XVI

Right now, we are on the eve of LeBron James’s 16th season in the NBA. Wow, 16. This is the first season the king will be donning purple and gold. History has taught us that whenever the Los Angeles Lakers land one of the best players in the league, championships are soon to follow. Off the court he’s aggressively expanding his brand into the film industry. SpringHill Entertainment, partnered with Warner Bros., has a dozen or so projects in at least the pre-production phase. Space Jam 2 is slated for production in 2019 and has James attached to star, Terrance Nance to direct, and Ryan Coogler to produce. It might be the biggest and blackest sports movie of all time, stay tuned. More importantly, off the court he’s proven that his GOAT status transcends the game of basketball. He opened his I Promise School in Akron, Ohio for at risk children. LeBron’s transition from a prodigy to GOAT was dramatic beyond the theater of sports and its going to be impossible to explain to our children how complicated his story truly is. When you’re talking about Michael Jordan, its a very simple story, he went to 6 NBA Finals and won them all with at least a game to spare with five MVPs, Defensive Player of the year and a gold medal amongst numerous awards. LeBron? LeBron is the greatest of all time because after 16 uninterrupted years he’s mastered the art of basketball, he's turned himself into a one-man franchise worth a billion dollars, and that franchise has now been to the NBA Finals for eight straight seasons. The world watched a black boy grow into a black man. He didn't win every NBA Finals he took his team to but he married the mother of his children, put his friends on, and never forgot where he came from.

In 2003, when LeBron entered the league, I was still begging my mother to buy XL shirts for my s’medium frame. Allen Iverson’s reign was slowly coming to an end in the east. Jordan had retired for the third time. Kobe and Shaq missed the NBA Finals for the first time since 2000. The Spurs were the reigning champs then and enjoyed a drama-free summer, unlike their most recent summer of Kawhi. The NBA was in limbo after Jordan was gone for good. The Lakers were too good and the Spurs were just too boring to excite casual basketball fans. The league was blessed with the perfect young star for the time. He wore du-rags and was tattooed as a teenager and, if that sort of thing frightens you, he was by all accounts a good kid who stayed out of trouble. He’d sign a 90 million dollar shoe deal with Nike before James was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003. Shortly after being drafted, James became a father. In his first public appearance after LeBron’s ,now wife then, girlfriend Savannah Brinson gave birth to their son LeBron Jr. At the time he told the Akron Beacon Journal about wanting to be the father he always wanted."That's my main goal, to try and be a better father than the one I had. I didn't know him. I didn't know the situation he was in. But I'm going to do my job the best way I can.” LeBron began the season with a 25 point, nine assist, six rebound performance that resulted in a lost. At 18 he was tasked with carrying a franchise and in the minds of sports fans in Cleveland, he’d been deemed the deliverer of rings.

At Age 22, James lead the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2007 where they were swept by the Spurs. LeBron was exposed for  not having an outside shot to lean on against a defense anchored by Tim Duncan and coached by Greg Popovich. ESPN tapped him to co-host the Espy’s with Jimmy Kimmel following the loss. In 2009 he was named league MVP and his team earned a number one seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. The boy was growing into a young man. He was looked at as one of the best players by observers of the league and expectations began to swell. He followed that MVP season with another in 2010. The “Chosen 1” tattoo on his back was not the product of a young man feeling the weight of generational poverty and the gift & curse of possessing shoulders broad enough to carry such a load. To outsiders it was a claim to greatness that had yet to be earned. How can he call himself a king without jewelry? Young LeBron rocked platinum chains and diamond earrings, maybe even a Jacob watch, but he was supposed to win rings. Kobe was out west working on rings four and five. LeBron was bounced out the playoffs before reaching the finals in those MVP seasons.

The one thing separating him from the greats was a series win against the best team from the other conference. Lesser players in terms of talent have led teams to championships. A player this good wasn’t allowed to lose. At Age 25, he finally moved away from home. Before he left, he and Savannah added another member to the James Gang. Bryce, LeBron and Savannah’s youngest son, was born in 2007.  In the summer of 2010, LeBron decided to sign with the Miami Heat. He would join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He hosted an hour long special to announce his decision. The millions of dollars in donations as a result of the television special, was a footnote. Jerseys were burned and letters with racial undertones were written. Scott Raab wrote a book entitled The Whore of Akron: One Search for LeBron James’s Soul, which I’m sure is something he’d want to live down but a book with that title is a can of worms you can’t un-open. In October of that year Nike released a commercial highlighting all phases of James’s career and different versions of himself. Looking back on it, the commercial was kind of dope but it was a sign. It was a sign that he was listening. He heard the dark rumors being spread about he and his family. Times were different then and people believed athletes were immune to nasty comments, especially a guy as big as LeBron and with bank accounts as big as his.

After losing the 2011 NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks and a MVP to Derrick Rose, those that didn’t believe he was this generation’s Michael Jordan had all the proof they needed. LeBron finally had help yet he was the one that blew it in the Finals. He only scored 8 points in Game 4. At the press conference he told his haters that they had to go back to their miserable lives but he was the one that was miserable. An overlooked factor in LeBron’s 2011 season was his life off the court. When he moved away from home that season, he moved alone. In August 2010, Savannah was the subject of a feature story by Harpers Bazaar. She talked about marriage and not rushing LeBron into marrying her, but the article also mentioned that she would splitting time between Miami and Cleveland instead of living in Miami full-time. Just because she wasn’t going to rush him into marriage doesn’t mean that there was a lesson that needed to be learned. A wife is different from a girlfriend. She was the mother of LeBron’s children but not his wife. In the midst of his rockiest season in Miami, his best friend was in Cleveland. Sure holidays were probably spent together but not everyday. When the most hyped NBA team ever starts 8-7 after you announced that you expect to win “not 1, not 2, not 3,” everyone is looking at you. At 26 there isn’t anyone better to come to than the woman that’s been holding you down since 16 (real ones know).

