, have begun to see their roles as employees and businessmen more than pawns to be moved around a board. James had set off the first domino in a string of player empowering decisions with his decision in the summer of 2010—it just took the league a second to catch up to the philosophy.[33]

Before the 2018-19 season started, LeBron had come to the end of his second contract in Cleveland. It had become somewhat of a foregone conclusion that he would leave the Cavs once again, having brought his hometown a title, and would continue to the next chapter and challenge of life. His recruitment opened back up, and James would be courted by a variety of teams during the summer. Ultimately, James chose to join the Los Angeles Lakers in what would become the most recent chapter of his illustrious career.

The reaction to James’ joining the Lakers was markedly different than the decision to join the Heat eight years earlier. The decision was almost mundane, commonplace practice. The best player in the league was of course going to put himself in the best position to move forward with his career, and why shouldn’t he? Now it seemed like a no brainer—but only eight years earlier before it had been blasphemous.

James’ arrival to the Lakers was, like all of his other decisions, on his own terms. Much like his return to Cleveland though, LeBron had not come just to be—he came to win. Part of coming to the Lakers was undoubtedly a promise from the ownership[34]that they would improve the team and immediately contend for titles – the league’s best player would accept nothing less. While there was no public acknowledgement at the time, it was widely believed that James essentially built the entire team around him, telling the management who he wanted them to sign during the summer. During the 2018-19 regular season, New Orleans Pelicans Forward Anthony Davis requested a trade from the team, and reports that he wanted to join LeBron in LA surfaced[35]. Many media figures and fans joked about LeBron constructing trade packages with his own teammates to make a deal work. For good or ill, LeBron had taken the front office into his own hands too.

On the court he was the boss too. Head Coach Luke Walton was drafted the same year as LeBron but had long since retired and moved into coaching. The similarities in their age alone makes it difficult for someone of James’ prestige to respect someone like Walton. He probably guarded his coach in the league at some point, and not only that, if they did play each other, he probably destroyed Walton. As of March 26, 2019, Walton is still the head coach of the Lakers, but if I were to put money on it, he would not be at the helm next year. That is the extent to James’ personal control at this point in his career.

James did not move to LA for only basketball reasons though. He had owned a house in Los Angeles for a couple years before even moving to the Lakers, as he conducted most of his business in Los Angeles. The allure of Hollywood undoubtedly also played a role in his decision. Not even a single full season has transpired, and he is already set to star in Space Jam 2, the much-anticipated sequel to a children’s movie first starring Michael Jordan in 1996. The move to LA was perhaps as much a basketball move as it was a move toward the eventual transition outof basketball. He was setting down roots in Southern California for the long haul.

And so here we are. LeBron James, “The Chosen One”, son of a single mother, has become the most famous and powerful player in all of American Sports history. He changed along the way, sure, but one thing always remained the same about LeBron: He was completely and utterly himself. LeBron learned from an early age that he would have to pave his own way in this world. He was gifted, but then again, many people were gifted. What made LeBron James special was not only what he delivered on the court, but his decisions off of it too. He paved the way for the modern NBA star. Even within the last few months the mindset has made its way into the NFL[36], a league notorious for silencing and keeping a tight leash on its players. His impact even seeped into the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, which has shifted toward more player-friendly contracts in recent years. All of these effects were the function of LeBron James refusing to subscribe to the idea of what a superstar was. He was LeBron, nothing more, nothing less. Not too bad for the kid from Akron.

Footnotes

[1]Lionel Messi comes in just underneath James, followed by a string of non-American athletes until you reach the ninth spot, where Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry comes in. James sits as far and away the most popular athlete in the USA to go along with being the second most popular in the world.

[2]Akron ranks in the bottom five percent of crime index reports even today, which figures to be an improvement on the number that was likely true in the late 1980s and 1990s, when LeBron grew up there. Various metrics and rankings for crime put Akron at the very bottom almost across the board.

