“Cleveland – this is for you.” Last Sunday night, with his face contorted and wrought with emotion, tears streaking down his cheeks into his beard, basketball player LeBron James addressed the world in an expletive-filled speech. His team had just achieved what is being widely hailed as the greatest comeback in National Basketball Association (NBA) history.
For almost 50 years, the Cleveland Cavaliers have failed to win a championship, but now, at long last, the Ohio city is celebrating a return to the top after beating the defending champions, Golden State Warriors, in the NBA Finals. The tears of joy have given way to celebratory air punching and partying that will probably go on for weeks, while James’s status as a local hero has been permanently inked into the fabric of Cleveland society.
But it could have been all been so different – the Akron, Ohio native abruptly left the Cavaliers in 2010 to “take his talents” to the Miami Heat, with whom he won two NBA titles. The backlash from Cleveland fans was severe – they burnt his jersey during rallies – but all was quickly forgotten four years later when he returned to his hometown team with the sole mission of bringing a title to Cleveland.
James, 31, put in one of the performances of his life this past week in the deciding fixture of the seven-game series, leading both teams in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks during the series. The finishing touches came during a 93-89 victory in Game 7.
In doing so, the Cavaliers became the first team ever to overturn a 3-1 series deficit in the NBA Finals. Rightly so, he was named the finals MVP (Most Valuable Player), an award he previously claimed in 2012 and 2013 with the Heat.
James’s personal story is the embodiment of the American dream. His mother Gloria Marie James was 16 when he was born. His biological father – an ex-con named Anthony McClelland – wasn’t interested in fatherhood, so Gloria brought up her son single-handedly. Life was always a struggle.
Akron is a small city, an hour south of Cleveland, known for its rubber industry and being home to four of the world’s biggest tyre manufacturers. But it has incredible problems with crime and poverty, both of which James’s mother did her best to shield him from. But she made questionable choices when it came to the men in her life, getting involved with known criminals. When her son was 2, she began dating drug dealer and fraudster Eddie Jackson, and the youngster formed a father/son bond with him.
James was still an infant when his mother gave him a miniature basketball hoop and ball, which he played with for hours each day, demonstrating superb instincts for the game even then. Fortuitously, despite his mother’s fairly compact dimensions, he also developed extremely long limbs (he’s 6 feet 8 inches tall), ideal for basketball, and grew into an exceptional sportsman, both in basketball and American football.
Yet while his game was always on point, the same could not be said for his education, and by the time he was in fourth grade, he was missing school on a regular basis, on the verge of dropping out altogether.
His football coach, Frank Walker, got wind of this and confronted James’s mother. She confessed that his home life was far from stable, and the two agreed that it would be best for him to live with the Walker family, to learn structure and discipline. James lived there for 18 months. He took part in daily chores like the rest of the Walker family, and the following year, received an attendance award from his school.
After those 18 months, his mother took him back, but financial difficulties soon saw James returned to the security of the Walker family. Between them, they hammered out a deal that meant his mother could pay her rent and James could always have a home in Akron.
During that time, Walker managed to unleash James’s potential on the basketball court, and he formed a close bond with the family’s son, Frankie Jr, who was also a keen player.
Basketball soon became an intrinsic part of life for James, and as he began to shine on court during his school days, his reputation quickly spread around Akron and beyond. He based his game on that of his hero, Michael Jordan, and while he continued his football career for a while, basketball quickly proved to be his true calling. Even before he left school, his name was appearing in national newspaper headlines, and both Nike and Adidas were tripping over each other to sign him on deals rumoured to be worth US$20 million (Dh73.5m).
When he was 18, he landed a deal with Nike for $90m. The company’s stock jumped more than 30 cents on news of the signing, such was the power of his burgeoning reputation. And late last year, he signed a $1 billion lifetime deal – the first in the company’s history.
In 2003, James was picked by the Cavaliers from the NBA draft, and during his first game as a professional, he set a new NBA record for the most points scored in a debut. He was later named NBA Rookie of the Year. His star, from then on, continued its ascent.
The way he plays is unique in the sport, inasmuch as he has the ability to excel in multiple positions. He’s also the consummate team member, always willing to pass the ball to other players and anticipate the moves of a rival team with almost telepathic vision.
Writing in The Guardian this week, sports journalist Bryan Armen Graham described James as the NBA's greatest-ever player and reminisced about seeing him in a game while still at school in 2002: "He operated with the maturity and sophistication of a seasoned professional. Was he really only 17? The combination of skills he commanded was more than just rare: it defied categorisation."
“Every action,” he continued, “was exacted with economy of movement and effortless calm, the way a Formula One driver can navigate a car with the casual indifference of a channel surfer idly flicking the remote.” Little wonder, then, that his reputation has come to rival that of his idol, Michael Jordan.
He’s a superstar outside his home country, too. Mention James to any of the more than 700,000 Filipinos who live in the UAE, and you will likely get an excited response. He’s regarded as a rock-star-level personality, thanks to the immense popularity of basketball in the Philippines, where there’s a court in almost every town and village. His signature shoes, by Nike, make headlines whenever a new style is launched, and continuously sell out. In the Philippines, demand for James’s footwear is such that there’s a thriving market for second-hand examples.
If James puts in an appearance in the country, such is the excitement surrounding his arrival that news websites publish photographs of his private jet coming in to land. He has visited the islands twice in his role as a Nike ambassador, to encourage youngsters to take up the game and perhaps even play their way out of poverty.
In these days of social-media influencers and brand ambassadors, it might be easy to dismiss James as just another contractually bound celeb going through the motions for an obscenely large pay cheque. But he seems genuine, still in tune with his humble roots and eager to help those less fortunate to make the most of every opportunity.
Unlike many celebrities, James has remained extremely well-behaved in his public and private lives, managing to withstand close scrutiny without controversy. He has also managed to accrue enormous personal wealth through salary contracts and sponsorship deals. In 2014, Forbes reckoned he had amassed $450m during his NBA career, but as James is keen to point out, he has donated much of that money to worthy causes in the name of philanthropy.
He’s a supporter of the Boys & Girls Club of America and the Children’s Defense Fund, and he set up his own charity, the LeBron James Family Foundation, based in his home city. Through this, he recently announced a partnership with the University of Akron that will, from 2021, provide scholarships for up to 2,300 children.
He seems determined to use his wealth and status for the greater good, and his country loves him for it. For now, though, the sporting world’s focus is fixed firmly on the way he steered his team to victory last weekend.
"To bring about the end of Cleveland's mythical ... championship drought was the fulfilment of a childhood dream," remarked Graham in his Guardian piece. "Finally the boy who would be king has a victory worthy of his limitless promise."
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