In the sports world today, LeBron James is easily consideredone of the greatest professional athletes to ever not only play the game ofbasketball, but change it and evolve it completely. Having highly devote fans formost of LeBron’s life, a lot of people wonder how did he do it? How did he getthe world to remember his name and what makes him the greatest player? LeBronJames started into the professional league soon after high school with hisunparalleled performance and skills, he was quickly characterized as the nextMichael Jordan. Through his career he has won multiple championships,prestige’s awards and set league records. Through this essay it will be provenhow even in his childhood he was built for greatness, his impressive start andcurrent statistics in the professional basketball league and how he uses hissuccess to build the character of others and give back to communities.
For people who are bound to be great, it shows very early inlife and as a child Lebron was already showing signs of strong athleticism,determination and a passion for sport. Born December 30, 1984, Lebron RaymoneJames was born in Akron, Ohio and was raised alone by his mother Gloria Jamesas his father unfortunately spent time in prison. Mrs.James’ primary goal foryoung LeBron was to keep him away from the detrimental influences of inner-citylife. In his early life as a child, James displayed his natural athleticability, exceeding on the football field and the basketball court. On his youthfootball team his talent was clear when he scored nineteen touchdowns as a widereceiver in his first season.
His mother Gloria had a tight work schedule toprovide a stable home for her son, which left him home alone frequently. Thisled him to lack focus in school, he started to skip classes and was fallingbehind in is studies. Frankie Walker, his youth football coach offered him hishome as a place for LeBron to live temporarily. This favor went a long way asit helped LeBron with his studies as his grades showed improvement and so didhis skills on the basketball court. (Information Retrieved from Rager, C. 2015. LeBron James.
Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia.) James had a recognizable growth spurt,by the time he was in eighth grade he was six feet tall. He developed hisskills on the basketball court by playing Sunday night games at a localcommunity center, which prepared him to gain immediate attention at his highschool, St Vincent-St.Mary in Akron. Despite his age, sports media were quickto acknowledge his talent and declare him the upcoming greatest basketballstar, frequently being compared to Michael Jordan. This was a large shadow tocast over him, a heavy burden especially for a teenager. Beginning as afreshman, James led as the best on his team in several categories such asrebounds and assists, and he averaged 19 points per game.
His team wentundefeated and won the state championship. In his sophomore year, they won thestate championships again and James was now averaging 25 points per game.(Information Retrieved fromRager, C. 2015. LeBron James. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia.) Throughhis junior year, James continued to increase his points per game, now he was averaging30.
The Gatorade franchise named him the national high school player of theyear, and people across the country started to take notice of the newestbasketball prodigy. At the end of this year, after he had appeared on the coverof Sports illustrated. He was named the most valuable player (MVP) of an eventin which the top high school basketball players in the United States competeagainst one another.
The slow improving professional basketball team theCleveland Cavaliers, won the first draft pick in 2003 and selected LeBronJames. He made an instant impact on the team making 25 points, 9 assists, 6 reboundsand 6 steals in his first professional match. He averaged 21 points per gamefor the season and was named the rookie of the year in 2004. In 2005, Jamescontinued to get better, he made his first All-Star team and became theyoungest player in NBA history to score 50 points in a game.
In the next season,he won the All-Star game MVP award and helped lead the Cavalier’s to theirfirst play-off appearance in eight years. (Information Retrieved from Rager, C. 2015. LeBron James.Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia.) Growing up, LeBron had shown greatpotential, and through his teenage to young adult years, his skills weredeveloped, and his talent was known by many.
He was just 20 by the time he hadearned all these esteemed accomplishments, but this was just the beginning ofhis career.What came next is the years of his professional career whereJames faced many competitors and challenges from critics, but still managed tostatistically prove he is the best player in the professional basketballleague. There were many experts predicting that James would eventually lead histeam to the NBA finals, but very few thought it would happen as soon as it did.It was his fourth season with the team in 2006-2007 when James led the Cavilersto a fifty-win season and an Eastern Conference championship over the heavilyfavored of the league that year, the Detroit Pistons.
In the finals, the Cavswere defeated in 4 games by the chemically stronger team, the San AntonioSpurs, but again there were more predictions that the team would have theirtime as champions. LeBron won another All-Star game MVP in 2008 and before theplay-offs, James had become the first African American to be featured on thecover of Vogue magazine. In 2008-2009, the Cavaliers earned the best record inthe league, losing only twice at home. After an impressive season in which heaveraged more than 35 points per game, LeBron was voted and won by a largemargin to be the MVP of the league.
(Information Retrieved from Rager, C. 2015. LeBron James.Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia.) As a strategized choice, the Cavalierssigned a veteran center and four-time NBA championship winner Shaquille O’Nealto provide guidance and assistance to James in his quest to bring home achampionship title to Cleveland. The Cavs had another great season, theyfinished first in the Eastern Conference and won 61 games. James averagednearly 30 points and 8.
6 assists per game. Sadly, their season ended in anotherdisappointment as they were defeated by the Boston Celtics in the EasternConference semi-finals. On July 10th, 2010, ESPN had a specialbroadcast titled The Decision, thiswas when James announced his intentions to leave Cleveland and join the MiamiHeat, which held two other strong players, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.Regardless of harsh opinions and after a gradual start, the revamped Heatbecame one of the top teams in the NBA throughout the 2010-2011 NBA season.They secured a number 2 seat in the Eastern Conference play-offs and made it tothe finals, but unfortunately lost to the Dallas Mavericks in 6 games. Duringhis off-season, James worked to change his style of play, a smart move thatimmediately changed the game for the Heat in the following season.
