Interview Review! (and Film Preview): LeBron James' Interview with NPR's Terry Gross

Yesterday's interview of LeBron James by Terry Gross on the NPR program "Fresh Air" (you can listen here) was the best we've ever heard The King give. It might be that we haven't paid enough attention to earlier interviews of LeBron, or that Ms. Gross, who's decidedly not of the sport-media machine, just asked the right questions.


It might also be that the off-season release of his new film documentary/biography, "More Than a Game,*" has given LeBron occasion to open up like he hasn't before. Whatever the reason, we enjoyed and learned enough from the interview of one of our most very favorite subjects that we suppose it's well worth a breakdown of the highlights here.


The overarching theme that comes across in this interview-- one that maintains its consistency in "LeBron's Story," generally -- is that of sports as an escape. This comes through clearly at the outset in LeBron's insistence to Ms. Gross (implicit as well in the title of his film) that basketball has always been "more than a game" to him. We're talking about the best kind of escape here, and while we suppose this general form of escape offers so many different outlets for both participants and observers, the most basic that LeBron touches on here isn't his eventual escape to lifelong financial freedom, but rather the escape from what a great man once called "the terrible disease of loneliness" that a stable community can provide.

We see this when LeBron discusses "going to McDonald's," "playing ball outside together," and "driving to West Virginia" with his grade school rec league teammates when they first met. All three of these activities could be healthy escapes if undertaken alone, sure, but it's the shared escape that creates the community bonds, and with that the potential for greater (or at least more challenging) escapes, as all of these young men went on to demonstrate. We don't suppose there are many who graduated from a rec league to play a high school sport at any level or even another rec league who can't relate in some way to this theme. And we do suppose that LeBron lived it in a more pure and potent form than just about anyone who's lived in America in his day, which we further suppose is a big reason why he's The Chosen One. We expect that this theme resonates with clarity in the film as well, which is one reason why we very much look forward to seeing it.

Another thing we're looking forward to "More Than a Game" serving up is a heaping helping of hometown love for the fair city of Akron. Along those lines (and we definitely missed the homework assignment on this one) how about that the first organized basketball team that LeBron played for (in the aforementioned grade school rec league) was the Summit Lake Hornets? For the non-locals, Summit Lake (pictured at right in 1907), while not situated in what's anymore considered the best of neighborhoods, still captures the imagination of Akron youths at least in that it's basically the only "urban" lake in town, minutes from downtown and right off the highway, where Route 77 and the Akron Innerbelt converge. And there's the baseball park there too, the first place where so many of us** played "under the lights" for the first time, after seeing the park so many times as young children driving past and wondering if we ever would.***

We haven't walked the grounds of Summit Lake Park in some years, and aren't exactly sure what's going on there today other than baseball games, picnics, and goose turds, but it sure seems like a place where public funds could go a nice long way. Maybe LeBron could pitch in too? We wonder if Mayor Plusquellic has anything big planned here other than this new floating boardwalk despite that our research efforts lead us to believe that this is not the case.

And how about some Summit Lake Hornets gear? Maybe some Black Fives Blog-type reconstruction? Who wouldn't rock this?

To close on the Summit Lake issue, we'll note that we're shocked there isn't a photo available on the web that captures the view of the Lake described above, or really any modern view of it at all. (We're lookin' at you, Chief). This is probably more solid evidence for the above supposition regarding public funds.

As for the rest:

We love the way that LeBron talks about his mother, Gloria James.

There's an interesting exchange between LeBron and Ms. Gross about the Hummer that Gloria purchased for LeBron when he was in high school, which concluded with Ms. Gross pointing out that it was "such an odd gift," "such a funny thing," because Gloria obtained the loan to buy him the gift (the Hummer), based on a promise that he'd pay it back. We say it's only interesting or odd because we can hardly think of a better way to learn "Finance and Capital Markets 101," and at such an advanced age. This makes it easy to see where 'Bron is coming from when he says of his mother that,

"It seemed like she had everything in control, even though it seemed like the world may have been coming down on her at times. ... She always stayed calm and collected and made sure that her son was always happy and did whatever it took for me to be happy, and I respect that."

Though we can't be sure, it doesn't seem like LeBron is talking about "Veruca Salt" happy here, but rather a contentment that came from his confidence that Gloria would be there to fulfill certain basics of parental responsibility.

Another good Gloria-bit when LeBron marveled at the fact that his mother was only sixteen years old when he was born. "I couldn't imagine having a kid when I was sixteen," he says, before noting that he became a father himself at the age of eighteen, realizing the incongruity, then suggesting that "for a woman it has to be way more difficult than a man." To be sure. We'd just add that it has to be even way more difficult for non-half-billionaires.

While we're on the subject of half-billionaires, LeBron's mentor Jay-Z, he of the "I don't wear jerseys, I'm thirty-plus" persuasion, had to like LeBron's answer when Ms. Gross asked him "a clothing question":

"I wear true-to-size clothes, though," The King said. "I don't wear that big stuff that a lot of people wear...the 5X, 6X t-shirts, and all the pants that's hanging below people's, yeah . . .I wear 2X t-shirts, I wear 40 jeans. I wear it just how it's supposed to be worn."

No word yet as to whether this statement about how things are "supposed to be worn" will cause any locker room friction between 'Bron and Delonte, but we'll stay tuned there.

Finally, we very much enjoyed the laugh let out by Ms. Gross after she realized her faux pas in asking LeBron why he "chose to come to Cleveland" when 'Bron reminded her that "it was a draft, I was drafted." We'll say no more here, as it would be manifestly impolitrick of us to speculate as to the existence or nature of any hair-trigger that might have set off such a reaction. Ms. Gross has surely earned no small part of the benefit of our doubt here at Frowns for her treatment of our King and favorite subject.

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*We realize that "More Than a Game" has been released in some markets and reviewed to some significant extent. We haven't yet seen the film, and don't plan to review any of the reviews until after we've seen it.

**"Us" too.

***We recall that when we were growing up in the 80's, the billboard that's prominently featured on the west bank of Rt 77 as one approaches Summit Lake on the highway from the north contained a WMMS billboard with The WMMS Buzzard in a rowboat off the shore of the city (presumably Cleveland). Does anyone else remember this? If that billboard wasn't placed right where we remember it, we associated it with Summit Lake anyway, and always thought it would have been pretty cool to be in a boat like that.

Thanks to Esquire Magazine and LeBron James for the photo of the Summit Lake Hornets, and the Plain Dealer and Terry Gross for the photo of Terry Gross.

Thanks to Mr. Ed for the photo of Summit Lake, and for the entire awesome gallery of Old Akron photos at his website, but not for his editorial commentary on the current state of the fair city of Akron.

Thanks to prolific Frowns contributor "p." for tipping us off on the interview.