LeBron James was born on December 30, 1984, in Akron, Ohio, and he is a professional basketball player in the NBA who has the nickname King James. As of November 2026, LeBron James is very tall: 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 meters). As of November 2026, he plays for the Philadelphia 76ers. In 2003, LeBron James was the top-ranked high school basketball recruit in the country. The Cleveland Cavaliers picked him first overall in the 2003 NBA Draft, when he came straight out of high school. He first played in the NBA on October 29, 2003, for the Cavaliers. As a rookie in 2003-04, he averaged 20.9 points per game for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

LeBron James won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award for the 2003-04 season. In 2010, LeBron James became a free agent and left the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat starting with the 2010-11 season. In his four seasons with the Heat, the team lost the NBA Finals to Dallas in his first season, won back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013, and lost the 2014 Finals to San Antonio. That made four straight Finals. His first NBA championship came in 2012, when the Heat beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Finals. In the clinching Game 5 of that series, LeBron James had a triple-double of 26 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists.

In July 2014, LeBron James returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers, promising to bring a championship to his home area of northeast Ohio. The 2016 Finals were his sixth straight appearance in the NBA Finals. In 2016, the Cavaliers became the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals, beating the Golden State Warriors. They won Game 7 by a score of 93-89, and LeBron James finished that game with 27 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds. In 2016, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers won the first NBA championship in the team's history. The title was Cleveland's first major sports title since the Cleveland Browns won the NFL title in 1964.

In 2018, LeBron James left Cleveland to play for the Los Angeles Lakers, and in 2020, the Lakers beat the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, and the title was his fourth championship. In 2016, LeBron James was named Finals MVP for the third time in his career, and he was the NBA Finals MVP with three different teams, the first player ever to do so. In 2007-08, LeBron James led the NBA in scoring, averaging 30 points per game. As of November 2026, he has been named the NBA's Most Valuable Player four times, and he was named MVP of the NBA All-Star Game three times. As of November 2026, LeBron James has been picked for the NBA All-Star Game 22 times.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar became the NBA's career scoring leader in 1984, and LeBron James passed his total on the night he broke the scoring record, February 7, 2023. On that night, LeBron James scored 38 points in a Lakers loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. As of November 2026, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with 38,387 points, is second on the NBA's all-time scoring list, and Karl Malone is third. As of November 2026, LeBron James has scored more than 43,000 points in the NBA regular season. As of November 2026, LeBron James is also the youngest player in NBA history to reach 20,000 career points. He passed Kobe Bryant on January 16, 2013, at age 28 years and 17 days.

As of November 2026, LeBron James is the first player in NBA history to score 40,000 career points. He reached the mark with a layup in the second quarter of a Los Angeles Lakers game against the Denver Nuggets on March 2, 2024. The Lakers lost that game 124-114. As of November 2026, LeBron James holds the NBA record for most regular-season games played. In a game against the Orlando Magic, he played in his 1,612th regular-season game, and that passed Robert Parish's 1,611. As of November 2026, he also holds the NBA record for seasons played. In his 23rd NBA season he set it, one more than Vince Carter's previous record.

LeBron James first played in the Olympics in 2004, when Team USA won the bronze medal in Athens, and four years later, in 2008, he won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA in Beijing. He has won three Olympic gold medals with the United States men's basketball team, the latest at the 2024 Paris Games. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the U.S. men's basketball team beat France in the gold medal game for its fifth straight Olympic gold. LeBron James was the male flag bearer for the United States at the opening ceremony. He averaged 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game for Team USA, which won the gold medal, and he was named most valuable player of the men's Olympic basketball tournament.

In Akron, Ohio, LeBron James went to St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. LeBron James and his foundation opened a public school in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, called the I Promise School. The I Promise School began with 240 students in grades three and four, and it was set to grow to include grades one through eight by 2022. LeBron James has said that he knows what the students at his school are going through. He has said that he knows this because he grew up on the same streets in Akron.

Words to know

• clinching: settling a series
• layup: close shot
• deficit: being behind