LeBron James lowered himself into a cold tub the size of a large Jacuzzi at a practice facility at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas last month.
He had just finished a session with the US men’s basketball team before his first Olympics in 12 years. As the icy water got to work on his 39-year-old muscles, he thought about the first time he ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
“I was, like, super intimidated and super scared to just be out of the country,” James said.
He was 15 and had joined a group of basketball players from Ohio for a trip to Italy. They stayed with local families and did some sightseeing. He smiled at the memories, fuzzy as they were.
He had been hesitant to go, but his high school coach, Dru Joyce II, recalled in an interview telling James he needed to “see how big the world was”.
In the decades since, the world has changed, and so has James.
At the Paris Games, he is playing in front of – and against – people from around the globe who grew up dreaming of one day seeing him in person. During James’s two decades in the NBA, the sport’s popularity has exploded internationally. A fascination that began with greats such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant has been supercharged during the James era. Because of advances in technology and lucrative media rights deals, teenagers in countries such as the Philippines, Uganda and Brazil can easily watch his games. His was the bestselling NBA jersey in the world last year.
Now, far removed from the teenager who was frightened to leave the country, James is basketball’s global ambassador, his presence marketing the game better than anything else. On an Olympic roster replete with All Stars, James is the unquestioned star as the team prepares for its quarter-final matchup against Brazil on Tuesday. His otherworldly talent, unique personal story and career longevity have meant that fans around the world have spent 22 years voraciously consuming content about him. Some of them love the game because of him. Some don’t love the game, they just love James.
How far does his influence stretch? Vinícius Júnior, the star soccer player for Real Madrid, said in an interview that he didn’t follow basketball when he was growing up in Brazil but that James “was a bit of a superhero for me”, and served as inspiration for his own athletic exploits. It is a sentiment other stars echo. In 2018, Luka Doncic, who grew up in Slovenia and now plays for the Dallas Mavericks, waited outside the Los Angeles Lakers’ locker room after his first game against James to retrieve a jersey James had signed for him. And members of the US Olympics team elected him as the team’s male flag-bearer. They revere James not just for his on-court success, but for his longevity, his philanthropy and his business acumen.
James did not always think in those broad terms. Not long after the trip to Italy, Nike began courting him. Lynn Merritt, a long-time executive with the company, immediately envisioned James as a global phenomenon. A teenager who grew up in Akron, Ohio, James didn’t want that to be his focus.
“If you take care of business out on the floor, then everything will end up happening organically,” he said of his mentality then. “I’m not trying to be a global star. I’m trying to be an unbelievable basketball player and represent my family and represent my last name with the utmost respect. Nike’s going to do what Nike’s going to do.”
Merritt decided to ease him into it. James played on the US men’s basketball team in the summer Olympics held in Athens in 2004, after his rookie season in the NBA. Before the Games began, the team played throughout Europe. When Merritt arranged James’s first trip abroad with Nike – to Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong in 2005 – he didn’t want to overload him with business. He focused on fun interactions with fans: camps, clinics, store visits.
“He didn’t have a clear understanding of what a global icon was,” Merritt said.
During the trip, James and his now-wife, Savannah, walked on the Great Wall of China. Fans would show up to events holding or wearing his jerseys from high school or from his NBA team at the time, the Cleveland Cavaliers. They brought the Sports Illustrated cover he appeared on in high school. Some attended events in multiple cities, hours apart.
“That was the first time I realised people really are following and want to be a part of my journey,” James said.
After he won a championship with Cleveland in 2016, Nike staged a re-enactment of the championship parade in Guangzhou, China. Twenty thousand fans attended.
James has been a superstar for so long that some of the people who grew up rooting for him, all across the world, are now stars themselves. That’s the case with Vinícius. He moved in with his uncle in Brazil at age 12, and the two of them together watched as many of James’ games as they could.
“God willing, I can play as long as he has,” said Vinícius (24), answering questions in Portuguese that were sent via WhatsApp.
Vinícius met James after a Lakers game last Christmas. They hugged and exchanged signed jerseys.
“I was so nervous, anxious, and at the same time wanting him not to show up so I wouldn’t have to express what I was feeling at that moment,” he said.
He smiled broadly during the entire encounter, trying to hide the nerves. Meeting other stars is a normal thing for James. They often seek him out.
“A lot of these athletes, they’ve been fascinated with the way I play the game and how I’ve been able to stay at the level,” James said. “But also, they’re even more fascinated with how I’ve been able to run my business and handle things off the floor.”
Vinícius’s adoration is a product of the NBA’s increased availability around the world.
In James’s first NBA season, only five of his games were broadcast on television in Brazil. By the 2011-12 season, about the time Vinícius was living with his basketball-loving uncle, that number had grown to 66.
At the Paris Games, the youngest men’s basketball player is 17-year-old Khaman Maluach of South Sudan.
“Our generation sees LeBron as the greatest player of all time,” Maluach said.
He started researching James about four years ago. He found a mini-documentary about the 2016 NBA finals and marvelled at clips of James’ early years.
Last month, he left his mother five voice notes after South Sudan played against the United States in an exhibition game in London.
“I played against LeBron!”
“I saw LeBron!”
And so on.
Her response showed there are parts of the world where James’ fame has yet to permeate.
“Who is LeBron?” she asked. – This article originally appeared in the New York Times
