LeBron keeps the whole world watching

LeBron James sat in the visitors locker room at Madison Square Garden with ice on his 38-year-old knees and 28 more points to his name after his Los Angeles Lakers beat the New York Knicks in overtime.

Teammate Anthony Davis teased him about how close he was to breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA career scoring record, then about 90 points away.

Suddenly, James remembered something. His mother, Gloria, was set to go on vacation soon. She might miss his recordbreaking game.

He called her on speakerphone, with a dozen attentive reporters close by. He asked when she was leaving, reminding her every once in a while, lest she disclose too much, that reporters could hear the conversation. Eventually, he looked around, sheepishly, and said he’d call her later.

“I love you,” he said. Then, just before he ended the call, he added: “I love you more.”

It was typical James: He brings you along for the ride, but on his terms, revealing what he wants to reveal and no more. It’s perhaps the only way someone who has been so famous for most of his life could survive the machine of modern celebrity.

As he has closed in on Abdul-Jabbar’s record of 38,387 points, the very idea of what it means to be a star has shifted since James scored his first two points on Oct. 29, 2003. And James has helped define that shift. He has risen above the din of social media celebrities and 24-hour news cycles, buoyed by the basketball fans who love him or love to hate him.

He has been a selfiesnapping tour guide for this journey, with a portfolio that now extends well beyond the court. He has a production company and a show on HBO. He’s acted in a few movies and received some good reviews.

His foundation has helped hundreds of students in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, and a public school the foundation helps run there, the I Promise School, focuses on children who struggle academically. His opinions are covered as news, given more weight than those of almost any other athlete.

“Hopefully I made an impact enough so people appreciate what I did, and still appreciate what I did off the floor as well, even when I’m done,” James said. “But I don’t live for that. I live for my family, for my friends and my community that needs that voice.”

The ‘main thing’

In early 2002, James was a high school junioron the cover of Sports Illustrated. News didn’t travel as quickly as it does now. Not everyone had cellphones, and the ones they had couldn’t livestream videos of whatever anyone did.

Social media meant chat rooms on AOL or Yahoo. Facebook had yet to launch, and the deluge of social networking apps was years away.

“Thank God I didn’t have social media; that’s all I can say,” James said in October when asked to reflect on his entry into the league.

As a teenage star, he was spared the incessant gaze of social media and the bullying and harsh criticism that likely would have come with it.

But social media, in its many changing forms, also has helped people express their personalities and share their lives with others. It lets them define themselves — something particularly useful for public figures whose stories get told one way or another.

James began thinking about that early in his career.

His media and production firm, now called SpringHill Co., made a documentary about James and his high school teammates titled “More Than a Game” in 2008. It also developed “The Shop,” an HBO show James sometimes appears on with celebrity guests, including former President Barack Obama and rapper Travis Scott, talking like friends in a barbershop.

James likes to say that he always keeps “the main thing the main thing” — meaning that no matter what else is happening in his life, he prioritizes basketball. He honors the thing that created his fame.

He has led his teams to the NBA Finals in eight consecutive years and has won championships with three franchises. He’s a four-time MVP and has dished the fourth-most assists in NBA history.

The price of fame

James has used his fame to further business opportunities and build his financial portfolio. He has used it to both shield his children and prepare them for growing up in his shadow.

He has used it for social activism, most notably in speaking about Black civil rights and racism. That began in 2012, when he and his Heat teammates wore hooded sweatshirts and posted a group photo on social media after the death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager who was wearing a hoodie when he was shot and killed in Florida. The Heat decided to transfer some of their spotlight to the national conversation about racism that emerged.

What James chooses to talk about (or not talk about) draws notice.

In 2019, when a Houston Rockets executive angered the Chinese government by expressing support for Hong Kong, James was criticized for not speaking out against China’s human rights abuses. James said he didn’t know enough to talk about them, but some skeptics accused him of avoiding the subject to protect his financial interests in China.

And in 2020, when protests swept the country after the police killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both of whom were Black, the NBA made social justice part of its ethos. James used many of his news conferences that season to discuss racism and police violence against Black people.

The attention to James’ words separates him from others, as does the attention to his life.

“I don’t want to say it ever becomes too much, but there are times when I wish I could do normal things,” James said Thursday in an arena hallway in Indianapolis about an hour after the Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers there. A member of a camera crew that has been following him for the past few years filmed him as he spoke.

“I wish I could just walk outside,” James said. “I wish I could just, like, walk into a movie theater and sit down and go to the concession stand and get popcorn. I wish I could just go to an amusement park just like regular people. I wish I could go to Target sometimes and walk into Starbucks and have my name on the cup just like regular people.”

He added: “I’m not sitting here complaining about it, of course not. But it can be challenging at times.”

James grew up without stable housing or much money, but his life now is not like most people’s because of the money he has made through basketball and business (he’s estimated to be worth more than $1 billion), and because of the extraordinary athletic feats he makes look so easy.

Once in a while, as when he’s on the phone with his mother, he manages to come off like just another guy.

Another example: In October 2018, during his first Lakers training camp, James gave up wine as part of a preseason diet regimen. He was asked if abstaining had affected his body.

“Yeah, it made me want wine more,” James said, relatably. “But I feel great. I feel great. I did a two-week cleanse and gave up a lot of things for 14 days.”

James also quit gluten, dairy, artificial sugars and all alcohol for those two weeks, he said.

What was left?

“In life?” James said.

“Air.”

Michael Conroy/Associated Press LeBron James knows his voice resonates perhaps more than that of any other athlete. “Hopefully I made an impact enough so people appreciate what I did, and still appreciate what I did off the floor as well,” he said.