For many NBA fans, the 2003-2004 season was a time of great excitement. The ‘Kid from Akron’—LeBron James—entered the league as the ‘Chosen One’. Remarkably, he exceeded the towering expectations placed on his 18-year-old shoulders. As challenging as it was, the man in question was far more excited about something else, too. He was going to be a father!

His son, LeBron ‘Bronny’ James Jr was born on October 6, 2004, when Bron was just 19 years old. Recalling the terrifying (at the time) experience, Savannah James says, “I was thinking, What am I going to tell my parents? What’s going to happen to his career?’ I was very scared. I was bawling. But he said, ‘It’s not going to slow me down, and it’s not going to slow you down. We’re going to keep doing what we have to do”. (credit: 2010 interview with Harper’s Bazaar)

Those words served its purpose. Despite the negative rumors circulating, suggesting that Savannah got pregnant on purpose to “trap” the rising generational talent, the couple remained close. Their bond only strengthened as they prepared to welcome their first child, staying united amid the speculation. And as Vannah also pointed out, “a good group of friends” helped her not let these talks get to her.

How did they reach this point, though? Why don’t we backtrack a little?

When Savannah James got bored and LeBron James got lucky

Savannah Brinson met LeBron James when she was just 16 years old. Despite James being a year older and attending a rival school, their connection remained strong. The two quickly became inseparable, with no obstacles standing in the way of their bond. It was a mutual friend of the pair who played Cupid. Well, if we are being honest, he/she was more of a Hermes. The friend had just transferred from St. Vincent-St. Mary to Buchtel and passed Vannah the message that Bron asked for her number.

“I’m like, ‘Um, nope. I’ll take his number,'” Savannah recounted to Cleveland Magazine in 2017. A softball player and cheerleader at Buchtel, the young sophomore wasn’t exactly a part of the LeBron James fan club and hence didn’t know just how popular he already was in high school. But she had his number, and it came in handy later.

“One day I’m sitting around — I was probably bored or something — and I’m like, ‘Oh, I forgot! I have this number for this guy that I can call. He seemed interested, so let’s see.’,” she further explained. James invited her to a basketball game and from there they went to a local Applebee’s with a group of friends. It was quickly followed by their first date at the Outback Steakhouse.

That night was when Savanah Brinson knew he was the one. What convinced her? “I knew he loved me when I left my leftovers from dinner in his car. I’d totally forgotten about them, and he brought them to me. I think he just wanted another excuse to come and see me,” she recalled in the above-mentioned 2010 interview.  

Two kids later, (they had Bryce in 2007), it became clear to the ‘Akron Hammer’ that this was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. The high school sweethearts got engaged in 2011 on New Year’s Eve. A year later, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, James confessed, “I had been thinking about it, you know, for a while but it just came to me one day and I was like, ‘This is a part of growth for me.’ I was like, ‘This is the lady and the woman I have been with through all the good and all the bad. She’s been there for a long time and I wanted her to continue to be there with me,’ so I felt like at that moment it was time.”

We all know what happened later. Savannah Brinson officially became Mrs. James on September 14, 2013, in a lavish wedding that lasted three days. It was, in their own words, “our own personal Met Gala.” A year later, the James gang was complete as the couple welcomed their third child, Zhuri Nova James, on October 22, 2014.

The same son who brought these Ohio high school sweethearts closer together is now making history by joining his father on the court as the NBA’s first-ever father-son duo! Talk about everything coming full circle.