The King, LeBron Jameshttps://www.ranker.com/list/young-lebron-james/cari-fortierNo NBA player has single handedly came back from a 3-1 in the finals, let alone on a team that has never won a championship. All the odds favored the Golden State Warriors, until the king put the Cleveland Cavaliers on his back. LeBron James carried his team and won his third NBA championship and was named finals MVP. LeBron James was born in Akron, Ohio and grew up with his teenage mom. He never met his biological father because he was in jail. His family struggled to keep the houses that they lived in and LeBron missed nearly 100 days of school each year. As he grew up, he found a passion for basketball and got recruited by St. Mary St. Vincent High School. He became such an amazing player that he skipped college and was drafted number one overall. LeBron played his first few seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers and then signed a contract with the Miami Heat during free agency. He won his first two championships there and then came back to Cleveland, promising them their first championship. (LeBron James, Gale Biography in Context) Someone must possess perseverance and open mindedness to be considered a hero. Someone who contains perseverance is mentally strong and will fight through anything. An open minded person addresses both sides of the topic without offending someone. LeBron James has shown perseverance and has shown open mindedness throughout his NBA career, therefore making him a hero.
LeBron James as a kid in high schoolhttps://thesportsquotient.com/ncaa-bb/2013/7/18/high-school-players-should-be-allowed-to-enter-nba-draft-againLeBron James persevered through his rough childhood on his path to the NBA. LeBron James mentioned his childhood in a press conference and went into detail about growing up in Akron. "I mean, s---, when you're born black, you're faced with discrimination," James said. "It just comes with the territory. So our whole life we're just trying to figure out ways how we can represent our family, represent us, be as powerful as we can be not only as African-American males, but African-American women as well. That's why we're so strong, and that's why we're so prideful about what we believe in, because when we're born, we're already born behind the eight ball. When you're born African-American, you always got to do things more than the norm just because you're black. So when you go through that, you gotta understand that. And me being African-American myself and raising an African-American family and having African-American people around me all the time, we understand that we have to work even extra hard because there's just always a 'prove' thing. We always got to try to prove ourselves." (LeBron James Feels That Colin Kaepernick Is Being Blackballed by NFL, ESPN) This quote shows how LeBron is perseverant because of how he faced discrimination growing up as a kid. He stated he had to do “extra” to prove people he could fit in just because of his skin color and where he grew up in Ohio. These events shaped LeBron into who he is today, as a player and as a person. Since he persevered through his childhood, it made him a stronger person. LeBron James has also persevered through instances off the court during his NBA career. “I don't need nothing creeping into my mind that don't need to be there." (James declined to comment for this story.) For LeBron, basketball had always come first, in part because his play on the court earned him his power. So instead of talking more about guns or social issues in Cleveland, James chose to stay silent, and whether out of a single-minded focus or cautious self-regulation, he refused to comment late in the year when asked about the presidential race, the upcoming Republican National Convention in Cleveland and even the biggest story in the city: the tragic death of Tamir Rice.” (Activism in the NBA, ESPN) This quote shows how LeBron James is perseverant because he was able to block out the social issues in Cleveland and focus on basketball. It’s hard enough to focus on the NBA, but LeBron was able to persevere and ignore the issues. The gun violence was going on near his hometown, Akron. This made it much harder for LeBron to block out and not do anything about. LeBron’s perseverance just adds to his resume as an NBA superstar and as a human being.
LeBron and the Cavaliers celebrating their first championship as a franchisehttps://www.wkyc.com/article/sports/nba/cavaliers/im-coming-home-revisit-lebron-james-infamous-letter/250422956LeBron has always show open mindedness and shows it in interview and press conferences. LeBron opened up about the ongoing problems in the NFL and the players taking a knee during the National Anthem, specifically Colin Kaepernick. "I've commended Kap, and for him to sacrifice everything for the greater good for everyone, for what he truly believed in, the utmost respect to him," James continued. "Obviously he had a vision like Martin Luther King and like some of our all-time greats that people couldn't see further than what they were doing at the point and time. And Muhammad Ali and things of that nature. When it's something that's new and it's something that people are not educated about or don't understand what your beliefs are all about, people are so quick to judge, and people are so quick to say that what you're doing is wrong. For him to sacrifice the sport that he plays and to sacrifice the things he's done his whole life because he knew what he believed in, I salute him. I salute and respect that." (LeBron James Feels That Colin Kaepernick Is Being Blackballed by NFL, ESPN) This quote shows how LeBron is open minded because he’s showing respectfully showing his thoughts on the situation. Most of the people in america were quick to judge Kaepernick, who was the first NFL player to take a knee in protest during the national anthem. LeBron, knowing where Kaepernick came from, was very open minded about the situation and was able to back Kaepernick up. LeBron can see that Kaepernick is trying to do something good, but the rest of America can’t see that and were quick to judge. He can see that kaepernick sacrificed everything he had and his career in the NFL just to show what he believes. In addition, LeBron James was also asked on the status of his teammate, Derrick Rose. "Anybody can sit on the outside of the arena and criticize the man in the arena that's given his blood, sweat and tears," James said, discussing the lessons of the speech. "But until you walk in the face of the line of battle, or adversity or whatever the case may be, you don't understand. So, I understand as a professional athlete, but I don't understand, I can never understand what he's going through because I've, it's his life, I've been with him two months and I can never understand that, but what I do understand is I want him to be happy. Like I said, there's no substitution for that, but the man in the arena. For everybody who always think they got the answer to every damn thing." (Wants Derrick Rose to Be Happy, ESPN) This quote shows how Lebron is open minded because he knows that anyone can judge Derrick Rose on his thoughts on early retirement, but they have not been through what Rose went through. LeBron knows no one has gone through what Derrick Rose has gone through and the injuries he’s battled, but doesn't know the personal events. He wants people to stop judging him so much. The open mindedness LeBron demonstrates the kind of man he is.
LeBron James is considered a hero because of his perseverance and his open-mindedness on and off the court. He persevered through his childhood growing up in Akron, Ohio and was drafted number one overall in the NBA draft. He has been battling for the past 15 years in the NBA and is now considered one of the best players in history. LeBron inspires others because he represents hope for kids who are struggling. He shows how you can go through hardships throughout your life and persevere through them to become the best person you can be. After all, LeBron James is “Just a kid from Akron”. (LeBron James dazzles hometown crowd in Akron title party)
The Lebron James Family Foundationhttps://bleacherreport.com/articles/2746496-lebron-james-family-foundation-i-promise-school-approved-for-akron
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