Lebron James: The Best Basketball Player

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Who is the best basketball player in the world? The question is often debated, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Although, taking a closer look at the facts, there is one player that stands head and shoulders above the rest; His name is LeBron James. Many fans forget that James entered the NBA straight out of high school as an 18 year old kid. During his career he has racked up numerous individual accomplishments, but has not forgotten about his teammates. James teams have always risen above the competition, as he has taken many teams to places that they shouldn’t have gone. He is able to do this simply because he has the ability to make everyone around him better. James isn’t just a great basketball player, but he is also …show more content…

James is now in his 12th season in the NBA, and is considered to be a veteran. James has racked up an impressive resume during his tenure, as he has won the league MVP trophy four times (Gramling 48). To put that in perspective, James has more MVP awards than the likes of Larry Bird or Magic Johnson did in their entire careers, plus James’s career is not even close to being finished. As well as being a league MVP, James has also won two NBA championships and appeared in five NBA Finals, including the last four (Gramling 48). If James keeps up this pace, he will put himself in a very good position to keep contending for more titles. MVP awards and championships are very impressive, but many other players have accomplished those feats in the past. An accomplishment that James can solely claim is being the youngest player in NBA history to score 20,000 career points (“LeBron Raymone" 1). If James is able to stay healthy and keep up his scoring pace, he will certainly be close to passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most career points in NBA …show more content…

Every year, Sports Illustrated selects one athlete from any sport as their “Sportsman of the Year”. The Sportsman of the Year is often awarded to the most accomplished and well rounded athlete of the year (Badenhausen 37). In 2012, after winning league MVP, the NBA Championship, an Olympic gold medal, and helping with numerous charities, Sports Illustrated made James their Sportsman of the Year (Badenhausen 37). This was a huge honor for James, and will go down as one of the biggest accomplishments for his resume. As well as James does on the court, he is just as good off the court. James started a program named “I Pomise” (Jenkins). This program helps underprivileged children in the Akron area by giving them resources for school and giving them incentives to attend class (Jenkins). Students in the program must complete a camp for being able to join, but after that they are left in good hands. Close to 500 elementary kids are involved with the program (Jenkins). When the students miss class or don’t show up for school, they will receive a supportive message from James encouraging them to get back to school. Vice versa, if a child has great attendance, they will receive a congratulatory voicemail from James applauding there attendance (Jenkins). In addition to James’s I Promise campaign, he also holds an annual Bikeathon in Akron during the

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