Entertainers of the Year: LeBron James

by Julian Spivey

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Even at the age of 36 Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James is still arguably the best active player in the NBA – ESPN ranked him as such just a couple of weeks ago before the start of the 2020-2021 NBA season. That’s remarkable. Only Michael Jordan could compete with that this far into a career, and James has already played almost 200 more games at this point than M.J. did in his entire career.
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Not only is James still dominant on the basketball court, having just led the Lakers (the third team he’s won a championship with) to their first NBA title in more than a decade in October as part of the longest season in NBA history when you factor in the four-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but he’s just as important to American culture and society off the court as he is on it through his philanthropy and his willingness to speak out and stand up against inequalities in this country.

In 2018, LBJ’s I Promise School opened in his hometown of Akron, Ohio specifically aimed at at-risk children. Free tuition to the University of Akron is given to every graduating student of the school, which is currently for third and fourth grade students, but will be first through eighth grade by 2022, provided they graduate high school with a 3.0 GPA. The New York Times reported that roughly 90 percent of the school’s inaugural 240 students either met or exceeded their expected learning goals in both math and reading, making it the most successful school in its district.

In addition to helping the young children of his community, James has been a leader in the NBA when it comes to civil rights and inequalities in this country speaking out about such topics as police brutality with him speaking out against the killings of Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake and others in 2020 and encouraging African-Americans to get out and vote in the 2020 Presidential election.

LeBron James has proven to be one of the greatest basketball players of all-time and has shown he’s a pillar of his community off the court, as well. That is why he’s one of The Word’s Entertainers of the Year for 2020.