num_pages: 172
description: He has been called the best high school basketball playerever. He was the no-doubt-about-it number-one pick in the 2003 NBA draft asa high school senior. He had already been featured on the cover of SportsIllustrated as a junior. He was touted wildly on national TV by basketballexperts like Dick Vitale and Bill Walton. He signed a $90 millionpromotional contract with Nike. Why the big fuss over LeBron James? The odds were against LeBron from the start. Born in poverty to a16-year-old single mom, without a father, raised only with the help ofvarious family and neighbors . . . he could have become just one morescarred product of a rough childhood in the projects. Instead, he s the darling of the sports world and he plays the part well.Sportswriter David Lee Morgan has covered the LeBron phenomenon for theAkron Beacon Journal since LeBron s freshman year and has had unequaledaccess to LeBron, his family, and his close friends. He s seen theexceptional play on the basketball court. But he s also seen the surprisingpoise with which LeBron has handled the pressure, the scrutiny, thecriticism that arrived with the early onset of fame. He has also watched, up close, the incredible circus-like atmosphere thathas descended on this special kid from a small high school in Akron, Ohio. In this book, Morgan takes an inside look at the rise of sport s hottestyoung prospect, now poised at the brink of superstardom.
language: English
title: LeBron James: The Rise of a Star
titlecomplete: LeBron James: The Rise of a Star
genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Sports
ratings_count: 450
publisher: Turtleback Books