The team hadits best start to the season yet and James was averaging 30 points a game. Healso received his third MVP award and the Heat entered the 2012 play-offs. Miamireached the finals for the second time, this time against Oklahoma CityThunder. The Heat prevailed and won in five games, giving James the finals MVPaward with 28.6 points per game and his first championship. (Information Retrieved from Rager, C.
2015. LeBron James. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia.) The next year,James helped lead his team to the finals and faced the Spurs.
The Heat won theseries in seven games; James scored 37 points in the final game and won thefinals MVP award for the second year in a row. In 2013-2014, LeBron scored 61points in a single game, his career high, as he and the Heat attempted a thirdchampionship in a row. They made it to the finals once again, against the Spursbut lost in five games.
After this, he authored an essay in Sports Illustrated where he announcedthat he would be returning the Cleveland Cavaliers and signing a two-yearcontract with the team. In his returning year, the team made it into the finalsagain against the Golden State Warriors. Although James averaged 36 points pergame in the series, the Cavs lost to Golden State in 6 games. In the followingseason, they proceeded to the finals again against the Golden State Warriors,who had an impressive season where they set an NBA record with 73 wins in theregular season. This time the Cavaliers won in seven games.
LeBron averaged29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.
9 assists and became the third NBA player toachieve a triple-double (reaching double digits in three of the five mainstatistical categories; points, assists, rebounds, steals and blocks) in gameseven of the finals. He was unanimously voted MVP of the NBA finals that year.The Cavs were expected to do exceptionally well in the Eastern Conference againin the 2016-2017 season. However, there were several injuries and tensionthroughout the team which led to hectic play.
Cleveland wanted to defeat theBoston Celtics for the Eastern Conference championship, in which Jamessurpassed the great Michael Jordan as the league’s top all-time play-offscoring leader. This led too the Cavs third consecutive finals contest againstGolden State, which was also James’ seventh straight finals appearance. TheCavaliers lost, but James set a record as the first player in NBA history toaverage a triple-double in the finals, with statistics of 33.6 points, 12rebounds and 10 assists for the entire series. (Information Retrieved from Rager, C. 2015. LeBronJames. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia.
) Clearly, LeBron James has anenormous list of accomplishments and acknowledgments as a professional athlete.The things he has accomplished have become monumental and bars that have beenset for upcoming start, but he remains the best and will until he retires.There are more things to be said about LeBron James as to whyhe has become the best and remains to be, he has done much charity work, he hashighly comparable stats to the father of the sport Michael Jordan and expertshave proven why he is so great.
Before entering the NBA draft, James started acharitable organization with his mother Gloria called, The LeBron James FamilyFoundation. It is staffed by volunteers, and the foundation’s mission is tosupport the community of Akron by helping children’s development withcocurricular and educational initiatives. Also, he supports the local Boys andGirls Club of America branch and after-school programs, this foundation began abikeathon within the first year that ended up becoming the Wheels for Educationmentoring program. With this initiative, mentors begin working with at-riskkids in the third grade to ensure they make it through to graduation. Althoughthe program is still in it’s early years, analysis have found that students whowere involved had shown much improvement.
In 2015, another goal of his was tohelp kids thrive who share a common background, James and the foundationannounced that they would be giving more than one thousand kids financialassistance taking part in the “I Promise” initiative, which is the chance toattend University of Akron without having to pay tuition.(Information Retrievedfrom Rager, C. 2015. LeBron James. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia.
) Therewas a study comparing Michael Jordan and LeBron James in their beginning yearsin the league. “MJ outperformed LJ regarding average and median points per yearduring their first 10 years of basketball. However, LJ was more consistent inhis first 10 years with respect to points compared with MJ because LJ standarddeviation for points is lower than MJ. MJ had a greater number of stealscompared to LJ every year except for years 2 and 10.
Lastly, LeBron obtainedmore rebounds per year compared with Michael.”(Williams, I. J.
, & Williams,K.K. 2016. Understanding Summary Statistics and Graphical Techniques to CompareMichael Jordan versus LeBron James). Considering the comparisons, LeBron wasone of the closest to ever reach or defeat Michael Jordan’s legendarystatistics. NBA managers believe that LeBron James is the best basketballplayer on the planet. “In an annual survey from nba.
com that queried all 30 GMsof the pro league, LeBron gathered 89.7 per cent of the votes as the player whoGMs will sign, “if they were starting a franchise today.” James was named MVPin 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013 and led the Miami Heat to 2 NBA championships.
Inthe same survey, James also finished first in the question, “Which playerforces opposing coaches to make the most adjustments.” The Gms were also askedas well on which players are the finest in their respective positions, Jameswon the small forwards with 86.7 per cent.”(International Business, T. 2013, October22. NBA GM’s Agree: LeBron James is Best Player in the World.
) Undoubtedly, LeBron James has used his success to give back,be named one of the greats and can be argued this title through statistics andsurveys from experts. Beloved as a basketball prodigy, James became one of the mostdiverse figures in American sports. He became one of the most popular athletesin the world, one of the top players of his era and can be considered among theall-time greats of the game. Throughout this essay, the fact has been supportedthat from childhood to manhood LeBron James became greater than anyone couldhave imagined and just how he did it. His childhood proved his high amounts ofpotential, his career showed his greatness and he has left his mark on hiscommunity and those who know him. With LeBron’s contributions to the NBA, anastonishing high school career and getting the attention that no other teenagerhas had, he became influential by establishing his own charities, while usinghis celebrity status to give his words on social issues, politics and manycontroversial topics.
