LeBron Before He Became LeBron: CLE Sunday Read

LeBron James is not coming back. That was my headline for the story that broke Friday afternoon.

I know you want to be mad. But I am not sure we need to be. It would have been a cool story, no doubt. I have said in this space before that one of the first things I learned when I moved to Akron in 2000 was the story of a freshman basketball player at St. Vincent-St. Mary.

But the Cavaliers roster is not built like a lot around the league and I am not sure how all the moving parts work now, let alone if LeBron would have joined the mix. So let him go to Philadelphia to see if he can win his fifth title and end that city's long NBA title drought. 

The Cavaliers can focus on being a better team. That has been their problem the past three playoff runs. Fix that.

But back to LeBron. No matter what you think of him right now. He is the greatest champion of this city, one of the greatest NBA players in history and a true legend to the city of Akron.

So I thought I would pull one of the first stories this magazine wrote about LeBron from 2006. He was 22 and just stepping into the global celebrity stratosphere.

— Ron Ledgard, Managing Editor

Let us know what you think about these stories at conversation@clevelandmagazine.com

Sports: Planet LeBron

By Colleen Smitek

LeBron James has a weak handshake. Close your eyes, and you can almost imagine someone soft on the other end. Light and quick. Our palms do not touch. This is not the handshake one expects from 240 pounds of muscle. Nor is it the confident greeting of someone who aspires to be the wealthiest man in the world.

The mind races. Perhaps he’s sick of people joking about how big his hands are. Perhaps he doesn’t want to crush less powerful appendages. Perhaps he’s weary of reporters like me analyzing his every move. This shake is perfunctory — a stopover between practice at The Q and a 20-minute flight to Columbus to tape a segment on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

While waiting to interview LeBron, I chat up Brian Windhorst, an Akron Beacon Journal reporter who has been covering James since he was a 14-year-old phenom. He asks what I’m doing. I tell him I’ve been promised 10 to 15 minutes to interview LeBron.

“Congratulations!” he almost shouts. “He usually doesn’t give a crap about anybody who’s not national.”

Read the full story at clevelandmagazine.com.