[3]It is perhaps worth pointing out that 20 years earlier, in 1983, Michael Jordan was playing for the North Carolina Tarheels and was subsequently taken by the Chicago Bulls in the NBA draft the following year. Whether or not Bilas is referring to Jordan with this comparison is unclear but is at the very least interesting seeing as though Jordan was already considered the greatest to ever play by 2003, when Bilas wrote the piece on Lebron. The analyst very well may have been harkening back to Jordan with this comment.

[4]Implemented in 1985, the NBA saw the Draft lottery as a way to incentivize winning attitudes around the league. Instead of being guaranteed the best player in the following year’s draft class, the worst team would only have a 22.5% chance at the #1 pick, with decreasing odds thereafter as the records get better. This system has not come without controversy. In the first NBA lottery, the New York Knicks landed Georgetown’s phenom center Patrick Ewing in what many call a rigged lottery. Despite the potential for rigging, that was probably not the case with LeBron James. The Cavaliers were just a terrible basketball team.

[5]This piece is being written in March of 2019, where James is expected to appear as an All-NBA first teamer once again.

[6]The NBA Championship trophy

[7]Despite losing the series overall, LeBron was undoubtedly the best player on either team, averaging an absurd 38.5 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 8 assists in the series.

[8]The NBA Finals are traditionally played in April of each year.

[9]Bosh left the Toronto Raptors for the Heat as well. Interestingly, there was not nearly as much criticism of this signing as there was with LeBron James.

[10]Michael Jordan and LeBron James are constantly compared in relation to their greatness. This decision by James seems to be Jordan fans’ favorite talking point in favor of Jordan. Jordan, however, was gifted Scottie Pippen three years into his career. Pippen would go on to become one of the 50 greatest players in the history of the NBA. It begs the question: If LeBron was given Wade by his own third year in the league, would he have felt the need to leave Cleveland?

[11]A particularly amusing critique, considering that Magic Johnson would be the key figure to lure James away from Cleveland again later in his career.

[12]The Pistons were long considered Jordan’s “rivals”, until he finally beat them in the playoffs in 1991. The “Bad Boy” Pistons were hated universally because of their “dirty” playstyle. The perfect villain for Jordan to overcome.

[13]Many point to Magic Johnson as a hero figure because of his fun playstyle and with a show stopping smile which radiated positivity. He was likeable. Bird, on the other hand, was portrayed as a blue-collar baller, a persona that working class Boston embraced wholeheartedly. Each were given different narratives, but the same hero-esque quality remained.

[14]In a way, James’ progression can be likened to Friedrich Nietzsche’s progression to freedom laid out in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche describes the individual as needing to slay a (metaphorical) dragon named “Thou Shalt”. This dragon stands as a representation of the presuppositions that society lays upon one from its offset. As for James’ career, “Thou Shalt” stands as the expectations that the basketball world had previously set out for him. The pressure to stay in Cleveland would be this dragon, and he slays it by taking control of his own destiny and moving to the Miami Heat.

[15]Rose had been born and raised in Chicago, and was like, James, seen as the savior of Chicago, destined to bring the Bulls back to their glory in the 1990s. Rose, after experiencing many knee injuries, was traded to the New York Knicks five years later.

[16]As of 2019, these three players hold a combined three MVPs between them. One of the great “What Ifs” in league history is examining what could have been had these generational talents been kept together in Oklahoma City.

[17]For context, by the end of Michael Jordan’s 29-year-old season he had won two Championships and three MVP awards. By the end of LeBron’s, he had matched Jordan’s Championships while adding another, fourth MVP award.

[18]I am twenty-one years old and have never been alive to witness a season where the San Antonio Spurs were not in the playoffs, much less vying for a championship.

[19]These three were also the stars of the Spurs’ 2007 team that swept LeBron’s Cavaliers in the Finals.

