Lebron James

King James

Endorsements, agents and fans across the world are all things that you would expect a popular pro athlete to have. LeBron James is a basketball player that was dealing with all of this in high school, at the age of 18 (LeBron James, 2005). His sophomore and junior year of high school he was being compared to the greatest basketball players of all time (LeBron James, 2005). To be all over the news with every sports commentator talking about LeBron, he had to have a lot of self control and stay focused on his basketball game, by blocking all the distractions out (The Person, 2005). LeBron James is the basketball icon for his generation; he achieved that by being one of the youngest most successful players in the NBA as of now.

Growing up in a broken home LeBron never had a father figure to guide him certain directions in life He did however have a strong mother and relatives who tried their best to raise LeBron. All through his schooling there was some financial trouble in his family life but LeBron had the will to carry on. By middle school his mother knew he was a special boy, talented on the court and in his studies. As high school rolled in LeBron continued to get taller, stronger and better skilled than the other players around him; the coaches soon noticed him and he made varsity as a freshman. During his junior year he was already known around the country as the next Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson. The fans were so unbelievable that many of the games had to be played at a college stadium holding 17,000 spectators including numerous college and NBA scouts. It was at that point in his life where people realized that college was not for him but that he would advance directly to the NBA. (LeBron James, 2005)

LeBron chose to jump into the NBA because he seeks to play against great competition to prove he is capable of what the media suggests. At no surprise he was picked first in the NBA draft for 2004, by the Cleveland Cavaliers (The Person, 2005). The minute he was drafted there was even more attention on him with a $90 million Nike endorsement, Sprite and PowerAde commercials; everybody started to notice LeBron (LeBron James, 2005). The big question people were asking was will he live up to the speculation? LeBron already knew the answer to that because he had been training and anticipating his entire life to be where he is at now. Even with all the fame and fortune being thrown at him, LeBron never got arrogant he always acted very calm about what was going on around him and always knew the right thing to say to the media (LeBron James, 2005).

LeBron's maturity level was beyond the average 18 year old as a matter of fact it is beyond that of many much older players in the league (The Person, 2005). He looks on the outside and acts on the