LeBron

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There are some ironic limitations in the format of the book centered on how to look at such a storied and lengthy career that isn't even finished. There is a missing element of hindsight due to the fact that we don't even know how his professional career will end and what other great things he will accomplish. This feels like a half biography at this point - extremely impressive especially with all he has already done - but it doesn't do his story justice as readers get cut off at his current age of 38 (unavoidable since they wanted to publish now but leaves a feeling that this will need to be updated if it ever wants to be considered a "complete" story of LeBron later on). Reporter: LeBron, name three things you consider yourself to be good at, and three things you consider yourself to be bad at. There was an innate maturity to him. It exhibited itself, according to LeBron, very early in his life. He moved constantly. Many kids would hate that, and would protest. You also have a kid who didn’t have a father. But his attitude was: this is life and you roll with the punches. I think he had a very mature perspective very early in his life and career, and that gives him the ability to put things into a narrative perspective. With eight straight trips to the NBA Finals, LeBron James has proven himself one of the greatest basketball players of all time. And like Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan before him, LeBron has also become a global brand and businessman who has altered the way professional athletes think about their value, maximize their leverage, and use their voice. Benedict treats his subject well by recounting the major events of his life without engaging in overdrawn speculation and sermonizing.

LeBron James: If I were in desperate need of help I would turn to my wonderful wife who is constantly supportive and talks me through my problems. She has always been there for me since day one standing beside me when I am at my highs and lows. Savannah plays a massive role in my life and is all I could ask for in a wife. The artwork was also beautiful. The children featured were diverse, majority BIPOC, and were a great display of what most kids see regularly in public schools. I also loved the amount of all-girl sports pictures there were. Girl power! The Making of a Billion Dollar Athlete by Brian Windhorst is a book about Lebron James that outlines his life from the age of 16. Interestingly, the book not only talks about his success on the court, but also in the business world that he so greatly invested in.Most often in our business, there are writers and there are reporters, and rarely do the twain meet. In The Dynasty, Jeff Benedict shows he’s masterful at both. His reporting on the very well-worn (trust me) earth of the Patriots’ greatness is groundbreaking, starting with his illumination of the evening in the hospital in 2001 when Drew Bledsoe’s life was in peril and going all the way through to previously unknown details of the emotional play-by-play of Tom Brady’s departure from New England. The imagery and prose are just as strong. Such a great read from Benedict.” LeBron’s basketball skills are not his most impressive attributes. His brilliance, instincts, maturity and discipline all outrank his athleticism. These attributes explain why 20 years into his career, LeBron is still one of the best players in the world.

The book focuses on James' career, but it provides more depth into the business side of his life. Sure, he plays basketball well, but he is also very savvy on selling his image. I thought Benedict did an excellent job in showing how James grew in that realm.I was also fortunate enough to find the Barnes & Nobel virtual story time session in which the illustrator, Nina Mata, narrated. Malta’s illustrations are beautiful, with a diverse representation of children, and sweet images that support the text. Once LeBron retires the empire he has built off the court will take more of a spotlight. He’s at the front of the line to own the NBA expansion team in Las Vegas. Twenty years from now I expect him to own multiple pro franchises and be one of the most powerful moguls in Hollywood. LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger’s “ Shooting Stars” is not just another athlete memoir. James, who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was just seventeen (tagline: “The Chosen One”), had his high-school games nationally televised on ESPN, and was drafted number one out of high school in 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bissinger is a Pulitzer Prize winner whose book “Friday Night Lights” has sold almost two million copies, and has since been made into a film and a TV series.

It was he and his mom throughout out his childhood trying to survive. When he started playing high school basketball, he was fortunate enough to play with some of his closest friends and had wonderful coaches helping him succeed. So I wouldn’t say I know better than Jeff Benedict because I definitely don’t. I don’t know anything about LeBron’s personal life save that he’s a proud husband and father. But I was also disappointed to find that in reading this, I learned little more. I hadn’t read much about his time growing up in Akron; I knew it wasn’t easy but Benedict gives about as full of a picture as possible. Beyond that…meh. Just a whole lot of meh.Where the book fell short for me was when I expected Windhorst to shed even more specifics that may have shed a negative light on James. It felt almost like the info was "approved" by James and company, not the whole truth in these dealings. I guess I hoped for something more honest with even more details. I could be wrong, but it just feels that way. They were excited. Of course, they’d been written about before, but everything had been LeBron-centric. Part of the reason he wanted to do this book was to pay homage to the people who made him who he was, and these kids were an integral part of it. So they were excited to get their due. They weren’t braggarts—there was a humility to them—but they also wanted to say, “hey, we were pretty good ourselves.” I didn’t realize that LeBron has a very small circle of business minded folks he trusts, and he has been with them for a while.