Hometown Fans: Lebron James, Northeast Ohio

Michael Jordan is considered to be the most iconic person in sports history. Since 2002, Lebron James has been compared not only to be the next Michael Jordan but also having the potential of being a better basketball player than him. Some basketball fans might agree and some might disagree, but at the end of the day everyone will have their own opinion of who is better than whom. Lebron James and Michael Jordan do have many things in common even though they play different positions in the national basketball association. They both can dominate the court with their leadership, their skills, and their strength. Surprisingly, there are just as many differences as there are similarities between the

Central Idea: LeBron James is the best basketball player by his scoring ability, his athleticism, and his world-class defense.

While James was in high school he excelled in two sports, football and his more known sport, basketball. LeBron excelled greatly in football, he was named All-State wide receiver in his sophmore year (Smithwick 10). His mom was worried about James and wanted him to quit football, so he wouldn’t get hurt. Later he broke his finger in a football game and his mother made him quit. When he was in high school, James made the rounds of the postseason all-star games, and he earned most valuable player of the year award at the McDonald’s High School All-American Game (Newsmakers B2). LeBron wanted to skip his senior year to enter into the NBA draft, but was against NBA rules, so he returned to high school now the most famous high school player. Even before James entered the NBA draft he had already signed a $90 million contract with the brand Nike (Contemporary C4). LeBron James entered the NBA draft in the summer of 2003, and was selected by the "struggling to make it in the NBA" Cleveland Cavaliers (Smithwick 14). The three year contract that James signed with the Cavaliers amounted to nothing beside the more than $100 million in endorsement contracts he has signed with Nike, Sprite, Powerade, Upper Deck Cards, and Bubblicious bubble gum. If it was anybody's guess, they would have said that James was going to play poorly in his first year, but he proved them wrong, everybody wrong. He was named rookie

Watching Jordan play and seeing how great he was, influenced many teens and kids around the world.

Lebron has accomplished many things due to him not quitting. Lebron James has been the most valuable player four times in his 14 year NBA career. He has been in many all star games. He is from Akron Ohio, and he was drafted into the NBA straight out of high school. Lebron had caught a cramp in the NBA finals, but he did not give up and he kept playing, and he went

Just having LeBron James – the biggest name and superstar in the NBA – come back to Cleveland after leaving for Miami four years ago was a big boost, not just emotionally but also economically for the city. But the deeper the Cavs’ run in the postseason went, the better

By contrasting a player’s ardent exuberance for basketball with his xxx disappointment in the poem “American Hero,” Essex Hemphill reveals the athlete’s conflict between his enthusiasm for the game and his resentment toward his superficial fans. For instance, the author emphasizes the player’s fervent frame of mind, “[having] nothing to lose... / I let the tension go. / Shoot for the net. / I slam it through...” (Hemphill 1, 8-9, 11-12). Hemphill illustrates the competitor’s energetic passion for basketball by describing his game-winning skills and slick athleticism. In contrast, the poet depicts the player’s resentfulness toward the cheering mass as he muses “I scored / thirty-two points this game / and they love me for it” (13-15). Despite

When people move from one, place to another, over time that person changes. The way people act; the way the city is run changes the person, whether it would be how they talk how people act to other people. In Toni Morrison’s Jazz, the author shows the reader just how important geography is to a person’s thought process and actions. A character in Jazz named Violet Trace shows the reader just how important a change in geography can be for a person. Throughout the novel, Morrison shows the effect of migrating from the south to the north and how the city changes the way certain people think and what it could lead them to do. The concept of geography and what it does psychologically shows the reader how or why a certain person did something. The settings used by Morrison show the reader what the effect is when moving from place to another and more specifically how Violet moving from the south to the north affected her psychologically.

Collegiately, Jordan’s legacy was established as a freshman when he nailed the game winning shot in the National Championship versus Patrick Ewing’s Hoyas. Even though, the Tar Heels didn’t hoist the trophy in the following years with Jordan, one thing was constant, Jordan himself. Win or lose, no matter the players around him or the level of competition, he would always put on a show. This would hold true as Jordan’s rise to prominence conveyed an analysis of sport’s emergence on the global stage.

