LeBron James was in attendance tonight at the Time 100 Sports gala, where he was honored as the ‘Athlete Of The Century’. The 41-year-old addressed the audience with closing remarks at the gala. He decided to go without a script and spoke from his heart.
“First of all, I want to thank Time Magazine for this unbelievable honor. To grace the cover, being a kid from Akron, Ohio, it means a lot to be here celebrating with you, athletes.”
“We can talk about all of your stories and why we’re here, and we know what sports have done for every household. What it does for us, how it brings families together, and the inspiration we continue to give, the generations before us will continue to give to generations after us.”
“I wouldn’t be here; none of us would be here without sports. It’s the number one thing that brings the world together,” said James.
“We remember the pandemic, and everything that was going on during the pandemic. How all of us were just wondering and saying, ‘Can we just get sports back?’ When we get sports back, we know we can bring each other together, and everybody feels so much better about life because of what sports bring.”
“I didn’t put anything on the television board, it only says ‘Toast No. 5: LeBron James.’ So you guys know I’m speaking to you from the heart. This is a true honor for me.”
“My beautiful wife is here, Savannah. My daughter decided she wanted to stay at the hotel with her cousin and just run up the tab. But a shout-out to her.
“And a shout-out to my oldest son, Bronny. We just had the story with DeMar, and all those guys were talking about cardiac arrests and how important that is,” he further added as he opened up on the experience when Bronny James suffered a cardiac arrest in college.
“Our son went through something like that years ago at USC. And obviously, if it wasn’t for the coaching staff and the medical team, everybody at USC being there in a timely fashion, possibly we could have been sitting here without our son, my oldest son. So thank you to everybody for all the efforts, you guys take that seriously.”
“If you’ve got kids in elementary, kids in middle school, high school, or college, make sure they have these devices… I also got a shout-out to my younger son, my twin, who’s at the University of Arizona. I love you as well,” James added.
“I know you guys have been here for a long time, and I know these chairs aren’t comfortable, so I’m going to let you guys out of here. But I just want to say thank you again from the bottom of my heart; it means everything to me.”
“Without sports, I wouldn’t be here, I wouldn’t be able to tell my story. I would not be able to inspire the youth, and inspire everyone, as I did with my journey. And we wouldn’t be sitting in a beautiful room like this, even though the chairs aren’t comfortable. I love you guys, and I will hopefully see you guys soon,” said James in conclusion.
LeBron James is expected to enter his 24th season in the NBA this year. In his first 23 years, he averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in 1,622 regular season games. He shot 50.7% from the field and 34.8% from the three-point range to collect four MVP awards, four Finals MVP awards, and four NBA championships along the way in his career.
He has undoubtedly had the best career overall among any NBA player since he leads in most statistical categories. There is no athlete in this century who comes close to doing what LeBron James has done for the NBA ever since he was drafted in 2003. I have no question that he deserves this award, at least among American athletes.