[20]Essentially, this contract stipulation gives the player power to either opt in and take the guaranteed money on the last year of the contract or declare himself a free agent by opting out.

[21]This record would soon be broken, once again against LeBron James, by the Golden State Warriors in 2018.

[22]Duh. Why ruin a good thing?

[23]One of the most successful and storied franchises in the history of American Sports. Also, LA weather. Also, Hollywood, for post-career business ventures.

[24]Luke 15:11-32, to be exact.

[25]This scene spawned one of the greatest works of art ever created, The Prodigal Sonby Rembrandt.

[26]I left out some details, like that the son eventually was so downtrodden that he found himself eating pig slop on a farm. While Wade’s 15.3 points in the Finals were not great, I considered it a bit of a stretch to liken his and Bosh’s postseason performances to eating pig slop.

[27]There are a few people I had talked to during this time that had said they would not want LeBron back in Cleveland. I genuinely do not know if any person, after watching his span of four-year dominance with the Heat, could make such a claim with a straight face.

[28]You will recall that LeBron played them in the 2012 Finals, joined by James Harden. Harden had since been traded to the Houston Rockets because of salary issues.

[29]You’ll recognize that this position is eerily similar to that of Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals.

[30]Depending on who you talk to, this point was anywhere from somewhat important or the most important moment in the series. Regardless of exactly how much you are to weigh his suspension, Green’s value was undeniably a huge part of the series’ momentum shift toward the Cavaliers.

[31]Reigning Finals MVP Andre Iguodala, remember? For his defense on LeBron James the year prior. Yeah, hold that thought.

[32]These criticisms are pretty fair. Durant was playing alongside All-NBA performer and co-star Russell Westbrook at the time. He was only one win away from making the Finals once again before losing the Thunder’s 3-1 lead. Also, the fact that the Warriors were the very ones who bounced Durant in the first place made the move immensely unpopular. It does not change the validity of the move’s principle though.

[33]This is what always happens with philosophy – a genius comes along and puts forth a theory. We laugh and mock him, then after time, realize he was right all along.

[34]Magic Johnson, the President of Basketball Operations for the Lakers, was a key cog in selling LeBron on coming to the team. The irony of his selling LeBron on the Lakers comes in the fact that he was one of his biggest detractors during his decision to leave Cleveland for Miami. Now, he happily accepted James into the Lakers.

[35]Davis had recently hired Rich Paul as his agent. Rich Paul also represents LeBron James, and the two had been friends from his high school days. The connection between James and Davis through Rich Paul proved to be so convincing that the NBA actually launched an investigation into the connection for potential tampering.

[36]Colin Kaepernick, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown have led the charge on this front. The first took a knee during the national anthem to protest violence against African Americans by police. Bell took a stand in a much different way, holding out an entire year of his contract in order to force a team to give him a contract that could not be voided in the event of an injury. The last, Antonio Brown, requested a trade from the Steelers, a relatively unprecedented move from an NFL wide receiver. All three examples point toward more autonomy and freedom for the players.

Sources

“2019 World Fame 100: Who Are the Biggest Names in Sports?” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/26113613/espn-world-fame-100-2019.

Abad-Santos, Alexander. “The Hater's Guide to Dealing with the Jubilant, Bottle-Popping Miami Heat.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 29 Oct. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/06/miami-heat-nba-finals-reaction/314009/.

Adande, J.A. “Gilbert's Letter Signals Wider Backlash.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 11 July 2010, www.espn.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=adande_ja&page=jalebron-100709.

Afluck. “Heat's LeBron James Accepting of New Villain Role.” Chicago Bulls, NBA.com/Bulls, 14 Jan. 2011, www.nba.com/bulls/news/smith_lebron_110114.html.

Ballard, Chris. “The Ewing Conspiracy.” Sports Illustrated Longform, www.si.com/longform/2015/1985/ewing/index.html.

