LeBron James, upon founding a new school, ensured that each student received not just a set of academic resources, but also a bicycle and a helmet. The question then becomes, why that minor point? His lifelong, well-documented love of bikes comes straight from the heart.

While chatting with the Wall Street Journal, he brought up cycling:

James, 33, told me over the phone, “Everything I do comes from my childhood, from my growing up, and what I feel was part of my success.”

“A bicycle, for me, was the only way to travel around the city. The bike was my primary mode of transportation anywhere within the city, whether it was to hang out with pals, get to and from school, or participate in extracurricular activities like basketball.

He also shared how his exposure to the globe via cycling as a child shaped his perspective, telling CNN’s Don Lemon:

He told Lemon that riding his bike and engaging in the sport provided him the independence to approach and make friends with white youngsters and to open his eyes to a world of infinite opportunity.

“I got an opportunity to see them and learn about them,” he said of white youngsters, “and they got an opportunity to learn about me, and we became very good friends.”

James’ organization has been rewarding Akron kids for good behavior and school attendance long before his school was founded by providing them with bicycles.

James didn’t leave his bicycle behind when he grew older. He’s ridden to games in Cleveland and teamed up with teammates to ride bikes in Miami.

I’m a major bike nerd, so it makes me happy to hear that one of the greatest basketball players of all time has the same sense of liberation and joy that I do when I hop on two wheels. Bikes are excellent for the environment, good for health, and since they’re low-impact, an easy ride through Santa Monica won’t affect James’ ability to play out his mega-contract with the Lakers.