LeBron

by Jeff Benedict, Ângelo Lessa (Translator), Cássio de Arantes Leite (Translator), Renato Marques (Translator), Alceu Chiesorin Nunes (Artist)

Overview

A biografia definitiva do maior jogador de basquete do século XXI, ícone global e bilionário, baseada em três anos de pesquisa e em mais de 250 entrevistas.

São muitas histórias improváveis e fascinantes que fizeram de LeBron James o maior ícone de basquete do século XXI, o maior pontuador da história da NBA e o primeiro jogador da liga a se tornar bilionário. Até mesmo porque o garoto pobre nascido em Akron, Ohio (EUA), filho de mãe solo, poderia ter sido jogador de futebol americano. Mas emergiu como atleta de ensino médio mais disputado do basquete de seu país. Neste livro, o jornalista Jeff Benedict apresenta a série de reveses, triunfos e a persistência que fizeram de LeBron o campeão da NBA, sucessor de Michael Jordan e ícone global. É um livro que vai muito além do esporte, com lições inspiradoras sobre liderança e marketing — mostrando, por exemplo, os bastidores da disputa milionária entre Nike, Adidas e Reebok para patrocinar o jovem LeBron de 18 anos. Os leitores também descobrirão como o jogador aprendeu a lidar com a pressão, impôs um estilo de jogo que valorizou o coletivo e construiu um time dos sonhos por onde passou.

"Inspirador… Uma história sobre talento, coragem e sorte." — The Wall Street Journal

"Uma história que mostra o quanto James mudou a percepção sobre o que significa ser um atleta nos tempos atuais." — Associated Press

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788539007950
Publisher:	Objetiva
Publication date:	11/06/2023
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	576
File size:	2 MB
Language:	Portuguese

About the Author

JEFF BENEDICT é um jornalista e produtor de cinema e televisão estadunidense. Autor best-seller do New York Times, escreveu dezessete livros de não ficção, incluindo a biografia de Tiger Woods. Também contribuiu para a Sports Illustrated, The New York Times e Los Angeles Times.

Editorial Reviews

03/06/2023

Film and TV producer Benedict (The Dynasty) delivers an engrossing biography of LeBron James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, who is considered by many to be the greatest player to ever grace the court. Drawing from hundreds of interviews and extensive research, Benedict chronicles the star’s hardscrabble Akron, Ohio, childhood, when his teen mother struggled to put food on the table and pay for heat, eventually forcing the two to move in with a neighbor. The instability made James “a quiet kid who seldom spoke up,” though fortunes shifted when he joined a peewee football team at age nine and gained confidence in his athletic abilities. Benedict takes readers through the athlete’s high school basketball days, after which he bypassed college to join the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003; his 2010 move to the Miami Heat; and his eventual return to his home state, helping Cleveland earn its first-ever NBA championship in 2016. LeBron’s achievements off the court get their due, from his anti-racist activism to his founding of an elementary school for at-risk children in Akron. This authoritative account renders the athlete’s life in fascinating, fine-grained detail, though it gives short shrift to recent developments. (James’s tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers—including winning a 2020 NBA championship—gets fewer than 10 pages.) Even devoted fans will emerge with a greater understanding of the superstar. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Masterful . . . Propulsive . . . This is a fast break of a book, slicing into the many mini-narratives that James has lived and artfully tying them together to create a portrait of a man who has, by his own design, remained an enigma except to those he decides to trust. Benedict has constructed a sort of sports opera fueled by the drama and emotion surrounding his subject, but never sensationalistic or unfair. . . Benedict’s greatest feat here might be the way he cuts through both the public hysteria surrounding James and the superstar’s own protective field to paint a portrait of a man in full. . . . LeBron isn’t just great sportswriting, it’s also vivid narrative journalism.”
—Chris Vognar, Los Angeles Times

“The definitive biography of LeBron James . . . [Readers] will appreciate the perspective Benedict provides when it comes to just how much James changed the perception of what it means to be a modern athlete.”
—Associated Press

“Inspiring . . . An absorbing chronicle of talent, character, pluck, and luck.”
—Wall Street Journal

“The definitive biography . . . It’s fantastic. . . . So rich in granular detail.”
—Chris Mannix, Sports Illustrated

“LeBron is fantastic. Add it to your list.”
—Jon Bon Jovi

“An absolutely consumable book. It’s the kind of in-depth reporting and context that you just don’t get. . . . I thought I knew just about everything about LeBron. But the details and the digging here are so fun.”
—Colin Cowherd

“Engrossing . . . This authoritative account renders the athlete’s life in fascinating, fine-grained detail. . . . Even devoted fans will emerge with a greater understanding of the superstar.”
—Publishers Weekly

“LeBron is an appropriately epic portrait . . . thoroughly fleshed out in Benedict’s crisp style and skillfully-set scenes . . . Benedict provides the most comprehensive profile yet in this biography truly fit for the King.”
—Booklist

From the Publisher

There is beauty and awe in this perfectly pitched biography…It has torque and velocity…It’s a confident and substantial book.”

New York Times on Tiger Woods

There is beauty and awe in this perfectly pitched biography . . . It has torque and velocity . . . It’s a confident and substantial book.”

The New York Times on Tiger Woods

Having become a big name even to those who don't follow basketball, LeBron James has transcended the sport. Author Jeff Benedict covers James's life in this definitive biography. The self-proclaimed kid from Akron makes it to the NBA and, through a series of savvy moves that include keeping a close-knit group of friends nearby, soars to unprecedented heights on and off the court. Chris Jackson's clear tone matches the author's writing style--it's not flashy or showy and has no wasted emotion. Jackson stays focused and delivers consistent enunciation. This is an interesting listen, thanks to a writer who doesn't overwrite and a narrator who brings steady storytelling to this account of James's lives in Akron, Cleveland, Miami, and Los Angeles. M.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

June 2023 - AudioFile

2023-02-03
The story of King James’ rise and reign.

Any conversation about the greatest NBA player ever must include LeBron James, a four-time MVP and player on four championship teams. (He just became the league's all-time leading scorer, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.) Veteran sportswriter Benedict frames James’ story as a tale of destiny fulfilled. Raised by a poor single mother in Akron, Ohio (his father’s identity remains a mystery), James was supported from an early age by coaches and other community members. Shining at both basketball and football, he skipped college and was drafted by his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in 2003. Benedict describes this path in (overly) deep detail—James doesn’t make his NBA debut till nearly halfway through the book. But from there, the narrative is a well-paced account of James’ on-court ambitions and struggles with how to wield his celebrity. Early on, he could be closed-off with reporters, waffled over signing a letter criticizing China’s human rights record, and famously alienated NBA fans everywhere in 2010 by announcing his decision to “take my talents to South Beach” (and join the Miami Heat) in an overblown hourlong TV special. Benedict suggests that a tight circle of trusted advisers, plus a few championship trophies, helped elevate James as a leader. He effectively played a general manager’s role in assembling squads, didn’t hesitate to speak out after the murders of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, and was comfortable clapping back at then-President Donald Trump. Benedict correlates James’ reputational ups and downs to his relationships with sportswriters—hitting his nadir when he was frosty with the ghostwriter for a book about his high school days, triumphing when he welcomed a Sports Illustrated writer to report his return to the Cavaliers. But James’ roles as world-class athlete and media phenomenon are intertwined, and the author ably captures both elements.

A deep, occasionally hagiographic dive into the life of a one-of-a-kind superstar.

Kirkus Reviews