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Lebron James: Lebron James, in Full Lebron Raymone James, Byname King James, (Born

LeBron James is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He was a highly touted high school player in Ohio who was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003. James led the Cavaliers to the franchise's first NBA Finals appearance in 2007 and won NBA championships with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013. He returned to Cleveland in 2014 and led the underdog Cavaliers to their first ever NBA title in 2016, winning Finals MVP. Widely regarded as one of the best all-around players ever, James has won 4 NBA MVP awards.

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361 views3 pages

Lebron James: Lebron James, in Full Lebron Raymone James, Byname King James, (Born

LeBron James is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He was a highly touted high school player in Ohio who was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003. James led the Cavaliers to the franchise's first NBA Finals appearance in 2007 and won NBA championships with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013. He returned to Cleveland in 2014 and led the underdog Cavaliers to their first ever NBA title in 2016, winning Finals MVP. Widely regarded as one of the best all-around players ever, James has won 4 NBA MVP awards.

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Alyssa Alee Angeles Jacinto
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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LeBron James

AMERICAN BASKETBALL PLAYER

LeBron James, in full LeBron Raymone James, byname King James, (born
December 30, 1984, Akron, Ohio, U.S.), American
professional basketball player who is widely considered one of the greatest
all-around players of all time and who won National Basketball
Association (NBA) championships with the Miami Heat (2012 and 2013)
and Cleveland Cavaliers (2016)

A locally known basketball prodigy since elementary school, James was


named Ohio’s Mr. Basketball (high-school player of the year) three times while
leading Akron’s St. Vincent–St. Mary High School to three Ohio state
championships in his four years on the team. He became a national media
sensation in his junior year after appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated,
where he was billed by the magazine as “The Chosen One.” James was
the consensus national high-school player of the year in his senior season,
and he was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the first overall selection
of the 2003 NBA draft. Additionally, he signed an unprecedented $90 million
endorsement contract with the Nike shoe company before he ever played a
professional game.

Despite the pressures brought on by these singular circumstances, James led


the Cavaliers in scoring, steals, and minutes played over the course of the
2003–04 season, winning the league’s Rookie of the Year award in the
process. A 6-foot 8-inch (2.03-metre) “point forward” who was as adept at
bringing the ball down the court as at playing near the basket, James
presented a unique challenge for opposing teams; his unmatched athleticism
and well-muscled body would not have been out of place in the National
Football League.

His game progressed over the following years. He was voted one of the
starting forwards on the Eastern Conference All-Star team during his second
season, and in his third season he led the Cavaliers to their first play-off berth
in nine years. These accomplishments were exceeded during the 2006–07
season, when James guided Cleveland to the franchise’s first berth in the
NBA finals: after the Cavaliers upset the favoured Detroit Pistons in the
Eastern Conference finals, the Cavaliers were swept by the San Antonio
Spurs in the NBA finals, but James’s impressive postseason play led many
observers to place him among the very best players in the league. He led the
NBA in scoring during the 2007–08 season and earned first team All-NBA
honours, but the Cavaliers lost to the eventual champion Boston Celtics in a
dramatic seven-game series in the Eastern Conference semifinals. James
piloted the Cavaliers to a team-record 66 wins during the 2008–09 season,
which helped to earn him the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.
The following season James averaged nearly 30 points per game as he was
again named MVP.

At the end of the 2009–10 season, James became arguably the most sought-
after free agent in NBA history when his contract with the Cavaliers expired,
and he began a prolonged courtship process with a number of teams that had
in some cases been planning for his free agency for over two years. In an
unprecedented hour-long television special, criticized by many for its undue
grandiosity, James announced that he was signing with the Heat. He helped
Miami reach the NBA finals in his first year with the team, but the Heat lost the
championship to the Dallas Mavericks. In the 2011–12 season James
averaged 27.1 points per game and won his third MVP award while helping
Miami advance to its second consecutive NBA finals appearance. Backed by
his stellar play—James was named the finals MVP—the Heat defeated
the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the championship. He had arguably his
greatest individual season in 2012–13, as he averaged 26.8 points, 7.3
assists, and a career-high 8.0 rebounds per game while posting a .565 field-
goal percentage, a remarkable rate of made shots for someone who so
frequently played away from the basket. James also helped Miami win 27
consecutive games that season (the second longest such streak in NBA
history), and he was rewarded with his fourth league MVP award. In the
following postseason, the Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs in a seven-
game series to win the NBA championship, and James was again named the
finals MVP. He continued his stellar play in the following season, even
increasing his shooting percentage by .002, and he again led the Heat to an
appearance in the NBA finals. However, Miami lost that rematch with the
Spurs in a five-game series.
After that finals loss, James opted out of his contract with the Heat, leaving an
aging Miami roster, and—after a week of frenzied speculation among fans and
media—he decided to return to Cleveland. Although his 25.3 points per game
was James’s lowest scoring average since his rookie season, he nevertheless
guided a young and inexperienced Cavaliers roster to the second best record
in the Eastern Conference in 2014–15. In the following postseason he led an
injury-laden Cleveland team to just two play-off losses en route to a berth in
the NBA finals. There James had one of the greatest individual performances
in finals history, averaging 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 8.8 assists per
game while leading the undermanned Cavaliers to the franchise’s first two
finals victories before ultimately losing a six-game series to the Golden State
Warriors. James had another strong regular season in 2015–16 but, once
again, truly shined in the play-offs. He led the Cavaliers to a rematch against
the Warriors, who had set a league record with 73 wins during the regular
season, in the NBA finals. There the Cavaliers became the first team to come
back from a 3–1 finals deficit to capture the first title in franchise history and
end a 52-year title drought for Cleveland professional sports teams. James
averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.6 steals, and 2.3 blocks
per game in the finals—becoming the first person to lead all five statistical
categories for players on both teams in the finals—and was unanimously
named finals MVP. In 2016–17 James had arguably his best regular season
by setting career highs with averages of 8.7 assists and 8.6 rebounds per
game while still scoring 26.4 points per game. He sustained his excellence in
the Eastern Conference play-offs, scoring 32.5 points per game (which
included his 5,988th career postseason point, breaking Michael Jordan’s all-
time NBA play-off scoring record) while leading the Cavaliers to a third
consecutive match-up against the Warriors in the NBA finals. There Cleveland
could not overcome the team James referred to as a “juggernaut,” losing to
the Warriors in five games despite James becoming the first player in NBA
history to average a triple-double over the course of the finals (with 33.6
points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists per game).

In addition to his achievements in the NBA, James was a member of the U.S.
men’s Olympic basketball teams that won the bronze medal at the 2004
Games, the gold medal at the 2008 Games, and the gold at the 2012 Games.
He also published a memoir, Shooting Stars (2009; cowritten with Buzz
Bissinger), that chronicles his years as a high-school standout.

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