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LeBron James, cycling superstar? He is, perhaps, in the eyes of kids at that much-discussed Akron school for at-risk students the NBA star opened last week. Each student, in addition to tuition-free education in a state-of-the-art public school facility, also gets a bike, in a more than symbolic nod to James’s association of his own childhood bike with the freedom it afforded him.
Other atypical benefits to students at the I Promise School and their families: an on-site food bank and a scholarship to the University of Akron upon high-school graduation if certain criteria are met. (The Cleveland Plain-Dealer has estimated that the Akron public-school system will pick up half to three-quarters of the tab for the school’s ongoing operations.)
The bike he had as a kid, James has recalled, allowed him to safely navigate and explore his eastern Ohio hometown, and to stay focused on basketball.
In an interview last week with the Wall Street Journal (conducted by the paper’s Jason Gay just hours before President Trump’s striking tweet about James, fellow basketball legend Michael Jordan and CNN’s Don Lemon), James expressed the centrality of cycling to his formative years in Akron:
‘A bicycle, for me, was the only way to get around the city. If I wanted to meet some of my friends, travel across the city, go to school, play basketball — anything — the bicycle was the way I got around.’
And his devotion to biking did not end at adulthood. He’s been spotted biking to games and has for years run a bike-a-thon for Akron youth. He even participated in Critical Mass political demonstration rides, alongside then-teammate Dwyane Wade, in Miami. (The Journal’s Gay expresses particular appreciation that James is aware Critical Mass rides take place on the last Friday evening of each month in hundreds of cities around the world.)
When James opted this summer to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for a second time and sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, he sent a letter to incoming students and their families saying that, “like you, I’m just a kid from Akron. And no matter where I work, that will never change. Akron will always be home.”