Why LeBron James is the G.O.A.T.

     Imagine being born in the mid 1980’s to a mother who was only 16-years-old and still in high school. Your mother is a single black woman who was at the time a teenager and was left to raise her son on her own because her partner had a lengthy criminal record. Now imagine being poor in the city of Akron and growing up without heat in the winter, sleeping in your mother’s car at times, and having sleepovers at your friend's house not for fun, but to survive. This doesn’t sound appealing at all, but this is the sad story of how Lebron James was born and raised throughout his childhood. 

    
    Lebron James' mother, Gloria Marie James, had a tough time trying to find a stable home to raise her son. During his fifth grade, he had to move in with Frank Walker Sr., his teammate's father, in order to help out both Lebron and his mother. He started playing AAU basketball at that time as well and had perfect attendance at school averaging a B+ GPA. In sixth grade, Lebron’s mother was able to afford a home, so he moved back in with her. Fast forward to his high school days, Lebron led his freshman team to an undefeated season and a state title. He appeared on the cover of SLAM and Sports Illustrated his junior year, which made him the most popular basketball player of all-time. Even through all of this fame and still being poor, Lebron turned down a ten-million-dollar contract with Reebok as a senior in high school. He now has a lifetime deal with Nike. He was nicknamed, “the chosen one.” Now, let’s talk about Lebron James' accomplishments in basketball. 

    Lebron James was selected as the number one overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. In 2004, he won rookie of the year and in 2005, he was already an All-Star starter in the NBA. He spent his first seven seasons with the Cavaliers winning two MVPs, but never won a championship in any of those seasons. In 2010, he was a free agent and decided to take his talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat to be teammates with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He spent his next four seasons there and won two championships, two MVPs, and two finals MVP’s. In 2014, he decided to go back to the Cleveland Cavaliers and promised to win them a championship. He did win a championship with the Cavs in 2016 which was one of the greatest NBA Finals in the history of the league coming back from a 3-1 deficit to win in seven games versus the Golden State Warriors, who had a 73-9 record that year (greatest regular season record of all-time). Lebron left the Cavaliers again in 2019 to join the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2020, he carried the Lakers in the bubble during the COVID-19 pandemic and won a championship vs the Miami Heat. Lebron James' resume is stacked with unbelievable accomplishments such as 4x NBA champ, 4x NBA MVP, 4x Finals MVP, 19x All-Star, 3x All-Star MVP, Rookie of the Year in 2004, number one all-time in scoring, number four all-time in assists, and arguably the best postseason player in NBA history.

    Now let’s be real, everyone has their own opinion on who their greatest of all time player is. Most people will say Micheal Jordan because of him never losing in the NBA finals, and others can say Bill Russell because he has 11 championships. I’m a Warriors fan, so I’ve always hated Lebron James. Well, I always thought I did, but I don’t. The older I am getting, the more I’m realizing that I was one of the lucky fans of NBA basketball who got to witness most of the accomplishments this man has done. He’s the first billionaire basketball player ever, and he’s still in the league. He has a school called,” I Promise School,” that has helped so many kids who had struggled the way that he had when he was a kid. He’s always been a great father and husband to his family and has never gotten in any problems involved with the law. He’s not just an athlete, but a businessman and also someone who uses their voice when he feels like something in this country is wrong. Throughout all of this, he remains humble every day and motivated to continue to not just win more championships, but to give back to the world. The day he retires will be a very sad day for basketball fans around the world because there will never be another player like Lebron James ever again. He lived up to the hype that he got when he was in high school, and he’ll always be remembered as “the chosen one.”