The Career of LeBron James
The Beginning
LeBron Raymone James was born on December 30, 1984 in Akron, Ohio. He attended the school of St. Vincent-St. Mary Highschool in 1999. Throughout all 4 years James played excellent. His freshman year, he helped bring his team to a Division III State Title. His Sophmore year, he led his team to the title for the second year in a row. By the end of his junior year he was already thinking of going pro but instead he decided to finish his education and play one more year at St. Vincent-St. Mary. His last year playing at the school he averaged 31.6 points per game, led his team to their third state title, and won PARADE magazine's High School Boys Basketball Player of the Year and Gatorade Player of the Year. Once he moved on to go pro, he was selected number 1 overall of the 2003 NBA Draft and was proclaimed to be "The Chosen One".
The Cleveland Cavaliers
Lebron James with his outstanding highschool career kept his jersey number being 23 and had an even better career with the Cavaliers, continuing to improve his skills every year. In his third year with the team, he brought them to the playoffs after being last place in the conference and the NBA having a 17-65 win-loss record the year before they drafted him. His first year in the playoffs, James carried his team to the second round but was then eliminated by the Detroit Pistons. Since that year, he has lead the Cavaliers to the playoffs 5 consecutive times, getting as far as the NBA Finals but then being eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs. Because he couldn't get it done and win a championship, it led to people making jokes like changing his nickname from King James to Prince James for one example. In 2010 he became a free agent and he felt that the team that was built around him wasn't working and couldn't go all the way. This would lead to his much anticipated decision which was to change teams to play for the Miami Heat.
The Miami Heat
His decision to leave the Cavaliers led him to be one of the top most hated athletes in the United States. This had affect on James, causing him to play with hate and try to prove all of his haters wrong. His first year with the heat they made it all the way to the finals to face the Dallas Mavericks. The Heat got out played and Lebron, again, lost in the finals. The next year, James changed his style of play again so he no longer played with hate, but instead played like he was on a journey. This year was most likely the best of his career so far, winning the regular season MVP, finally winning his first NBA championship against the Oklahoma City Thunder and getting Finals MVP. That summer he was on the Olympic team and led his team to the gold medal.
Images courtesy of Creative Commons.
Video courtesy of MrBasketballMix24 of Youtube.
Video courtesy of MrBasketballMix24 of Youtube.