During the 2012 season, LeBron proposed to Savannah. Marriage isn’t the only way to show a person that you’re fully committed to them but if the person you love most wants to marry you and they’ve shown you over and over the many ways that they’re committed, it seems like a no-brainer. He finished that season as MVP, but there was more to gain. On the brink of elimination in Boston, LeBron had to show the world why he still deserved to be the heir apparent. In Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals he dropped 46 points and 15 rebounds to save the Heat’s season. They survived and advanced to the NBA Finals where the Heat made light work of the Oklahoma City Thunder. It only took five games for LeBron to win his first championship and Finals MVP. He was gracious and even self deprecating. He had the reputation of a front-runner but not this time. It was different. He wasn’t the young man in Cleveland anymore. He had two growing sons and a fiancé. In the 2013 NBA Finals he had to again show his maturity on the court. The Miami Heat were taking on the San Antonio Spurs. LeBron had to face the team that swept him the first time he’d made it to the Finals. In Game 6 it looked like much hadn’t changed for LeBron. He only averaged 21 points in the series and he was off to a slow start. He was forced to shoot jumpers again and he knew it. On some plays he’d look for passing lanes that didn’t exist instead of shooting the open shot. The Heat were down 10 to start the 4th. To start the quarter, LeBron was locked in. The team was desperate for every basket and every stop. LeBron’s face wore the importance of this game. His eyes were wide and his eyebrows furrowed in uncertainty. He was a victim of sweaty palms that almost cost them the game down the stretch. In the waning moments of regulation Ray Allen hit a historical, career saving shot, game tying shot. Overtime was a blur and so was Game 7. That Game 7 ended when LeBron hit a dagger with 30 seconds left to put the Heat up 5. He was again a champion. Later that summer, He and Savannah were married.

In 2014, the Miami Heat were chasing a Three Peat. They failed in a six game against, you guessed it, the Spurs. The season ended in five games with the Heat on the losing end. During Pat Riley’s offseason press conference he accidentally leaked news of Savannah being pregnant with her and LeBron’s first daughter, Zhuri. On top of that big life change, he decided to move back to Cleveland and play for the city that burned his jersey. He was back to play for the owner that wrote an open letter venting like a scorned lover. LeBron wrote a letter of his own, with help from former Sports Illustrated writer Lee Jenkins, promising a championship and promising to be an example of what’s possible for everyone in Akron. His first year back in a Cleveland uniform was weird. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love weren't used to playing with a guy like LeBron and it showed on the court and in cryptic social media posts. He took a two-week sabbatical during the season, forced to rely on younger teammates, and played under a coach he didn’t believe was capable of winning a NBA championship. Statistically, it was one of his worse seasons in a long time. The Cavaliers lost in the NBA Finals in six games to the Golden State Warriors led by Stephen Curry. Kyrie and Kevin were both injured throughout the playoffs but LeBron had another loss on his Finals record. Midway through the 2016 season, the Cavaliers fired their head coach and replaced him with Tyron Lue. They needed the change badly before their playoff run. The Cavs ripped through the Eastern Conference setting them up for a rematch with the Golden State Warriors. The Cavs fell behind in the series, 3-1. This time was different because LeBron was calm unlike the Finals before. After a flare up with Draymond Green, resulting in a suspension for Green, LeBron didn’t have a response to the trash talk other than stating that he was a father. Over the next two games LeBron, along with Kyrie Irving, played out of his mind. The Cavs pushed the series to a Game 7, winner take all, in Oakland. Behind a triple double and a clutch block, LeBron leads the Cavs to a close Game 7 win. After crumbling to his knees and sobbing uncontrollably, LeBron rises and shouts “where’s my wife?” as he searches for her through the crowd.

This year is going to be different. On the floor, LeBron no longer has to prove himself. He’s now the old head on a young team. After Earl Smith Jr. forgot the score in Game 1 in the NBA Finals, negating LeBron’s 49 point effort in regulation, LeBron has seen it all on the basketball court. These days his actions off the court grab headlines. Last year he called the president a “bum” and this year he continued his insults of the president and received a response via Twitter. He has a show called The Shop on HBO where LeBron, other athletes, and entertainers to speak freely. LeBron has been speaking with the media for about half of his life and he’s trained himself well, but his professional approach doesn’t allow for much candor. He swears like a sailor with a glass of red wine in hand. Basketball fans worry that he’s become too busy off the court to still invest the proper sweat equity required to win a championship. There’s no way he can be a movie star, movie producer, and the best basketball player in the world. Rich Paul, his agent and friend, has been representing LeBron since he left CAA. LeBron was Paul’s first client, now he’s agent to players like Anthony Davis and Ben Simmons. Even when LeBron is too busy or just too old to recruit players to play with him, someone is always there with his best interests in mind. Maverick Carter is the man on the ground producing projects for SpringHill Entertainment. LeBron doesn’t have to sit on a set for hours or be stuck in boring corporate meetings. Maverick is and independent entity working alongside James. Randy Mims lands a job with whatever team James decides to play for. He’s a made man that turned his friends into made men. The question now is how far can he go? The man that only wanted to be the best basketball player ever has grow into more than an athlete. LeBron James is just getting started in his 16th season with his global takeover. Its hard to believe that he turns 34 in December, but like fine wine he gets better with time.