Before becoming the current king of basketball, King James honored his mother’s sacrifice more than 10 years ago: “She is the absolute champion in my heart.”
For the Shriver Report’s special series “A Nation of Women Pushing Back from the Brink,” LeBron James wrote a sympathetic essay that examines the precarious financial situation of American women, particularly the one in three who are on the brink of destitution. .
“I’m honored to be part of a project that helps single mothers who are struggling to earn a living and raise their children, because that describes my mother perfectly,” James said when I grow up. “Do you think that LeBron James is a champion? Gloria James is also a champion.
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At the age of sixteen, Gloria became LeBron’s mother and began living with her biological mother in Akron, Ohio. Their home was lost when James was just three years old, when his grandmother died suddenly of a heart attack.
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We moved a total of 12 times in three years. It’s frightening. It’s surviving by catching everything that can be caught. My mother struggled to make ends meet by working wherever she could find work. Despite the above, I am sure of one thing: my mother is there to give me comfort and security. She is everything for me; she is my father and my mother. She puts me first above all else. Whatever the circumstances, I quickly realized that she appreciated me above all else. Even though I didn’t bring much, I never felt unimportant or unloved for even a second.
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Finally, at the age of nine, my mother made a lot of sacrifices. As she sought to regain her footing, she determined that I needed some stability in my life. I needed to stay in one place and have the security and support she had received growing up in a large family. As a result, she left me in the care of the family of my junior football coach, “Big Frankie” Walker. “Even though it was hard, I knew it wasn’t about me,” she told me later. This concerns you. “I have to make you a priority.”
Visit The Shriver Report to read the rest of James’ essay and see additional contributions from celebrities like Beyoncé and Eva Longoria.