Rise to Fame
Sports Illustrated put him on the cover as a high school junior under the headline 'The Chosen One.' He was 17, and the expectation was absurd. Going #1 to Cleveland in 2003, he dropped 25 points in his first NBA game, won Rookie of the Year, and dragged a mediocre Cleveland roster to the Finals by 2007. The real inflection was 'The Decision' in 2010: he left Cleveland for Miami, won two rings, and learned that the country roots for the hometown kid to stay. He went back, won Cleveland's first championship in 2016 as the underdog, and settled the argument.
In the Spotlight
The basketball records are almost beside the point now. He passed Kareem in 2023 to become the all-time leading scorer, won Olympics MVP in Paris at 39, and in early 2025 became the oldest player to score 40 points in a game. The financial operation runs parallel: a Nike lifetime deal worth over $1 billion, a SpringHill Company valued at around $725 million, and a Fenway Sports Group stake worth roughly $142 million that multiplied 22x from the original marketing arrangement. He's been open about wanting to own an NBA franchise. For most athletes, that's a retirement fantasy. For him, it looks like the actual next chapter.
Side Notes
He grew up in Akron moving between apartments with a mother who was 16 when he was born and a father with a criminal record who wasn't around. A youth football coach named Frank Walker took him in at 9 and introduced him to basketball. He opened the I PROMISE School in Akron in 2018 for at-risk kids. In October 2024, he and son Bronny became the first father-son duo to share an NBA court, both in Lakers uniforms. That record doesn't show up in any stats column.