Lessons From LeBron
Late October is magic time for me. College football and NFL in full swing with my first love, the NBA, right around the corner. I’m just going to go ahead and get the annoying out of the way now: LeBron Raymone James is the best basketball player on planet. Hate him or love him, that’s the truth.
I get tired of how much hate people give him all the time. He’s a team-first player, a family man and one of the few superstar athletes that hasn’t had any off-court issues. Sure, ESPN dedicates almost every waking hour of the NBA season to him and what kind of socks he’s wearing for the game or his hairline magic that he does and yes, that gets annoying. But James has nothing to do with that, so give the man a break.
He’s a 10-time All-Star, a 2-time NBA champion, 4-time NBA MVP, and 3-time Gold Medal winner in the Olympics for the USA. In our generation his on-court prowess is second to none and he has won just about any and every basketball related award imaginable. (Note to Mr. James: We’re still waiting on that defensive player of the year award)
James rules the NBA right now and the impact he brings to a game is unmatchable, no amount of Nick “Swaggy P” Young can bring the entertainment level that LeBron does. However, It’s what he has done off the court this past offseason that has transcended the sports world and left a bigger and hopefully more permanent impact on me as not just a sports fan, but as a man.
By what he did and more importantly the way he did it, I learned three very valuable lessons from King James. 1) make the right decision, not the comfortable one 2) the power and simplicity of forgiveness and to 3) recognize the impact we have on those around us.
We all know the story: LeBron James the hometown high school phenom gets drafted No.1 overall in 2003 as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He has a noteworthy first seven years there and after a bit of drama in July of 2010 he shocks the world and peaces out for the glitz and glam of Miami. In the process, he completely angers the city of Cleveland, the state of Ohio and seemingly the whole world.
Everyone outside of Miami hated LBJ for some reason or another.
Not without a few challenges, the Heat win a championship, and then they win another. An ugly final run-in with the San Antonio Spurs last season ended the era of LeBron and the Heat but still a successful stint no doubt, but when career decision time comes once more what does LeBron do? He heads home.
Necessary side note here: I’m a huge Dwyane Wade fan and I had been since watching him destroy the 2003 March Madness tournament, so when LeBron initially announced his decision to head to Florida I knew what it would mean for a team I had supported for a while. I was one happy dude. But then, when I found out he was leaving again I was, to put it clean enough to make the final edit, a little disappointed.
For years after leaving Cleveland, James had been very ambiguous, choosing to keep his cards close to the chest and leave a lot of things to speculation, but in a moment of transparency he gave answers that many had been anxiously waiting for. In the letter announcing his return to Cleveland, LeBron took the opportunity to explain why he left Cleveland in the first place, what playing in Miami meant to him and why he felt like he needed to go back to Ohio.
“Miami, for me, has been almost like college for other kids,” James said. “These past four years helped raise me into who I am. I became a better player and a better man. I learned from a franchise that had been where I wanted to go. I will always think of Miami as my second home. Without the experiences I had there, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing today.”
James knew that without making the tough decision he wouldn’t have been able to reach his ultimate career goal of winning a championship. He realized that he had reached his potential in the situation he was in and humbly recognized that he had to leave Cleveland and give himself a new challenge in order to grow into the man he wanted to become.
We all have to do this ourselves all the time. If we don’t push our limits and put ourselves in uncomfortable situations then we won’t be forced to experience the growth necessary to become better versions of ourselves. There is always room for improvement in some form or another, no matter how great we might think we are.
Lesson 2: “What if I were a kid who looked up to an athlete, and that athlete made me want to do better in my own life, and then he left? How would I react? I’ve met with Dan, face-to-face, man-to-man. We’ve talked it out. Everybody makes mistakes. I’ve made mistakes as well. Who am I to hold a grudge?”
This mention of Dan Gilbert is what hit me the hardest, probably because I had thought about what the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers had said about him after his departure, calling him a “traitor” and openly and very publicly trashing him in any possible way that he could think of. I thought that if it was me in LeBron’s shoes there was absolutely no possible way that I would be able to play for him again but boy was I wrong. Mr. James proved how easy it can be to forgive and forget.
We all make mistakes and there are so many instances when we let tiny errors or offenses committed against us by others impede our growth as an individual or limit our opportunities. Move on people. Recognize that no one is perfect and life surely will get a lot simpler.
Lesson 3: “But this is not about the roster or the organization. I feel my calling here goes above basketball. I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously. My presence can make a difference in Miami, but I think it can mean more where I’m from…In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.”
LeBron James is a powerful man. Of course millions of kids and teenagers and even adults will look up to him as an amazing athlete, and why shouldn’t they? Hopefully they see his influence outside of basketball as well.
We all may not have the wide-reaching impact of LeBron James but I believe that we can all make a positive impact at the lower levels. The little things that we do and the things that we say to each other can make a huge difference in someone’s day, week, year or even their life. Make sure your influence is 100 percent positive.
LeBron James is cool and all but I’m sure there are a million other sources of inspiration that we could find every day to teach these same lessons. There are millions and millions of awesome people around the world that probably never get the credit they truly deserve.
I am far from an obsessive LeBron fan and you can be dang sure that I won’t be rooting for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the near future or probably ever, but let’s give the man some positive credit.
— taylor.c.orton@gmail.com
Twitter: @T_Orton1