The Chosen One (feat. Sonny Vaccaro)
About this episode
The episode discusses the impact of LeBron James's rise to fame and features an interview with Sonny Vaccaro about his experiences in the basketball industry.
In the season premiere, Dan, Amin, and Izzy go back to the Sports Illustrated cover that turned a teenager into an industry, re-reading the prophecy with the very people who helped craft it. Plus: a resplendent Sonny Vaccaro joins us to re-live his failed $100 million offer to bring The Kid from Akron to Adidas. All that AND real talk about LeBron's untold origin story. Homework for this episode: • "Ahead of His Class" by Grant Wahl (Sports Illustrated, 2002) https://vault.si.com/vault/2002/02/18/ahead-of-his-class-ohio-high-school-junior-lebron-james-is-so-good-that-hes-already-being-mentioned-as-the-heir-to-air-jordan Homework for the next week's episode: • "The Decision" (ESPN, 2010) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afpgnb_9bA4 From our guest: • "Legends and Soles: The Memoir of an American Original" by Sonny Vaccaro with Armen Keteyian https://www.harpercollins.com/products/legends-and-soles-sonny-vaccaroarmen-keteyian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More episodes of Le Batard & Friends Presents: The Step Back
- There's Always This Year (feat. Hanif Abdurraqib)
- Shut Up & Dribble (feat. Jemele Hill & Cari Champion)
- Lebron Inc. (feat. Pablo Torre)
- I'm Coming Home (feat. Iman Shumpert)
- The Decision (feat. Jim Gray)
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