📍Akron, Ohio, USA
1984 – 2003“LeBron James was born in Akron, Ohio, on 30 December 1984, when his mother, Gloria, was sixteen. For his first few years they lived with four generations of the family in a big old house on Hickory Street, a dirt road lined with oak trees and railway tracks near downtown Akron, a rubber-industry city in north-east Ohio. When LeBron was three, his grandmother, Freda, who had held the household together, died suddenly, and the family could no longer afford the house. What followed was years of instability: by the time he was five, he and his mother had moved seven times, often sleeping on friends' sofas in Akron's poorer neighbourhoods and housing projects. In fourth grade he missed more than eighty days of school. His mother made the painful decision to let him live with the family of Frank Walker, a local youth football coach, who gave him stability, chores and structure, and introduced him to basketball. The next year, he didn't miss a single day of school. LeBron has always said his mother did everything she could, and they remain extremely close. In Akron's youth leagues he formed a tight group of friends, Sian Cotton, Dru Joyce III and Willie McGee, who played together on travelling teams and then all went to St Vincent-St Mary High School together. Their story became the documentary More Than a Game. In 2003 he was drafted straight from high school by the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he became one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He has given back enormously to Akron, opening the I Promise School in 2018 for the city's struggling children.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today