LeBron James Cleveland Cavs may not be favored to win the NBA championship against the Golden State Warriors this season, but his popularity is at an all-time high because of his dominant playoff run. Even in struggle, he has epitomized relentless effort and greatness, and gained himself more adulation and respect from basketball fans.
The magnificence of James NBA journey is one for the ages. He really has nothing else to prove in a career that has elevated him to Top 5 dead or alive status. Reflection on Bron’s incomparable career is really the theme at this point, even as he embarks on his eighth straight NBA Finals, this time as an underdog.
James new Nike commercial sums up everything the basketball world has come to understand about the freak of nature from Akron, Ohio who was anointed “Chosen 1” long before he stormed the NBA straight out of high school and revolutionized the game.
LeBron James – The Tattoo
It’s one thing to put words on your back. It’s another thing to live up to them. #alwaysbelieve #nike
The commercial takes us back to Las Vegas in 2002, when a high school kid from St.Vincent-St.Mary in Akron, Ohio is deciding to get inked.
He hands the tattoo artist a piece of paper containing what he wants. The artist is initially confused when he glances at the proposed artwork and asks the teen if this is what he really wants. The kid replies Yes sir.
The phrase Chosen 1, was the same one used for a 2002 Sports Illustrated cover when James was being billed as the greatest prep basketball talent since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
“I was worried, that we were going to ruin the kids life by putting him on the cover,” SI writer Grant Wahl, who wrote the story on James, told Jesse Washington of ESPN back in 2017. “Its one thing to do a feature on somebody inside the mag. But when you put a young kid on the cover and proclaim him The Chosen One maybe ruin his life is a little strong, but it took things to such a level that I felt like his life was not going to be the same after that. The pressure would get a lot higher.”
Fast forward 16 years, four MVP awards, four Finals MVP awards, 3 NBA Championships, and 31,038 points later and James is regarded as the standard of excellence for NBA supremacy, therefore the commercial play out like a scene from a true bio-pic rather than a marketing tool to sell Nike sneakers.
