LeBron's dream day features Michael Jordan hug, game-winning shot

By Melissa Rohlin
FOX Sports NBA Writer

CLEVELAND — A kid from Akron.

It's a phrase LeBron James constantly repeats. It's a reality he clings to as both a scarlet letter and a badge of honor after being poised to become a statistic and instead turning himself into one of the great success stories.

A kid from Akron.

Those are the four words James tweets whenever he makes a superhuman play or obliterates another NBA record. He utters them in news conferences. It's his motto, his identity.

On Sunday, the boy from Akron returned home, playing in his 18th NBA All-Star Game. The event was held at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, 35 miles from where James grew up.

And fittingly, he hit the game-winner, a 17-foot fadeaway jumper to lift his team to a 163-160 win over Team Durant, winning $450,000 for the Kent State I Promise Scholars Program.

"I couldn't have dreamt it," said James, who had 24 points, eight assists and six rebounds. "I could not have dreamed of that moment any better than the actuality that just happened."

James was 12 when the All-Star game was last in Cleveland in 1997. He didn't have the means to attend it. On TV, he watched rookie Kobe Bryant win the slam dunk competition and Michael Jordan become the first player to score a triple-double in the game. He dreamed that one day that could be him.

Twenty-five years later, his name was called alongside theirs as the Top 75 players in NBA history were honored at halftime for the league's three-quarter-century anniversary.

James and Jordan exchanged a prolonged hug in a moment that celebrated arguably the two greatest players of all time. For James, it was deeply special, especially considering that throughout his youth, he wanted to emulate the way Jordan played and dressed and even the car he drove.

"I did not want to lose the opportunity to shake the man's hand that inspired me throughout my childhood," James said. "I haven't had much dialogue with him in my 20 years or 19 years in this business, but part of me wouldn't be here without MJ’s inspiration. I always wanted to be like him growing up. It's crazy that the game-winning shot tonight was a fadeaway, and it was inspired by MJ."

The game belonged to James before it even began.

When his name was called last during starting lineups, he raised his arms in the air, titled his head back and roared as the crowd welcomed back their hero, whose impact extends worldwide but especially in the state where he was born and raised.

In 2016, James won the Cavaliers their first NBA championship. He took them to the Finals in four straight seasons. He put them on the map.

But his impact off the court has been even greater.

James founded an I Promise movement, which includes a school for underprivileged youth in Akron, a village to provide temporary housing for students and their families, a separate 50-unit apartment for longer-term housing and a community center called Thirty Five Rhodes.

James knows what it's like to fall through the cracks, and he wants to help others in his hometown in similar situations.

In short: He was raised by a single mother, Gloria, who gave birth to him at 16. He moved 12 times between the ages of 5 and 8. He missed more than 100 days of school in fourth grade.

But as much as that traumatized James, it also made him the man he is today.

It's why when he poses for a photo next to Tom Brady or when Sprite makes a LeBron James flavor or when he wins a championship, LeBron posts on social media about being "a kid from Akron."

After Sunday's game, he explained what that phrase means to him.

"We are a group of young men who always felt like we was looked over because of the popularity and notoriety that cities like Cleveland and Columbus and Dayton — and Canton even gets mentioned because of the Pro Football Hall of Fame — and Cincinnati gets mentioned. We always felt like we were the fly-over city," James said.

"I just remind myself and remind my following and the group of fans and the people that follow my journey that I'm a kid from Akron, or one of the kids from Akron that has made it, and [I'm] trying to make it possible for the next kid from Akron."

For James, the whole weekend was a much-needed respite from the stresses of the Lakers' season.

His star-studded team with four future Hall of Famers has floundered, sitting ninth in the Western Conference with a record of 27-31.

There has been nonstop drama. Will Frank Vogel get fired? Will Russell Westbrook get traded? Could Anthony Davis eventually be on the trading block? James has missed 17 games mainly due to an abdominal injury. Davis has missed more than 20 and just suffered a mid-foot sprain that will sideline him at least four weeks.

But this weekend in Cleveland, James got a break from all that. He spent time with his closest friends from St. Vincent-St. Mary High. He cheered on his mother as she held a fashion show at Cleveland's State Theatre to celebrate Black designers and bring attention to social justice initiatives.

He also planted a few seeds of controversy, on his terms.

In an interview with The Athletic, he said the door isn't closed on him returning to Cleveland, adding that he intends to play his final season alongside his son, Bronny, wherever he gets drafted.

He also used a question in Saturday's news conference about Oklahoma City Thunder guard Josh Giddey as an opportunity to heap praise on general manager Sam Presti, which many interpreted as a slight to Lakers GM Rob Pelinka, who stood pat at the trade deadline.

During a weekend when the greatest players of all time descended upon his city, James was the talk of the town. But this time, he was controlling the narrative.

And the weekend ended his way as well. Even though Steph Curry won MVP of the All-Star Game after setting a 3-point record with 16 in a 50-point performance, it was James who took the final bow.

With Team LeBron up 161-160 and the first team to 163 points getting the win, it was James who took the final shot. He wanted to win money for his charity. He wanted to do it in his hometown, in front of his people.

And when the game was on the line, no one questioned who should have the ball in his hands.

A kid from Akron.

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.