LeBron James' off-court moves are making him a major Hollywood player. How he does it
When LeBron James and his mother moved into the Spring Hill apartments in Akron, Ohio, it was the first time he had a room of his own. He was in sixth grade.
James and his mother had lived with his grandmother until she died of a heart attack at 42 and then with a series of friends, family members and generous neighbors, including a woman who noticed their heat wasn't working and two football coaches, one of whom introduced him to basketball. When he was in fourth grade, James and his mom moved so many times that he missed more than 80 days of school.
At Spring Hill, though, James found stability. In his sixth-floor bedroom, he found a place to dream.
"I always wanted something that I could look back and see where it all started from," James says after a practice with the Lakers this winter.
And so in 2008 he pushed the two words of that apartment complex together and created a company that served as a production vehicle for a documentary about his high school years, "More Than a Game." SpringHill Entertainment was a safeguard against James losing ownership of his story. He didn't know at the time that it would also become the vehicle for the NBA four-time MVP to become a major player in Hollywood.
Just over 10 years later, SpringHill Entertainment is not only behind the upcoming "Space Jam 2," with James as its star and "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler on board as a producer, it's premiering the documentary "What's My Name:
