did you know that lebron james was born left-handed but then chose to play basketball with his right or that he didn't sleep before a game in the nba finals due to his son's birth if you did he must be a big lebron fan however here are 11 things you may not know about king james he spent half his childhood without a permanent home you probably know that lebron grew up poor in the projects of akron ohio but maybe you didn't know how often he moved around simply because he and his mother gloria didn't have a
place of their own his biological father was absent from all of his life and his true identity was never confirmed by anyone in the james family frida lebron's grandmother died from a heart attack on christmas day 1987 just four days before lebron's third birthday gloria was just 19 at the time and she tried to maintain the old and crumbling house with her two brothers but there wasn't enough money to pay all the bills and james's family was soon without heat gloria couldn't stay there for the sake of her child and they were often moving staying
with relatives or friends for a few weeks and then moving again with lebron often sleeping on old couches my memories of those days were that every day that you woke up you knew it was going to be a struggle lebron missing fourth grade and the football coach who took him in due to the unstable living situation and almost constantly moving from one place to the next lebron missed 82 out of 160 school days in the fourth grade however his luck would change when he befriended frank walker jr on the peewee football team frank walker senior
was frankie's dad and the team's coach and he was aware of lebron's living situation so he suggested to gloria that lebron moves in with him until she finds a stable job and gets back on her feet gloria accepted and lebron moved in with the walkers but his mom visited him at any chance she could and they would often spend weekends together lebron was quite shy back then as you can probably imagine for a kid who had to sleep on couches who already saw drugs guns and violence around him and didn't have many joyful moments in
his life he was also very skinny but already really tall which helped him dominate on the football field for frank walker's team where some parents even asked to see his birth certificate to check if he was eight years old it took lebron some time to get used to his new family but the newfound stability and discipline were instrumental in his life they made me get up every day and go to school even though there were days where i didn't want to go to school being part of a family having chores having a mom and dad
surrounding a brother and two sisters it was an unbelievable experience for me at a young age and it shaped who i am today lebron lebron had perfect attendance in fifth grade with a b-plus grade average frank walker also persuaded james to join his first rec league basketball team and an aau team a year later the walkers also helped gloria find an apartment and lebron moved back in with his mother in sixth grade however he still visited the walkers frequently and they often drove him to school in the morning for years to come first dunk and
first scouts as we mentioned lebron joined the aau team in sixth grade which was called the shooting stars three members of that team and lebron form the self called fab four and they became best friends lebron's outgoing and fun personality finally started to shine and in seventh grade a school principal said that this kid could become a president one day after eighth grade the four friends made a pact to attend high school together and chose saint vincent st mary where they met romeo travis who became the fifth member of the close-knit group which now became
the fab five lebron was now living the happiest days of his life up to that point and during his freshman year at st v a new thought formed in his mind he started believing he could become a pro athlete either in the nfl or the nba the fact that a sports agency reached out to him when he was a freshman certainly helped form that idea after he broke his wrist on the football field before his junior year he had to drop his football dreams and focus exclusively on basketball which was a good choice lebron and
the fab five became a national sensation winning three state championships and a national title with a 101-6 record during james's tenure played with jordan in high school after he was nicknamed the chosen one on the sports illustrated cover and the subsequent chosen one tattoo lebron's life was never the same he was no longer anonymous but that definitely had its perks you might have heard about the hummer he received that he was hanging out with jay-z and several nba players most notably tracy mcgrady and antoine walker but the coolest thing in lebron's high school life must
have been the time he got the call to participate in the infamous jordan workouts mj retired in 1998 for the second time but he was gearing for another comeback in the summer of 2001. he started working out religiously and he organized pickup games with nba players to get himself in game shade when lebron was a sophomore in high school he was already that famous that he got the invite to participate jordan was his favorite player a reason why he wore number 23 and why he refused to get measured after he eclipsed jordan's six foot six
height however when he arrived at the workouts he didn't play that much sure he was the best teenager in the world but he was also just 16 years old and he only got in the game when the nba guys got tired and were at the end of their runs still jordan and lebron shared the court together once and if the tape of that game existed it would be worth millions now lebron wrote a book and helped two chains with his rap album lebron starred in train wreck and space jam co-hosted the espys in 2007 and
hosted snl in 2007 but a little less known is that he also co-wrote a book titled shooting stars as we mentioned shooting stars was the name of his aau team and where he found lifelong friends a 256-page read about growing up playing basketball and being a good teammate lebron also rapped and has a song with kevin durant titled it ain't easy but you can find on youtube but lebron will be the first one to tell you he's not going to be dropping an album himself however in 2019 james served as an artist and repertoire administrator
on 2chainz's rapper go to the league album and he sees himself collaborating on similar music projects in the future the decision idea came from a fan and kanye was in attendance when lebron shot it lebron's free agency in 2010 was arguably the biggest free agent move ever due to the lasting effect it had on the league and how players approached free agency from that moment on it was also probably the most scrutinized move ever with thousands of lebron jerseys ending in a bonfire and dan gilbert publishing a hateful letter written in comic sans but you
might not have known that the whole idea for the decision to be televised came from bill simmons and more precisely an email from simmons's fan phil then pitched that idea to james and maverick carter and they agreed to it the decision was watched by 13 million on tv but kanye west felt he needed to see this live and he watched the interview 20 feet away from lebron and jim gray however he allegedly dozed off fell asleep and missed lebron's famous phrase i'm going to take my talents to south beach lebron saved carmelo anthony's life it's
a well-known fact that king james spends his summers on big yachts and the most beautiful beaches the same is true for his best friends in the nba who were famously documented riding the banana boat while he was in the vicinity when this picture was taken carmelo anthony wasn't on the banana boat a life choice he is very proud of however one life choice regarding water is not so dear to carmelo and that's when he almost lost his life in the bahamas the banana boat crew was on a yacht and carmelo was snorkeling and the last
to leave the water couldn't be bothered then all of a sudden the wind and the current got stronger and mellow realized that it was taking him further and further away from the coast mello got so far that the rest of the crew couldn't see him anymore when lebron finally spotted him far away from the yacht he immediately jumped to the rescue and carried poor carmelo back to the yacht with one arm and swimming with the other if the banana boat crew ever decides to dress up as dc or marvel characters for halloween we know who's
gonna be aquaman played basketball with obama for his 49th birthday barack obama is one of the coolest politicians in history obama is also a baller and he loves watching and playing basketball when he has the opportunity for his 49th birthday obama probably sensed that he was getting older and that his knees only had so much flexibility left to play a decent pickup game this is not a fact i'm just guessing it was a factor so barack decided to cash in on the fact that nba players adore him so he invited a bunch of them to
play ball for his birthday lebron was there and so is kobe carmelo magic chris paul derrick rose bill russell dwyane wade and several others in what was probably the best uncompetitive pickup game ever beat stephen bowling when he was a rookie lebron is the biggest basketball nerd on the planet and his tv always has some game on he watches high school in college ball and he closely follows the careers of talented kids some of which he meets through his camps or he watches their games live james went to a few of steph curry's games when
steph was at davidson and when curry got drafted to the league he got the invite to visit lebron's home in cleveland when the warriors came to town they tucked watched some basketball of course and then they went bowling other than a full-size basketball court lebron has a bowling alley in his house too james used the home court advantage to easily out bull steph and then he defeated him in the game the following night watch teddy murphy after a game 4 loss in the 2016 nba finals when james returned to cleveland for the 2015 season he
pulled a pat riley move and threw his newly acquired nba rings at them to show them what they're playing for from that moment on but after they lost in the 2015 finals they were on the brink of another loss in 2016 after they lost game 4 at home falling 3-1 to the warriors lebron came home and started flipping through channels only to stop when he saw that eddie murphy's raw was on eddie's comedic brilliance occupied lebron's minds made him laugh and forget about the finals but when eddie was done talking about italians and bill cosby
lebron's thoughts quickly returned towards basketball he sent a group text to the cavs players at two in the morning which said don't come to the airport and board the plane if you don't believe we can win in game five the rest is history as cleveland went on to win their first major title in 52 years but it might not have happened without an assist from eddie murphy he's unbeatable in cards and helps when no one is looking lebron has a photographic memory and can recall basketball plays from a few seasons ago without a fault he
knows all of his opponent's plays and it's on record that he instructed opposing players where they needed to stand on offense that sheldon cooper-like memory helps lebron in other areas as well kendrick perkins said that lebron is like a rain man in card games and that he never loses counting cards may be illegal in vegas but it helps when you're playing against friends lebron is also very frugal when it comes to money and he's a notoriously low spender at times also not even his best friends know how much money is in his bank account however
braun likes to help when no one is looking from time to time he pays rehabilitation costs for addicts from medical costs for sick kids he's extremely generous towards his teammates who have received a lot of expensive gifts from james over the years when he was 18 and got to the nba he put his best friends rich paul randy mims and maverick carter on the payroll even though they didn't exactly have a defined working rule but he believed in them and now all of them are extremely successful when it's all said and done i wouldn't be
surprised if that principle ends up being right because lebron can definitely become a president one day if he sets his mind to do so [Music]
