Reviews for Lebron
Publishers Weekly
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Film and TV producer Benedict (The Dynasty) delivers an engrossing biography of LeBron James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, who is considered by many to be the greatest player to ever grace the court. Drawing from hundreds of interviews and extensive research, Benedict chronicles the star’s hardscrabble Akron, Ohio, childhood, when his teen mother struggled to put food on the table and pay for heat, eventually forcing the two to move in with a neighbor. The instability made James “a quiet kid who seldom spoke up,” though fortunes shifted when he joined a peewee football team at age nine and gained confidence in his athletic abilities. Benedict takes readers through the athlete’s high school basketball days, after which he bypassed college to join the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003; his 2010 move to the Miami Heat; and his eventual return to his home state, helping Cleveland earn its first-ever NBA championship in 2016. LeBron’s achievements off the court get their due, from his anti-racist activism to his founding of an elementary school for at-risk children in Akron. This authoritative account renders the athlete’s life in fascinating, fine-grained detail, though it gives short shrift to recent developments. (James’s tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers—including winning a 2020 NBA championship—gets fewer than 10 pages.) Even devoted fans will emerge with a greater understanding of the superstar. (Apr.)
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
The story of King James’ rise and reign. Any conversation about the greatest NBA player ever must include LeBron James, a four-time MVP and player on four championship teams. (He just became the league's all-time leading scorer, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.) Veteran sportswriter Benedict frames James’ story as a tale of destiny fulfilled. Raised by a poor single mother in Akron, Ohio (his father’s identity remains a mystery), James was supported from an early age by coaches and other community members. Shining at both basketball and football, he skipped college and was drafted by his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in 2003. Benedict describes this path in (overly) deep detail—James doesn’t make his NBA debut till nearly halfway through the book. But from there, the narrative is a well-paced account of James’ on-court ambitions and struggles with how to wield his celebrity. Early on, he could be closed-off with reporters, waffled over signing a letter criticizing China’s human rights record, and famously alienated NBA fans everywhere in 2010 by announcing his decision to “take my talents to South Beach” (and join the Miami Heat) in an overblown hourlong TV special. Benedict suggests that a tight circle of trusted advisers, plus a few championship trophies, helped elevate James as a leader. He effectively played a general manager’s role in assembling squads, didn’t hesitate to speak out after the murders of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, and was comfortable clapping back at then-President Donald Trump. Benedict correlates James’ reputational ups and downs to his relationships with sportswriters—hitting his nadir when he was frosty with the ghostwriter for a book about his high school days, triumphing when he welcomed a Sports Illustrated writer to report his return to the Cavaliers. But James’ roles as world-class athlete and media phenomenon are intertwined, and the author ably captures both elements. A deep, occasionally hagiographic dive into the life of a one-of-a-kind superstar. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Benedict has previously written books on Tiger Woods and on the New England Patriots, both the most dominant forces in their respective sports in this century. Continuing the trend, his latest tackles the man who is known the world over by only his first name: LeBron. At over 500 pages, LeBron is an appropriately epic portrait, yet the book ends not with the conclusion of his career, but only at the indomitable star’s latest chapter. As Benedict makes plain throughout, LeBron as both a man and an athlete is ever-evolving. The particulars of LeBron’s life and career—from his hardscrabble childhood in Akron, where his mother raised him as a single parent, through his storied high-school basketball career at a largely white Catholic school, to his eventual supremacy in the NBA—are thoroughly fleshed out in Benedict’s crisp style and skillfully-set scenes. The author also illustrates the many ways in which LeBron has changed the game both on and off the court, including his role in ushering in a more business-savvy and politically conscious era for NBA players. LeBron, Benedict notes, has navigated free agency and social-justice issues in ways that many previous superstars didn’t. While LeBron has been in the public eye for decades, Benedict provides the most comprehensive profile yet in this biography truly fit for the King.
