In the eyes of the public, the Decision was a bad decision. The response to the move wounded him for a time, and the scar is still visible. Sixteen years later, it is hard to understand now the anger, the charges of egotism and selfishness, that accompanied James’s choice—and not just from Cavs fans who felt betrayed. It was shocking national news.
Book V
Surviving the bruising to his reputation became another test. James decided to team up with a few of the best players in the world, and then struggled during the Finals in 2011, against the Dallas Mavericks. Never mind that the Heat wouldn’t have made it to the Finals without his performance in the Eastern Conference Finals. If he’d been passive in Cleveland, now he was a “choker.”
So he did the only thing a hero could do: he started winning. He kept improving, played in the post more often, and—before everyone else was doing it—embodied positionless basketball. He could, and did, play all over the floor. He won two more M.V.P. awards. When the Heat were facing elimination during Game Six of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, against the Boston Celtics, he scored forty-five points and pulled down fifteen rebounds—one of the great clutch performances of all time. Then he demolished the Thunder in the Finals. The following year, he carried the Heat to the team’s second-straight championship.
Book VI
And as he won, as he aged, he seemed to soften. He made it clear that he had left home but had not forgotten it. He was not quite so selfish and callow as he was sometimes made out to be. He gave kids in Akron backpacks and bikes—an ingenious offering. Many of the students who received those bikes were Black kids who’d been made to grow up too fast, who’d been constrained by circumstances their whole lives. A bike is a symbol of childhood, and a way to go places. It is a means to freedom. Then he built a whole school, with programs and services for all underserved people.
He spoke out, too, against racial injustice, at a time when it was rare for athletes to do so. James didn’t invent the notion that athletes are more than athletes, but he became synonymous with it. “More than an athlete” became his slogan, and he named his production company “Uninterrupted.”
He wasn’t trying to revolutionize the system. He wanted more control of it. He understood that sports were a Trojan horse, a way to sneak social issues into mainstream culture.
But his journey was not done. Miami was his Ogygia, the island of Calypso. Miami wasn’t home.
Book VII
There were more tests. A suspicious press; the jealousy of Pat Riley. But he made it back to Ohio, where his biggest battle awaited: the Golden State Warriors—one of the greatest teams of all time.
In Cleveland, James was in charge. There were subtweets and rumors of strife. This time around, he was not playing with his friends.
In Cleveland, he was the underdog. His critics liked to point out that the team’s weaknesses were partly his own doing, a consequence of his demands. That seemed unfair—it wasn’t his job to say no to himself—but there was a sense that he was going into battle alone. He finished the 2016 N.B.A. Finals leading both teams in all five major statistical categories. If he had help, perhaps it came from some god. The Cavaliers lost the first two games of that series by a combined forty-eight points. A 3–1 deficit was almost insurmountable. James had back-to-back forty-one-point games to stave off elimination. He seemed to win Game Seven almost by his will alone, chasing down Andre Iguodala, as if sped up by a fleet-footed goddess, and blocking a layup attempt with less than two minutes remaining and the score tied. It was the stuff of legends.
Book VIII
But there was another prophecy, and this one said that Odysseus must leave Ithaca again after defeating his enemies. So LeBron left Cleveland again, for Los Angeles. And there, in the weirdness of the pandemic bubble, he won another championship, this time with the Lakers.
Having been the youngest player to score forty-plus points in a game, he also became the oldest to do so. He broke the N.B.A. scoring title. He shared an N.B.A. court with his son.
