LeBron’s Olympic Career Almost Never Happened

Good thing it worked out for both James and Team USA

LeBron James has had immense success in the NBA and with the Olympics too. He was an absolutely critical part of the Redeem Team and has built a huge Olympic legacy. But guess what: it almost never happened.

In 2008, James was 24 and while he was wildly gifted, he was not necessarily very mature. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who was just starting his Olympic tour of duty and Jerry Colangelo, who was the newly installed director of USA Basketball, had serious concerns about James and particularly his entourage. Things got to the point where the NBA acknowledged the difficulties and signaled it wouldn’t be a problem if James was left home.

Ulitimately Nike dropped the hammer on James, telling him if he didn’t shape up, he’d be watching from home.

For his part, Coach K got Jason Kidd to teach James how to be a professional, which surely helped, and when push came to shove, James really came through for the US.

Now he’s back for his final run with Team USA and he’s the esteemed elder statesman who may be looked to to teach the younger guys how to prepare for international competition. Life does have some funny twists from time to time.