LeBron

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I will say, he is a class act both on and off the court and is a great example of a family man. You won’t see him doing anything stupid like other athletes do. This book goes into detail about LeBron's life from his childhood up to early 2023. It not only discusses his journey to the NBA and his career, but also his experiences off the court. We learn about his savviness, his entrepreneurship, and activism - especially with how he has spoken out against injustice and his efforts to advocate for change (as well as his community work). We also learn about his impact on player empowerment and on the league itself. I was intrigued throughout as I read the book. While I did know some of the information covered in the book, I also learned a lot. Reporter: Would you tell me one thing about yourself that most people don't know and why don't they know it?

The Making of a Billion Dollar Athlete by Brian Windhorst is a book about Lebron James that outlines his life from the age of 16. Interestingly, the book not only talks about his success on the court, but also in the business world that he so greatly invested in.

Table of Contents

Rating this a 2/5, or 40%, because that's the same rate of success as LeBron James in the NBA Finals. Just like LeBron's promise to bring "Not one, not two...not seven" championships to Miami, this self-proclaimed King once again fails to deliver in the clutch. Unable to accomplish anything meaningful without joining a superteam, LeBron relies on perennial All-Star illustrator Nina Mata and his own mother Gloria James to voice the audiobook. Finally, by depicting such a racially diverse cast of characters and promoting the message that anybody can accomplish anything no matter where they start, LeBron fails to capitalize on a simple but critical fact that the GOAT Michael Jordan would never overlook- Republicans buy books too. In short, there’s no shortage of material for a biographer to chronicle the current Los Angeles Laker, and Jeff Benedict’s comprehensive new “LeBron” does a masterful job of shaping that material into a cohesive and propulsive whole. This is a fast break of a book, slicing into the many mini-narratives that James has lived and artfully tying them together to create a portrait of a man who has, by his own design, remained an enigma except to those he decides to trust. Benedict has constructed a sort of sports opera fueled by the drama and emotion surrounding his subject, but never sensationalistic or unfair. Benedict clearly likes James, but he’s been around long enough — among the subjects of his 17 books are Tiger Woods and the New England Patriots — to steer far clear of hagiography. LeBron James: If I were in desperate need of help I would turn to my wonderful wife who is constantly supportive and talks me through my problems. She has always been there for me since day one standing beside me when I am at my highs and lows. Savannah plays a massive role in my life and is all I could ask for in a wife.

This book is a good example of a multicultural and multiracial classroom/friend group representation that works without trying too hard. The students in this book are all different but they are all friends and working together to build a community. I would use this book to ask students to make these promises, but also to perhaps discuss what promises like this could mean for them and their peers. Where the book fell short for me was when I expected Windhorst to shed even more specifics that may have shed a negative light on James. It felt almost like the info was "approved" by James and company, not the whole truth in these dealings. I guess I hoped for something more honest with even more details. I could be wrong, but it just feels that way.

Reporter: LeBron, name three things you consider yourself to be good at, and three things you consider yourself to be bad at. It was he and his mom throughout out his childhood trying to survive. When he started playing high school basketball, he was fortunate enough to play with some of his closest friends and had wonderful coaches helping him succeed.

The high-caliber professionals supporting him remain mostly nameless and the acheivements just roll in. Lebron remains the smiley, generous person that no one knew when he was just a child. I was also fortunate enough to find the Barnes & Nobel virtual story time session in which the illustrator, Nina Mata, narrated. Malta’s illustrations are beautiful, with a diverse representation of children, and sweet images that support the text.Reporter: In basketball you must come across a nemesis or rival, who do you consider to fit this description? Full disclosure: I am a big fan of Lebron James. He's never played for my favorite team and there were certainly times I was cheering for him to fail on the basketball court (ONLY). If I was cheering against him, it was because his team was playing against my Spurs. Other than that, I have always found it hard not to root for the guy, otherwise. So who is this book for? I admit that my surprise was the fact that this position, contrary to the assessment, is not about basketball. Confirmation of this is the fact that the part describing the struggles of LeBron James' favorite in the world of basketball is maybe 10-15% of the whole book. Everything else concerns the "off-field" actions of the famous basketball player. I did not particularly enjoy the Libro.fm narrator, Gloria James. I am not familiar with this individual, but the last name leads me to believe she may be a family member who wanted to be part of this project. It is important for diction, articulation, and elocution to be accurate when presenting oral reading to young readers. What they hear is what they will one day mimic as readers. This narrator drops consonants such as /s/ in “ask” and pronounced it as “ax.” That is unacceptable when modeling good oral reading for children.

Benedict has a flair for relating great sports moments in a way without cliche and depicting Lebron's personality in the midst of controversy. I never got bored once with his narrative. It's a book worthy of its subject and also a pretty riveting history of the NBA in the 21st century. If you enjoyed the "Last Dance" documentary you'll enjoy this one and have some pretty interesting things to chew on as you ponder the GOAT debate between James and Jordan. Their outlooks on basketball and life could not be different. I really learned a lot not only from Lebron's focus on self-improvement and building up the team around him. There are some ironic limitations in the format of the book centered on how to look at such a storied and lengthy career that isn't even finished. There is a missing element of hindsight due to the fact that we don't even know how his professional career will end and what other great things he will accomplish. This feels like a half biography at this point - extremely impressive especially with all he has already done - but it doesn't do his story justice as readers get cut off at his current age of 38 (unavoidable since they wanted to publish now but leaves a feeling that this will need to be updated if it ever wants to be considered a "complete" story of LeBron later on). I should say up front: I’m a diehard LeBron James fan to the point of irrationally defending him no matter what. I’ve rooted for him since he came in the league and loved his game ever since. And being a big fan, I’ve consumed thousands of words on his life and career. When I saw this book about LeBron James, I was immediately intrigued. I did have to stop reading it a few times as I had other books to read, but when I finally finished it, I was glad I read it and learned a lot more about him than I knew previously.LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger’s “ Shooting Stars” is not just another athlete memoir. James, who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was just seventeen (tagline: “The Chosen One”), had his high-school games nationally televised on ESPN, and was drafted number one out of high school in 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bissinger is a Pulitzer Prize winner whose book “Friday Night Lights” has sold almost two million copies, and has since been made into a film and a TV series.