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Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James celebrates his 24th birthday
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Brian Windhorst
Plain Dealer Reporter
Miami - Just think, just one year from now LeBron James will actually be considered responsible enough to rent a car.
Today, James will celebrate his 24th birthday on the same day, as many feature stories and TV specials have pointed out over the years, as Tiger Woods celebrates his.
In basketball years it may sometimes seem like James is already middle-aged, but in reality he is still very much a young man, even if it doesn't feel that way to many fans who have been following him for nearly a decade now.
"Someone asked me how old I was turning," James said. "I told them '24. I'm young but I have an old soul.' "
His soul has indeed aged quicker than his body. He's grown from local raw talent to phenom to superstar to Olympic champion.
He's gone from being a freshman to father to captain to head of an international business enterprise under his name.
"At the end of the day I am not perfect, but I have a good sense about life and my family's life and what direction we want to head it," James said.
"That keeps me calm, the security we have is under control."
As has been the case often on his birthdays, James is going to spend it playing basketball, as he and the Cavaliers complete their home-and-home series with the Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami.
They haven't always been fun evenings. When he was in high school and turned 17, James and his St. Vincent-St. Mary team lost a game in overtime by one point to Amityville, N.Y., High School at a tournament in Delaware. James did score 39 points in that game and sent it to overtime with an incredible four-point play when he hit a long 3-pointer at the buzzer when the opposition tried to foul him before he got the shot off.
The two times James played as a professional on Dec. 30, the Cavs have lost. He scored 22 points in a loss to the Indiana Pacers at home on his 19th birthday in 2003. Two years ago, the day he turned 22, James and the Cavs lost in Chicago despite his 33 points.
He'd prefer to forget his 23rd birthday, too.
He was pulled over for speeding on his way home from the airport in the middle of the night after the Cavs were beaten in New Orleans and made the long flight home.
So perhaps he'll give a special emphasis on having a winning night this year; after all the Cavs are looking for their seventh consecutive win.
"It was a big deal when I turned 18, that is when every kid feels like he's a man," James said. "I don't caught get up in turning a year older.
"Everyone gets old and years go by fast. I get excited to see my kids get older."
