Savannah Brinson and LeBron James first crossed paths in 2002, when they were attending adjacent Ohio high schools and soon before LeBron gained widespread recognition. Although his early expectations held great potential, he ultimately exceeded them. At 37, he is more of the NBA’s modern business, politics, and presentation engine than its senior statesman. He also makes a point of defending his family. Bronny, Bryce, and Zhuri are their three children. He and Savannah were married in 2013.
As LeBron gets ready to start his 20th season as the NBA’s standard-bearer and its ever-expanding cultural impact, his family has become more and more important parts of the environment he has transformed. In their first family picture session, which included LeBron’s mother Gloria as well as Savannah’s parents Jennifer and JK, V.F. joined them at their Los Angeles home to celebrate what Savannah said me was a turning point in her children’s lives. Bronny, a guard for Sierra Canyon High School’s dominant basketball team and 18 years old in October, sees it as a matter of “getting to a place to start to make decisions about his career and where he wants to go in his life.” Precocious seven-year-old Zhuri has her own popular YouTube lifestyle program, All Things Zhuri, with segments on baking, yoga, and painting among its highlights. Savannah affectionately refers to Bryce, 15, as “the mystery of the family,” given his potential to go in any way despite the fact that he is also a highly anticipated basketball prospect.
Savannah has seen her kids develop into the dynamic of the celebrities who attend Sierra Canyon games, both on the court and in the stands. “It comes naturally to them because LeBron is their father,” she said. Nothing like that has been forced upon them or anything of the kind. It just occurred.
2018 saw LeBron sign a contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, which was the last step in his integration of the entertainment industry with both himself and the professional sports community as a whole. His statements on the role of athletes, especially Black athletes, in society, such as “more than an athlete” and his defiance of Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham’s demand that he “shut up and dribble,” are among his most memorable quotes from his career.
