LeBron James is a man of many talents. The Los Angeles Lakers forward is trying to lead his NBA franchise through the first round of the NBA Playoffs despite being 41 years old and in his 23rd NBA season. But he has many interests outside basketball that are very well-known.
His exploits in the business world made him the first active NBA player to become a billionaire, while he’s also had success as a philanthropist with the ‘I Promise Foundation.’ But before LeBron James was any of that, he was just a high school student who watched the 1972 movie ‘The Godfather’ and fell in love with it.
In a conversation with ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, LeBron revealed that he once met Godfather actor Al Pacino by chance while hanging out with Leonardo DiCaprio. James’ love for the movie has been well-known for years, so McMenamin got James to open up deeply about his love for the movie and his encounter with Pacino.
Dave McMenamin: “Obviously, ‘The Godfather’ is your favorite movie.”
LeBron James: “That’s all I was talking about (to Pacino). He couldn’t believe how much I knew the movie. I was taking him back to stuff that he probably forgot about. Obviously, he’s done about a f—ing billion movies. But he was super surprised that I knew that much about those movies. That was a really cool moment for me.”
Dave McMenamin: “Do you get starstruck? Especially to meet someone whose work was so meaningful to you?”
LeBron James: “Starstruck, nah. But, f—, [Pacino] is one of the greatest actors of all time. Both of them, him and Leo. And Michael Corleone is one of my favorite characters of all time, in movie history. So to be able to have that moment, it was another, ‘I’m from Akron, Ohio,’ moment. Like, I’m from Akron, Ohio, how am I in a room with two of the greatest that have ever been on a movie screen?
James also opened up on how the first time he watched the movie was when he was still in high school, and how the family dynamics of the movie, outside of the mob violence, is what attracted him to the movie. He also revealed how his appreciation for the movie has grown now that he is the head of his own family.
“One, I love mob movies. I’m a big-time mob movie guy. There are a few of them that I’m in love with. But also, I don’t think people talk about the level of family and what you would do for your family.”
“That movie obviously is told as a mob movie, that’s the scene behind it, but the dynamics of good, bad that you have to deal with in your family and protecting your family; interaction with your family; how your family is raised; disappointment in your family, at times.”
“There’s so many gems in that movie, and I pick up one every single time I watch the movie. I’ve watched it dozens of times, dozens. My first time watching it, I was maybe 17, 18. High school.”
“As I watched it as I got older, I found parallels to my life in the fact that I happen to be the head honcho of a family and everything that comes with that. And it’s a lot. It’s hard. It’s hard when everybody is expecting or wanting. You have to be everything for the family. It’s a lot of pressure that comes with that. So, I found parallels to that. I have the book. I own a beautiful jukebox where you turn the reel, and it plays the theme song of ‘The Godfather.’ I love it.”
James famously claimed that he watched ‘The Godfather’ six times during his run to the 2016 NBA Championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Another notable moment related to the movie and LeBron is the time he was mocked heavily by fans for espousing his love for the movie while declining to share his favorite line from the movie with no examples.
It’s hard to say that LeBron is pretending to have watched the Francis Ford Coppola-directed masterpiece when he keeps claiming it’s his favorite movie.
His love for the mob genre was well-known enough in 2011 that the New York Knicks hired actors James Gandolfini and Edie Falco from the iconic TV show ‘The Sopranos’ to act out a scene as part of a recruitment pitch for James. The show had been off the air for four years by that point, so it shows how deep they went to try to appeal to something James would like enough to then join the franchise.
It might be the perfect time to watch The Godfather once again, as LeBron James prepares for a crucial Game 6 against the Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. James has averaged 22.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 8.4 assists through five games. This is a remarkable feat, but it might turn into the biggest stain of his career if the Lakers become the first team in NBA history to blow a 3-0 series lead.
