Rachel Shuster - Lebron James: King of the Court

Introduction
Chasing a Ghost

Chapter 1
Mr. Basketball

Chapter 2
Making of a Superstar

Chapter 3
Leaving Home

Chapter 4
Redemption

Chapter 5
More Than Just Basketball

Opposite: LeBron James was exuberant after leading the Miami Heat to victory against the Oklahoma Thunder for the 2012 NBA title, his first after nine seasons in the league.

F or a generation of basketball fans who believed no one would approach the likes of Michael Jordan again, yet who termed every rising star the next Michael Jordan" and who heaped such pressure on those rising stars that no one could possibly live up to the expectationsLeBron James confounded and dazzled and disheartened and amazed right from the start of his still-rising, enigmatic career.

From the time he was three years old and wouldnt play with his toy basketball set unless the hoop was placed on the highest setting, James has known only one thingto go all-out. That drive sustained him through a childhood without a father; through entering the NBA at nineteen and earning Rookie of the Year honors; and through early stardom in Cleveland but failure to bring the Cavaliers a title. It got him through the ridicule of saying on live TV that he was taking his talents to South Beach to play for the Miami Heat, then seeing his likeness burning in effigy by his former fans in Cleveland. And it humbled him when in 2016 he finally did deliver a championship for Cleveland as a returning Cavalier, the citys first sports title of any kind in more than fifty years.

Today, LeBron James has reached the pinnacle of his basketball career, but he is not satisfied. My motivation is this ghost Im chasing. The ghost played in Chicago, James said, comparing himself to Jordan in a Sports Illustrated interview in August 2016, just months after his third NBA title.

Away from the court, he has done much for the community in the Cleveland area, particularly in his nearby hometown of Akron, Ohio. He has done things particularly for the youth, but he is not satisfied in that arena, either. Perhaps both feelings come from an inner place where being satisfied was not an option. Not when he had the example of his mother and all she would do to make life better for her children.

My mom, she set me up for the life I have now, said James, who has his moms name tattooed on his arm, in an interview with WebMD in April 2010.

I had my mother to blanket me, to give me security. [When I was] growing up, she was my mother, my father, everything. To grow up in a single-parent household, to see what she could do all by herself, that gave me a lot of strength.

Strength is a good word to associate with James, both on and off the basketball court. On the court, his monster dunks, his ability to power through multiple defenders flailing every which way at him, and his chase-down blocks that thunder through the arena and right through your TV screen, have been his calling cards in a career that includes three NBA championships and appearances in the last six NBA Finals.

Off the court, his strength of character comes through in his numerous activities to make life better for those less fortunate. Whether its providing college scholarships for at-risk youth or business opportunities for would-be entrepreneurs, James has become one of those rare athletes whose vision extends beyond the field of play.

Today, visitors to his high school, St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, can watch basketball games in LeBron James Arena, which seats almost two thousand fans. In 2012, after winning his first NBA title, James returned home and pledged $1 million to renovate his high school arena, which was completed and ready for basketball games in December 2013.

Just using our resources, using our strength, using everything that weve been able to do to just build up these communities,

James told more than five thousand children and their families at an Ohio event in September 2016. The event kicked off the sixth year of his Akron I Promise program to keep youngsters on track toward educational success.

He was like many of those kids when he grew up in Akron.