Diving into the life of one of greatest athletes the world has ever seen, LeBron James, from Jeff Benedict's book: LeBron

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1:00 - LeBron's upbringing

When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly… 

5:15 - The advice that shaped how LeBron played the game

Lebron paid attention whenever his coach wanted to talk shop about basketball. On this occasion, coach Dru encouraged him to integrate his teammates into the offense. “Bron, if you pass the ball, everyone is going to want to play with you.” Lebrons seized that last part of the sentence–everyone is going to want to play with you…For a kid who has spent so much time alone, there was nothing Lebron wanted more than to be wanted.

6:00 - The Dream

In school, when his teacher passed out a blank note card at the beginning of the year and instructed the students to write down three things they wanted to be when they grew up, Lebron wrote,

NBA Player

NBA Player

NBA Player

8:45 - Make it visible

The last thing he saw before going to sleep each night and the first thing he saw when he woke up each morning were images of Michael Jordan looking down on him from the walls of his bedroom. To Lebron, Jordan was the ultimate athlete. 

10:10 - T-Mac's Advice

When you get on the court, you have no friends. No matter who you’re playing, you gotta kill’em.

15:00 - Playing philosophy

I go for the winning play. The winning play when two guys come at you and a teammate is open is to give it up. It’s as simple as that.

18:25 - The Decision

The world’s most celebrated basketball player couldn’t foresee that by the end of the night he would be the most hated athlete in all of sports.

23:00- Proving vs Improvement

I lost touch with who I was as a basketball player and a person. I got caught up in everything that was going on around me, and I felt like I had to prove something to people, and I don’t know why. Everything was tight, stressed.

23:50 - Losing is Winning

The best thing that happened to me last year was us losing the Finals. It humbled me…I knew I was going to have to change as a basketball player and I was going to have to change as a person. 

29:10 - Make It Visible 

A excerpt on LeBron from my book, Chasing Greatness: Timeless Stories on the Pursuit of Excellence