For The Shriver Report’s special series “A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink,” LeBron James penned a moving article exploring financial insecurity among the one in three American women who are living on the verge of poverty.

“I’m 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,” adds James. Do you believe that LeBron James is a winner? Gloria James is also a winner. She is my inspiration.”
Gloria moved into her mother’s home in Akron, Ohio, when she was sixteen years old and became LeBron’s mother. When James was only three years old, his grandma abruptly passed away, and they 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.

Finally, when I was 9 years old, my mother made a supreme sacrifice. She decided that while she was figuring out how to get on her feet, I needed some stability in my life. I needed to stay in one place and experience the support and security that she had felt growing up in a big family. So she sent me to live with my pee-wee football team coach, “Big Frankie” Walker, and his family. She later said to me, “It was hard, but I knew it was not about me. It was about you. I had to put you first.”