LeBron James has defied all odds and has surpassed all expectations. For a child star that was anointed at such a young age, it’s rare.
Almost 21 years to the day, a young LeBron James donned the cover of a Sports Illustrated magazine. The hype was full throttle and the St. Vincent-St. Mary High School senior was anointed as “The Chosen One.”
LeBron, an NBA child star in his own right, was about to make the jump to the main screen. Even though many of his high school games were already broadcasted on ESPN, if that wasn’t rare or weird enough, LeBron was about to make the jump to the NBA straight out of high school.
While the hype was certainly there, LeBron was far from a guarantee. We’d seen child stars (or young basketball phenoms) fail on the highest level before. While there were many that believe LeBron was about to be the best NBA player since Michael Jordan, there was also a natural belief that he probably would fizzle out before reaching the lofty expectations of being “The Chosen One.”
LeBron James’ greatness can’t accurately be measured
LeBron would go on to be the No. 1 overall pick, ironically enough, by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Two decades later, LeBron is now the NBA’s All-Time regular season scoring leader. LeBron surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Tuesday night at the Crypto.com Arena in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
KAJ’s 38,387 career points record was set in 1984. Nearly 40 years later, that record now belongs to one LeBron James.
But Tuesday was more about breaking a record for LeBron. It was a coronation for a career that history suggests shouldn’t have happened. It’s rare with the child stars or child phenoms pan out.
Just off the top of my head, there are many high school phenoms in my lifetime that never made it at the highest level, let alone accomplish all that LeBron has since he was anointed “The Chosen One.”
Greg Oden, Sebastian Telfair, Michael Beasley, Jonathan Bender, Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry, Darius Miles, and the list goes on and on and on – players that never lived up to their expectations when they were in high school or college that never managed to reach greatness at the NBA level.
For whatever reason, there’s a great chance that child phenoms never reach their ultimate potential. But not for LeBron.
And that’s the “other” part of Tuesday night that should be celebrated. LeBron still has a few more years left in his career but we can’t gloss over the fact that he’s surpassed all expectations that he had entering the league.
It’s there’s one gripe about him is that he hasn’t won enough NBA titles. But even then, he’s won four. And he still may not be done.
Let’s appreciate LeBron James in real-time as much as we can. What he’s done, what he’s doing, and what he’s going to do for the remainder of his career is nothing short of historic. We constantly say this and it’s somewhat of a throwaway remark, but we may not see another player do what LeBron has done in his career for a very long time. LeBron embodies greatness. He truly is – or, was – “The Chosen One.”