Kelker was the first reliable male figure Lebron had ever come across. Long before he tattooed Chosen 1 across his back, James was in fact indistinguishable from so many other lost kids in Akron: "Bron Bron," by turns scared and listless, a lonely boy raised on welfare who sketched hundreds of logos of the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Lakers into his notebook. Kelker became an influential figure in the young boy’s life and set LeBron on the path to athletic stardom. LeBron James is a rare talent. Then, on Christmas Day in 1987, Freda died suddenly of a heart attack, and all family stability disintegrated. The Chosen One è un grande libro. "You could see his skills getting better at Frank's house literally every day," Kelker says. #JustMyOpinion A native of Akron, Ohio, James moved around the projects a lot as a child and, as a result, missed almost 100 days of school as a fourth-grader. She considered sending James away to stay with relatives in Youngstown or even New York so he wouldn't have to stay on couches with her, but another youth football coach made a better offer. ... Bruce Kelker, Willie Earl, @CoachDambrot @CoachDruJoyce I wouldn't be the player/man I am today! Instead, he tells them about fourth grade. How LeBron James' life changed in fourth grade - ESPN The … Even in the fall of 1993, during the months in which he lived with Kelker, he continued to miss school, at first not sure which one to attend, then uncertain about where to catch the bus, Kelker says. As a kid… — LeBron James (@KingJames) March 27, 2017. they showed toughness and stayed on me every single day! That way Gloria could stay with a friend and still see her son on weekends, and the East Dragons could keep their best player. "You can share the couch," Reaves told them, and so began a nomadic six years for a mother and son who were both trying to grow up at the same time. HE BEGAN THAT fourth-grade school year the same way he had begun so many others: sleeping on a couch in a one-bedroom apartment that belonged to another of his mother's friends, where parties continued late into the night and police were sometimes called to investigate noise violations. The 10-year-old LeBron posed in a blue Hornets shirt, with mother Gloria behind him. It wasn't until Lebron was asked by Coach Bruce Kelker to play on his 10 year old football team, that James experienced his first real family. After that, the pieces of LeBron's chaotic life slowly began to congeal. Never sugar coded nothing, told me to real and lit me up when I wasn't applying…. He already had a live-in girlfriend, Kelker said; he promised Gloria that his only interest was in helping take care of her son. "Fastest one is my running back," he told them. AFTER ANOTHER FEW months, late in the fall of '93, it was time to move again. Man if it wasn't for Big Frank, Bruce Kelker, Willie Earl, @CoachDambrot @CoachDruJoyce I wouldn't be the player/man I am today! As a kid... — LeBron James (@KingJames) March 27, 2017. Kelker and Walker helped grow LeBron into an outstanding athlete. But to spend time in Akron today, and to talk to those who witnessed that year, is to realize that LeBron's version of the story does no justice to the reality of 1993 and early 1994. He signed up James to play for a 9-year-old team and enlisted him as an assistant coach for 8-year-olds, believing that coaching would accelerate his basketball learning curve. It’s coaches like Kelker who largely go … — LeBron James (@KingJames) March 27, 2017 "As a kid, they showed toughness and stayed on me every single day! Here is what James had to say: Man if it wasn't for Big Frank, Bruce Kelker, Willie Earl, @CoachDambrot @CoachDruJoyce I wouldn't be the player/man I am today! Kelker told him where to meet for the team's first practice, he says, but Gloria interrupted him. Lebron James. She was 5'5" and stunning -- "Loud, proud and beautiful," Kelker says -- and as he walked over to her, he saw LeBron, lean and lanky, already as tall as his mother, playing tag with a few neighborhood kids. The man he called his dad was in jail. "Lebron james: The inspiring story of one of basketballs greatest players" . He doesn't talk about winning his first Olympic gold medal or his first NBA championship or signing a contract for $110 million or being named one of the most influential people in the world. The Walkers had three children, and James shared a room