Le Batard & Friends Presents: The Step Back

LeBron's final basketball destination is upon us. But what is he still playing for? How can The Kid From Akron top off the legacy of playing with his own son? What dream can he manifest in "retirement"? And how's Ohio doing? In the season finale of The Step Back, Dan, Amin and Izzy call upon a genius to finish constructing the architecture of affection — or at least appreciation.

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LeBron James didn't just become the most famous athlete on Earth — he became one of its most careful, and occasionally most explosive, political voices. In the most contentious episode of our LeBron series, Dan, Amin and Izzy trace the moments that turned a basketball player into a lightning rod:

The Trayvon Martin hoodie photo — and Dan's own take on it at the time, warts and all. The killing of Tamir Rice, and the "I Can't Breathe" shirt that, in the moment, didn't include his name. The ESPYs speech. The White House years, plural. The Bubble. And the legacy that's still being argued over, for better or worse.

With firsthand memories from Jemele Hill and Cari Champion, plus a LeBron teammate history conveniently forgot.

Homework for this episode:

• "Reaction to tragic killing shows growth of LeBron" (The Miami Herald, 2012)

• "Kevin Durant x LeBron James x Cari Champion" (Uninterrupted, 2018)

• "Trump Attacked Black Athletes — and Paid for It in the End" (The Atlantic, 2020)

• "LeBron James Doesn’t Talk About Politics Anymore" (New York, 2022)

Encouraged homework for next week's season finale:

• "There's Always This Year" by Hanif Abdurraqib (2025)

More from "The Step Back":

• Episode 1: The Chosen One (feat. Sonny Vaccaro)

• Episode 2: The Decision (feat. Jim Gray)

• Episode 3: I'm Coming Home (feat. Iman Shumpert)

• Episode 4: LeBron Inc. (feat. Pablo Torre)

• Don't miss an episode — subscribe here

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The Step Back is back — and this time, it's personal. Or at least, it's financial.

After a brief hiatus, Dan, Amin, and Izzy return with Pablo Torre to dig into his landmark 2017 ESPN feature on LeBron James — not the player chasing rings, but the architect quietly building an empire. What Phil Jackson famously dismissed as a "posse" — a word that told you everything about who was really threatened — turns out to have been a boardroom in disguise. Maverick Carter, Rich Paul, Randy Mims: ridiculed first, respected later, inevitable in hindsight.

This is the episode where The Step Back steps sideways — from flashpoints to foresight — to ask how a kid from Akron turned loyalty into leverage, and a group of friends into a seat at the table that nobody wanted to give them.

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Dan, Amin and Izzy go behind the scenes of LeBron's loyalty, from Pat Riley's frustration to LeBron's Vegas hotel room and the Cavs' huddle in Game Seven.

More from "The Step Back":

Homework for this episode:

"I'm Coming Home" by LeBron James, as told to Lee Jenkins (Sports Illustrated, 2014) - https://www.si.com/nba/2014/07/11/lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers

"Return of the King" by Brian Windhorst and Dave McMenamin (2018) - https://bookshop.org/p/books/return-of-the-king-lebron-james-the-cleveland-cavaliers-and-the-greatest-comeback-in-nba-history-brian-windhorst/9390251

Homework for next week's episode:

"LeBron: The Sequel" by Pablo Torre (ESPN The Magazine, 2017) - https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18686205/the-second-chapter-lebron-james-career

Optional homework for next week's episode:

"LeBron, Inc." by Brian Windhorst (2018). - https://bookshop.org/p/books/lebron-inc-the-making-of-a-billion-dollar-athlete-brian-windhorst/7395291

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As our exclusive new series on LeBron's legacy continues, Dan, Amin and Izzy re-live the awkward silence — and alternate history — of a made-for-TV moment that altered the course of Miami sports and player empowerment forever.

More from "The Step Back":

Homework for this episode:

Homework for next week's episode:

Optional homework for next week's episode:

Encouraged homework for next month's season finale:

From our guest:

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In the season premiere, Dan, Amin, and Izzy go back to the Sports Illustrated cover that turned a teenager into an industry, re-reading the prophecy with the very people who helped craft it. Plus: a resplendent Sonny Vaccaro joins us to re-live his failed $100 million offer to bring The Kid from Akron to Adidas. All that AND real talk about LeBron's untold origin story.

Homework for this episode:

• "Ahead of His Class" by Grant Wahl (Sports Illustrated, 2002)

https://vault.si.com/vault/2002/02/18/ahead-of-his-class-ohio-high-school-junior-lebron-james-is-so-good-that-hes-already-being-mentioned-as-the-heir-to-air-jordan

Homework for the next week's episode:

• "The Decision" (ESPN, 2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afpgnb_9bA4

From our guest:

• "Legends and Soles: The Memoir of an American Original" by Sonny Vaccaro with Armen Keteyian

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/legends-and-soles-sonny-vaccaroarmen-keteyian

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