Maria Shriver will launch Monday on TODAY #DoingItAll, a series aimed at helping women overcome challenges described in “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink,” published in partnership with Center for American Progress. LeBron James wrote the following essay for The Shriver Report.
Gloria James raised her only child and future NBA phenomenon alone after becoming pregnant at 16. LeBron says it is her love and devotion that made it possible for him to pursue his dreams.
I am honored to participate in a project that is trying to help single mothers who are struggling to make a living and raise their kids, because that perfectly describes my mother when I was growing up. You think LeBron James is a champion? Gloria James is a champion too. She’s my champion.
My mother really struggled. She had me, her only child, when she was just 16 years old. She was on her own, so we lived in her mom’s great big house in Akron, Ohio. But on Christmas Day when I was 3 years old, my grandmother suddenly died of a heart attack, and everything changed. With my mom being so young and lacking any support and the skills and education necessary to get ahead, it was really hard for us.
We lost the house. We moved around from place to place—a dozen times in three years. It was scary. It was catch as catch can, scraping to get by. My mom worked anywhere and everywhere, trying to make ends meet. But through all of that, I knew one thing for sure: I had my mother to blanket me and to give me security. She was my mother, my father, my everything. She put me first. I knew that no matter what happened, nothing and nobody was more important to her than I was. I went without a lot of things, but never for one second did I feel unimportant or unloved.
November 5, 2024