As LeBron James gears up for his 23rd NBA season at age 40, the Lakers star took a moment to reflect on when he first understood he was destined for greatness. Surprisingly, that realization came years before the NBA, even before high school.
“I mean that I don’t want to say that first year because that first year I just knew that I was a lot faster and bigger, and I don’t want to say stronger yet, cause I was still a little skinny kid then,” James said speaking on 360 With Speedy during his Nike tour in China. “But like my first year playing organized football ever, we played six games, and I got the MVP that year. I had 18 touchdowns in six games. Like and then right in that fall the basketball season started my first year ever playing organized basketball.
“We went 6-0, won a championship. And the only reason my coach still, today, back then, he gave everybody the MVP. Clearly, I was the MVP, but it was dope as hell. But I would say, man, like I don’t know. I don’t know. I think that, I mean, I was out there doing s*** that I just I shouldn’t have been doing. So I thought I was pretty special then.”
James said that confidence only grew stronger in eighth grade, when he traveled to Orlando for an AAU national tournament.
“Probably like 8th grade, I went to an AAU national tournament in Orlando, Florida. It was me and six other kids from the northeast Ohio region. Mostly from Akron, to be honest,” James explained. “Five of us from Akron, maybe maybe four of us from Akron, three of us, three kids from like the Cleveland Brecksville area. And we went and played in the AAU nationals, which was the big, big time, you know, national tournament where it was like 120 teams, whatever, down in Orlando, Florida, at the Worldwide Sports, and we finished second, bro.”
That early confidence carried James to bypass college and enter the 2003 NBA Draft, where he was selected first overall.
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