with Frankie Walker Jr., a football teammate who would become one of his best friends. Man if it wasn't for Big Frank, Bruce Kelker, Willie Earl, @CoachDambrot @CoachDruJoyce I wouldn't be the player/man I am today! Often, he chose not to go to school, spending his days immersed in video games, shuttling between the apartment and a corner store where his mother's food stamps paid for his snacks. What got James back in school was the stabilizing force of Bruce Kelker, the Pee Wee football coach at James’ elementary school who first discovered his athletic talent. Follow The Mag on Twitter (@ESPNmag) and like us on Facebook. Man if it wasn't for Big Frank, Bruce Kelker, Willie Earl, @CoachDambrot @CoachDruJoyce I wouldn't be the player/man I am today! James scored 17 touchdowns that season, and Gloria raced down the sideline each time -- "stride for stride with LeBron, looking like a maniac," Kelker says. James had never been there before -- he had rarely left Akron -- and his new teacher, Karen Grindall, wondered whether he might cause mischief in the park's dormitory. Kelker became the most reliable adult in James' life: He stored the boy's football equipment in the back of his car and arrived to pick him up every afternoon at 3:45, sometimes only to discover James had moved again. Mann, wenn nicht Big Frank, Bruce Kelker, Willie Earl, @CoachDambrot @CoachDruJoyce wären, wäre ich nicht der Spieler / Mann, der ich heute bin! Kelker was, in truth, more interested in scoping out football players than women, so he walked past Gloria toward LeBron. At the beginning of fifth grade, James and his classmates took a weekend field trip to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Two weeks into the season, Kelker invited his new star player to live with him. By Clayton Geoffrey is very informal and gives alot of background information on Lebron Himself. Frank Walker suggested that James live with him in a single-family house in suburban Akron. "I was tired of picking him up at different addresses," he says, "or showing up at one junked-up place and finding out they had already moved to another.". Man if it wasn't for Big Frank, Bruce Kelker, Willie Earl, @CoachDambrot @CoachDruJoyce I wouldn't be the player/man I am today! As a kid… — LeBron James (@KingJames) March 27, 2017 Man if it wasn't for Big Frank, Bruce Kelker, Willie Earl, @CoachDambrot @CoachDruJoyce I wouldn't be the player/man I am today! She liked to go out, friends said, and sometimes left LeBron to supervise himself. Kelker told him where to meet for the team's first practice, he says, but Gloria interrupted him. "How do I even know football will be good for Bron Bron?" EVERY FEW MONTHS, when the situation demands it, LeBron James will give a motivational speech to students about the year that changed his life. Never sugar coded nothing, told me to real and lit me up when I wasn't applying…. he asked the kids. Students took classes in music, art and gym -- all three of which became James' favorites. Teammates warmed to LeBron, gravitating to talent, even when it emerged in a boy who could still be "awkward and shy," Kelker says. Kelker asked him. Kelker was about to begin his first full season as a coach of the East Dragons, a youth team limited to boys under age 10 who weighed less than 112 pounds. She was living on welfare. The identity of his father was a mystery to him. she asked. Kelker ended up taking Lebron in and the rest is history. — LeBron James (@KingJames) March 27, 2017. That night, Gloria and LeBron arrived at her house with a single suitcase and a blue stuffed elephant. By then, James had already spent two-thirds of his life essentially without a home, moving every few months with Gloria from one apartment to the next. He signed up James to play for a 9-year-old team and enlisted him as an assistant coach for 8-year-olds, believing that coaching would accelerate his basketball learning curve. As the story went on the author gave background information of the struggles and positive aspects of the protagonist of the story that was Lebron. Their housing situation reached its nadir in the year of 1993, when they moved five times in three months during the spring, wearing out their welcome in a series of friends' small apartments while Gloria remained on the waitlist for a subsidized housing waiver from the city. His mother began rearranging her weekends around his football games.