Consider the tale of the wunderking. A certain youth is born in a depressed land. A unique talent is discovered within him. Expectation was thus heaped on the prodigy to deliver salvation to his fallen kingdom. Yet for all his good deeds, conquest remained elusive. Hurt, the titan fled to an exotic land, to the betrayal of his homeland. But as in all the great stories of redemption, the prodigal son returned home. Against all odds, on the brink of catastrophe in a great battle, he led his people to royal glory. Now himself a wizened sage, he continues his wanderlust into a desert in the latter years, joining a pantheon in a niche worthy of his name: King James.
This “myth” is, of course, the story of LeBron James, claimant to four NBA titles (and named MVP in each one), with untold number of feats and laurels surrounding his kingship. Now in his 21st season of professional basketball, he continues to dominate at the highest level of competition; his reign has outlasted the tenure of most monarchs. At 39 years old, he is of the age when basketball god Michael Jordan cloaked his divinity in the guise of an old Wizard, in 2002; Jordan retired at 40 in 2003.
James spent his regency years in Akron, forty miles directly south of the windswept metropolis of Cleveland, where he played his first professional game for the Cavaliers, scoring 25 points. He was two months shy of his 19th birthday.
Those who have followed LeBron’s career have seen him mature in public, oftentimes enduring intense criticism. When LeBron chose to leave Cleveland in 2010 after seven years and no championship to join the Miami Heat, he became the subject of much hostility. Clevelanders and Northeast Ohio fans felt betrayed. Spending the next four seasons and winning two titles in Miami, LeBron would later liken that timeframe to four years of college.
In 2014, remarkably, LeBron returned home. He announced he would be returning as a Cavalier in an essay published in Sports Illustrated, “I’m Coming Home.” “I started thinking about what it would be like to raise my family in my hometown,” he wrote.
Two years later, the long sought-for championship LeBron vowed to bring home was secured. Against the nearly unbeatable Golden State Warriors, LeBron and the Cavaliers were down 3 games to 1 in the NBA Finals. It was a scenario no team had ever overcome. Until LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers.
When the buzzer finally sounded over a stunned and silent crowd at the Oracle Arena in Golden State, the only jubilation came from the unlikely underdogs from the Rust Belt. Amid the moment of triumph, LeBron had collapsed to his knees, weeping in joy. He not only fulfilled what he set out to do as a professional athlete, but he gave the people who watched him grow up what they never thought possible before: a championship.
“I don’t know why the Man above gives me the hardest road,” he said in the aftermath of victory, “but the Man above doesn’t put you in situations you can’t handle,” he added, referencing 1 Corinthians 10:13.
In what almost became a foregone conclusion, LeBron led his teams to eight straight Finals, winning three.
For the 2018–2019 season, worlds away from the nail-biting rookie 15 years earlier, James donned the purple and gold of the Los Angeles Lakers, no strangers to their own string of legends and championships.
LeBron came from a town of little hope, but he seized the hope that was there and rebuilt it so that little kids on the local court pretending to be the great LeBron James powering over opponents or netting a three pointer could now inherently possess the belief they, too, can do anything. Just like their hero.
Magic Johnson, LeBron’s boss during his first year as a Laker, once said, “Even on the playground, I never picked the best players. I picked guys with less talent, but who had the desire to work hard. Who had the desire to be great.” The talent the Lakers secured with the presence of LeBron meant a culture of making people around him better than what they they might otherwise allow themselves to believe. That is the heart of a champion.
Even in LeBron’s own name there evokes a sense of the mythic, the very name Bron. Bron was the brother-in-law of Biblical figure Joseph of Arimathea, purportedly the first protector of the Holy Grail, according to apocryphal texts. Joseph passes the Grail on to Bron, who safeguards the relic, becoming Britain’s first Grail King.
What is the Grail in our lives but that which is out of reach? That which desires to be found? Myths continue to be woven right in front of us. With convenience and knowledge and artificial intelligence readily available to do our own bidding, if not dreaming, we are yet in danger of overlooking the metaphysical dimension myth offers in favor of merely the tangible alone.
LeBron’s career in the face of criticism, comparison, and against his own disappointments reveal the mythic element of the quest. A quest is a journey where the outcome is unknown, with obstacles and dangers to be encountered along the way. There very well will be suffering, not unlike what the hobbits experienced in Tolkien. It is a physical journey that forces meditative questions on how well one knows one’s very self. T.S. Eliot, who himself journeyed into Arthurian Romances with his poem “The Waste Land,” famously remarked, “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
LeBron James experienced all this upon his return to home in 2014 and subsequent conquest for his homeland. He now presides out west as the successor in a forum of legendary Grail Kings, tempting the west coast disenchanted that there are indeed still heroes among us, particularly after the death of their beloved own, Kobe Bryant, in 2020.
We can learn much from this living myth before us in these remaining years he graces his court. He can inspire within our own selves the inherent human desire to quest, quixotic or otherwise. Even those with no patience for basketball will find undeniable beauty in watching how blessed talent can single-handedly morph mere knights into Grail guardians, if not kings. Rise and rise again, King James summons, until lambs become lions.