This means that there are parts in his book that can be enjoyed by many different people but at the same time when a reader gets to a passage or chapter that they can’t relate to it can result in the reader becoming uninterested. One way this can be observed is by looking at the sports that are mentioned in the book. Giffels’ first used Lebron James as the topic of discussion while he talked about basketball at the start of the book. One example is when Giffels’ states: “LeBron James was being awarded the NBA’s 2010 Most Valuable Player award, and he’d arranged for the presentation ceremony to be held at the University of Akron gym, where he’d played many of his high school games.” (Giffels 10). LeBron James is a major influence in the basketball community and people of many ages watch basketball. However, readers might analyze it as a majority it is usually younger people who watch basketball and focus on all the aspects such as stats and the player’s contributions in society. By using LeBron James as a symbol, he is able to attract people that are generally younger. This is because the older generations might either not be interested in basketball as much as they used to or they don’t rally around LeBron the way their generations used to gather around Michael Jordan. Giffels also appeals to the older generations. An example of this is when Giffels’ speaks about bowling: “In 1958 the

Many have heard the name "LeBron" at least once due to his popularity among basketball fans and the basketball player's countless merchandise items. LeBron James is undoubtedly one of the most successful ball players in the game today. The 6'8" 250Lbs Cleveland Cavalier Forward has always had a talent for basketball

LeBron Raymone James was born on December 30, 1984 in Akron, Ohio to a 16-year-old mother, Gloria Marie James, who raised the child on her own. When James was growing up, life was often a struggle for the family, as they moved from apartment to apartment in the seedier neighborhoods of Akron while Gloria struggled to find steady work. Realizing that her son would be better off in a more stable family environment, Gloria allowed him to move in with the family of Frank Walker, a local youth football coach, who introduced James to basketball when he was nine years old. While james was young he played AAU ball . Lebrons freshman year he went to St. vincent- St. mary high school . then lebron averaged 21 points 6 rebounds per game as the season went on james led them to a 27-0 season In 2002, LeBron tried to enter the NBA, but was considered ineligible because he had not yet graduated from High School. In his senior year LeBron’s average stood at 31.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.4 steals per game. For his achievements, he was named Ohio’s Mr. Basketball for three years in a row. He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated which was a hint at the expectations that rested on him. All his matches were having seating problems because of the increased number of spectators coming to watch him play. In 2003, he was selected in the NBA draft to play for the

Lebron James, the first pick taken in this year’s draft, may be the prototype for an athlete having immediate fame and wealth by jumping straight to the NBA. Almost undoubtedly, he has set the bar for years to come. Before he even played in an actual NBA game, he already had his own commercial and shoe deals. When he was a senior in high school, ESPN and ESPN2 were already publicizing his regular season games whenever they had the chance. Amazingly, as a junior in high school, he was already being considered the next Michael Jordan (Broussard).

LeBron James is similar to Magic Johnson. He did want to be a football player but he found something new.He wanted to play basketball. He used to make free throws by dunking them, causing the NCAA to make them change the rules.

Pat Riley concludes the book with a chapter named ‘One from the Heart’. He mainly talks about different warriors from the world. From Earvin Johnson, a basketball player, to Rafe Esquith, a man who provided immigrant kids in a hard neighborhood a better education. But the thing I took from this chapter was how he says, “A basketball game is an event-filled forty-eight-minute stream of possessions-shots, blocks, rebounds, steals, passes, fast breaks-just like a year in the life of family or a business is a 365-day-a-year event stream. “ He says it is not humanly possible to win on every possession, to score every time you get the ball, or to block your opponents shot every time the ball is in their hands. No matter what sport or your role in life, there are always smaller encounters within the larger whole. The quote I took from that chapter that Riley states is, “Each small victory improves the odds that you will