Jeff Benedict - LeBron

Thank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster ebook. Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox. To Gary I grew up thinking you walked out on Mom and me. As a kid, I was convinced you didnt care. About her. About me. As an adult, I wondered why. I knew where to find you. But I never bothered. Then, in my late forties, I got your number and called. When you answered, you called me Son. Turned out, you had read and saved most everything Id ever written. Turned out, you were longing, too. You traveled to my home. Met my family. Put your arms around me. Told me you loved me. Told me you were proud. All those years I had it wrong. I learned that when a baby is born to two unwed adolescents, a lot gets buried. I love you. Thank you for being my father. This ones for you.

ONE

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

A motorcade of shiny black SUVs exited Westchester County Airport and crossed into Connecticut, meandering along wooded back roads before turning onto a smoothly paved private drive lined on both sides with stone walls and large leafy oaks and maples. In the backseat of one of the vehicles, twenty-five-year-old LeBron James sat beside twenty-three-year-old Savannah Brinson, his soulmate since high school and the mother of their two little boys. In his eyes, she was the one thing more enchanting than the idyllic scenery visible through the windows as they eased to a stop in front of a house on an estate in Greenwich. Wearing black shades, a white T-shirt, and black cargo shorts, James stepped out and looked around. Golden light from the late-afternoon sun shone through the propertys white picket fence, illuminating the lush green lawn, pink and purple impatiens, and chocolate-colored mulch. A stone path led to the sprawling New England Colonial. It was Thursday, July 8, 2010, and James had come to rehearse, have dinner, and relax. In a few hours, he was set to appear in a prime-time special on ESPN to reveal his decision whether to remain with the Cleveland Cavaliers or join one of the five teams that had been courting him for more than a year. The worlds most celebrated basketball player couldnt foresee that by the end of the night he would be the most hated athlete in all of sports.

More than a half dozen people poured out of the other vehicles, including two of his best friends, twenty-nine-year-old Maverick Carter and twenty-eight-year-old Rich Paul. They were among the handful of people who knew Jamess plans. Carter and Paul, along with Jamess thirty-one-year-old chief of staff, Randy Mims, had been with James since his senior year of high school in Akron, Ohio, when LeBron had asked the three of them to come work for him, to be his inner circle. Smart, ambitious, and fiercely loyal to each other, they and James called themselves the Four Horsemen. Mims hadnt joined them on this trip, but Carter and Paul followed James down the stone path toward the house, walking with a swagger. Especially Carter. Jamess business partner and an aspiring mogul, he was the one who had advised James to announce his decision in such an audacious way. James was the only athlete in America with the muscle to get ESPNs president, John Skipper, to green-light an hour for his own show. And Carter relished the idea of James using that muscle to do something more revolutionary than merely exercising his right as a free agent to choose one team over another. Rather, James was about to issue what amounted to a declaration of independence from the economic grip of team owners, from the filters that journalists at traditional media platforms put on him, and from the overall power dynamic that historically kept athletesespecially Black athletesin their place.

Savvy and entrepreneurial, Paul was gearing up to become a sports agent, and he was uneasy over the way the decision was being announced. But he agreed with Maverick on one thing: LeBron was about to wreck the status quo.

Brimming with confidence, James took in the moment with his friends. He recognized how much leverage he possessed. In seven seasons in Cleveland, he had done things that no basketball playernot even Michael Jordanhad done. Ordained the Chosen One on the cover of Sports Illustrated during his junior year of high school and signed to a $90 million shoe contract by Nike before graduating, James had entered the NBA like a comet at age eighteen and promptly become the youngest and fastest player in league history to reach the collective milestones of 10,000 points, 2,500 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 700 steals, and 300 blocks. He was on pace to become the most prolific scorer-playmaker the game had ever seen. In 2004, at nineteen, he became the youngest NBA player to make the US Olympic basketball roster, and in 2008, at twenty-three, he won a gold medal. In the same year, he produced his first film through his newly formed production company, signed his first book contract, and went into business with Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine at Beats Electronics, which was later acquired by Apple. He also cultivated friendships with two of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, both of whom were impressed with the cadre of sophisticated bankers and lawyers who were advising James and his inner circle. Of James, Buffett said, If he were an IPO, Id buy in.

By July 2010, Jamess estimated $50 million in annual earnings from his basketball salary and endorsement deals were just part of his burgeoning portfolio. His worth was on track to crest $1 billion within the coming decade. There had never been a billionaire playing professional team sports in America. James was determined to be the first.

At Nike, he had eclipsed Tiger Woods as the shoe companys most valuable brand ambassador. When Woods had crashed his SUV into a neighbors tree and seen his reputation crumble in a sensational adultery scandal the previous fall, corporations dropped the golfer and increasingly gravitated toward James. American Express, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and Walmart embraced the authenticity of Jamess devotion to family and his unrelenting commitment to his Akron roots.

Meantime, his global fame already transcended sports. Performing with Jay-Z, campaigning for Barack Obama, dining with Anna Wintour, doing a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz and Gisele, and starting his own foundation, James ventured into politics, fashion, mass media, and philanthropy before his twenty-fifth birthday. In a recent one-year span, he was profiled on 60 Minutes and appeared on the covers of Vogue, Time, Esquire, Fortune , and GQ . According to a leading celebrity index, James had surpassed Jay-Z in popularity. And Nike made James into a global icon through Hollywood-caliber television commercials that showcased his abilities as an actor and comedian. From China to cities across Europe, James became a household name.

About the only thing James hadnt done was win an NBA championship. But that, he had determined, was about to change. For more than a year hed been clear that when his contract with the Cavaliers expired after the 20092010 season, he would look at his options and sign with the organization that was best equipped to field a team capable of winning rings. Everyone wanted in. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city of New York went as far as launching the Cmon LeBron campaign, putting up digital messages in Times Square and running ads on the mini-screens of taxicabs in hopes that James would join the Knicks. A Russian billionaire who owned the Brooklyn Nets tried to lure him by sharing his vision to help James become a billionaire. Even President Obama weighed in, making a pitch from the West Wing for his hometown Chicago Bulls. Billboards in Cleveland begged James to stay. Billboards in Miami pleaded with him to come.

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