Bianchi, Mike. “Dumbest Column I've Ever Written: Dwight Howard Would Be Greater than LeBron James.” OrlandoSentinel.com, 8 June 2018, www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/open-mike/os-sp-lebron-james-dwight-howard-orlando-magic-cavaliers-dumbest-column-ever-20180607-story.html.

Broussard, Chris, and Marc Stein. “Kevin Durant to Meet with OKC First Then Five Others in Hamptons.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 30 June 2016, www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/16613710/2016-nba-free-agency-kevin-durant-host-5-teams-hamptons.

Carroll, Charlotte. “LeBron James to Star in Space Jam.” SI.com, 2019, www.si.com/nba/2018/09/19/lebron-james-ryan-coogler-space-jam-sequel.

“Cavaliers Hire David Blatt as Head Coach.” NBA.com, 21 June 2014, www.nba.com/2014/news/06/20/cavs-reach-agreement-with-blatt.ap/.

Conway, Tyler. “Disgraced Former Ref Tim Donaghy Says Mavericks Were 'Screwed' out of 2006 Title.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 17 Nov. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/2744705-disgraced-former-ref-tim-donaghy-says-mavericks-were-screwed-out-of-2.

Donegan, Lawrence. “America's Most Wanted.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 2 Mar. 2003, www.theguardian.com/sport/2003/mar/02/ussport.

Downey, Tom. “Why Sunday's Game 7 Is The Most Important Game In NBA History.” Live and on-Demand Sports News Video, 19 June 2016, www.chatsports.com/nba/a/why-sundays-game-7-most-important-game-nba-history-29497.

ESPN. “Relive The LeBron James Chase Down Block | Sport Science | ESPN Archives.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Apr. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kExlzEaOCYU.

Evans, Gavin. “Stephen Jackson Knocks Kevin Durant's Effort After OKC's Game 6 Loss.” Complex, Complex, 1 June 2018, www.complex.com/sports/2016/05/stephen-jackson-knocks-kevin-durants-effort-game-6.

Favale, Dan. “Cavaliers vs. Warriors: 2015 NBA Finals Preview, Predictions and More.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 2 Sept. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/2482457-cavaliers-vs-warriors-2015-nba-finals-preview-predictions-and-more#slide8.

Fishmanyesterday, Louis, et al. “David Blatt: A 'Wide River' Separated Me and LeBron James.” Haaretz.com, 25 Dec. 2018, www.haaretz.com/israel-news/sports/david-blatt-a-wide-river-separated-me-and-lebron-james-1.6783368.

Foxsports. “This Unbelievable Stat Illustrates Just How Great LeBron James Was in the Finals.” FOX Sports, 20 June 2016, www.foxsports.com/nba/story/lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers-nba-finals-game-7-061916.

Graham, Tim. “LBJ and NFL: A Fantasy Based in Reality.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 7 July 2010, www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=5360552.

Gregory, Sean. “Economist: LeBron Worth Over $500 Million to Cleveland.” Time, Time, 14 July 2014, time.com/2981583/LeBron-James-Cleveland-cavs-money/.

Hayden, Erik. “What to Read If You Want to Revel in LeBron James's Defeat.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 30 Oct. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/06/lebron-james-defeat/351688/.

Herald, Miami. “Miami Heat Welcome Party.” YouTube, YouTube, 10 July 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9BqUBYaHlM.

Kaskey-Blomain, Michael. “LeBron Says Overcoming 2011 Finals Loss Is His Great Achievement.” Los Angeles Lakers, 247sports, 13 Oct. 2018, 247sports.com/nba/los-angeles-lakers/Article/LeBron-James-says-overcoming-2011-NBA-Finals-loss-is-his-great-achievement-123239373/.

Lyndall, Craig. “What Really Happened with LeBron James in the 2010 NBA Playoffs?” Waiting For Next Year, 17 July 2015, waitingfornextyear.com/2015/07/what-really-happened-with-lebron-james-in-the-2010-nba-playoffs/.

Moore, Matt. “The LeBron James Free-Agency Decision 2.0 Primer.” CBSSports.com, 2 June 2015, www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-lebron-james-free-agency-decison-20-primer/.

Murdock, Logan, et al. “The Delightful Arrogance of the Golden State Warriors.” NBCS Bay Area, 20 Jan. 2016, www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/delightful-arrogance-golden-state-warriors.

“NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement.” Nba.com, Dec. 2017, www.nba.com/media/CBA101.pdf.

O'Hare, Kate. “Is LeBron James the Prodigal Son?” CatholicVote.org, 11 July 2014, www.catholicvote.org/is-lebron-james-the-prodigal-son/.

Patten, Dominic. “NBA Finals Game 7 Most Watched Game Ever On ABC As Cavs Win First Title.” Deadline, 20 June 2016, deadline.com/2016/06/lebron-james-nba-finals-ratings-game-7-cleveland-cavaliers-golden-state-warriors-abc-1201775472/.

“Players React to Heat Winning Title.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 21 June 2013, www.espn.com/nba/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/9409297/2013-nba-finals-social-media-reaction-heat-second-straight-championship-san-antonio-spurs-vs-miami-heat.

Press, Associated. “LeBron James Extends Charity Efforts.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 2 Mar. 2011, www.espn.com/nba/truehoop/miamiheat/news/story?id=6175574.

Rapp, Timothy. “Kevin Durant to Warriors: Twitter Reacts to Star's Decision to Join Golden State.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 3 Oct. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/2650004-kevin-durant-to-warriors-twitter-reacts-to-stars-decision-to-join-golden-state.

Reisinger, Adam. “Destination LeBron: Where Could King James Land This Summer?” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/22453452/destination-lebron-where-king-james-land-free-agency-summer.

Rovell, Darren. “LeBron James Is Worth Hundreds of Millions to the Cavs and Cleveland.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 13 June 2018, www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23769496/lebron-james-worth-millions-economy-cleveland.

Schilling, Dave. “Down and out in Game 7: What Happened to the Oklahoma City Thunder?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 31 May 2016, www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/may/31/oklahoma-city-thunder-kevin-durant-game-7-nba-playoffs.

ScrollTube. “James: Cleveland, This Is For You.” YouTube, YouTube, 23 June 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCSj6ezRiW0.

Sharp, Andrew. “LeBron James Disappears For Miami In Game 4, And Everything We Learned Was A Lie.” SBNation.com, SBNation.com, 8 June 2011, www.sbnation.com/nba/2011/6/8/2213097/lebron-james-miami-heat-dallas-mavericks-nba-finals-2011-game-4.

Shaughnessy, Dan. “LeBron James Grows up and Moves Back Home - The Boston Globe.” BostonGlobe.com, 11 July 2014, www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/07/11/lebron-james-prodigal-son/Ak2mlhvsHjraYDAOjEs6RK/story.html.

Shudel, Jeff. “Cleveland Cavaliers: First Year Was Learning Experience for Coach David Blatt.” Herald, The News-Herald, 27 Sept. 2018, www.news-herald.com/sports/cleveland-cavaliers-first-year-was-learning-experience-for-coach-david/article_5f99aa97-3744-5caa-8861-ac501b4d46a9.html.

“The 2018 NBA Finals Were Historically Good and Bad.” The DataFace, 16 Dec. 2018, thedataface.com/2018/06/sports/2018-nba-finals.

Wallace, David Foster. “Roger Federer as Religious Experience.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Aug. 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html.

White, Frances. “LeBron James, The Prodigal Son and His Pursuit of Championship Glory.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 8 June 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/417833-lebron-james-the-prodigal-son-and-his-pursuit-of-championship-glory.

Whitley, David. “LeBron James Vindicated with First NBA Championship, Finals MVP.” Sporting News, 22 June 2012, www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/3070452-lebron-james-mvp-miami-heat-nba-champions