As a result of Anthony McClelland’s chronic absence and non-payment of child support, James’s father

Gloria James takes great delight in being known as “Mother of the King” and proudly has a tattoo reading “Queen James” on her arm. LeBron James is an NBA superstar, and James is her son.

Her humble character has not been affected by the fact that she is the mother of an NBA great.

“I’m very simple and down to earth,” Gloria said during a question and answer session with students at Akron, Ohio’s LeBron’s I Promise School. In other words, if you ever feel like you need someone to talk to, hug, or just listen, I’m here for you. All of us are quite happy and close-knit.

In LeBron’s personal and professional life, Gloria—his single mother—remains an influential figure. According to the NBA player, she is the main reason he is so successful now.

“I don’t know if she read about it, or she just heard about it, but from day one, I always had that mother and father inside my mother, so I never was a kid that was kind of like, ‘Where is my father?'” —LeBron James, speaking to Maria Shriver of Today in a 2014 interview.

I don’t know how she must have mustered the courage to say that, but she handed it to me without my having to give it a second thought,” he said. She had to be the greatest, but I still haven’t asked her.

The incredible Gloria James, who grew up with basketball sensation LeBron, deserves your admiration.

At the tender age of sixteen, she became a mother to LeBron.

Gloria Marie James was born on February 4, 1968, in Akron, Ohio. She is the younger sister of Terry James and the sister of Curt James.

She gave birth to LeBron at the tender age of sixteen, according to Sports Illustrated, and he has never met his real father. In a 2014 piece he penned for Today, LeBron recalled how his grandma Freda James Howard assisted Gloria in raising him during his childhood.

On the other hand, Howard died on Christmas Day 1987, when LeBron was just three years old. After her parents passed away, Gloria was left with the primary responsibility of raising her kid and, with the support of her two brothers, managed to make ends meet.

Little James had the hardship of having his family evacuated seven times by LeBron and Gloria before he reached five years old. Since Gloria and her brothers were unable to afford heating the house, LeBron, who was in fourth grade at the time, was moved to live with a foster family and missed 82 days of school.

“Being a single mom comes with a lot of responsibility every day. It’s especially hard because you don’t have a father figure or other male influence in the house to help you out, especially when you’re a son like me,” LeBron James said Shriver. “My mother figured [that] out,” my mom said with such precision.

The youth football coach of LeBron James remembers his mother, Gloria, prancing wildly on the sidelines after each of her son’s scores (ESPN), but she never pushed her son to pursue a career in athletics.

In 2001, when LeBron was a 16-year-old Akron, Ohio, junior in high school, the New York Times characterized Gloria as “an enthusiastic fan” of her son: LeBron James. She expressed her happiness for him to the public, but she made it clear that she would not want him to reach NBA superstardom.

I genuinely hope LeBron finds happiness. “Basketball is his true passion,” she said. I really hope he can graduate from high school with the rest of his class. But we will make a decision when the time is perfect.

She went on to say, “He’s a level-headed guy.” He never misbehaved and was quite courteous. To this day, he has never once given me any issue.

The inquiry on the SUV she provided LeBron has been ongoing.

On LeBron’s eighteenth birthday in December 2002, Gloria surprised him with a Hummer loaded with televisions and connections for video gaming consoles. The New York Times reports that LeBron and Gloria’s history of living in Akron’s public housing made the purchase look dubious.

According to the bylaws of the organization, high school athletes in Ohio run the risk of having their “amateur” status revoked if they “capitalize on athletic fаme by receiving money or gifts of monetary value.” Rather than using the $50,000 car loan she claimed to have used to purchase the Hummer, Gloria handed it to LeBron, which might have cost him his amateur status. Despite the Ohio High School Athletic Association commissioner’s two-week inquiry clearing LeBron of wrongdoing, Gloria failed to mention the SUV present when it occurred.

She plays an important administrative role for the LeBron James Family Foundation.

The foundation’s vice president happens to be LeBron’s mom, Gloria. Where LeBron grew up, in Akron, Ohio, the foundation aids low-income youth. One of the most notable accomplishments of the organization is the I Promise School, a public school in Akron, Ohio, that serves economically underprivileged students. The institution’s establishment is credited to Gloria by LeBron for her ceaseless attempts to create a secure childhood for him.

“School would not exist if it weren’t for my mother and the way she brought me up,” LeBron said in a video he made for the Family Foundation in April of 2020. Without Gloria James, IPS would not be in existence. She was always willing to lend me a hand. She gave me the blueprint. When I needed to put something like this together for our team, I just thought back on all the life lessons my mom had given me and applied them.

Zhuri Nova James, Bryce Maximus, and LeBron “Bronny” James Jr.—the grandkids of LeBron and Savannah—are grandsons of Gloria.

Because of the strong bond she has with her grandkids, Gloria often shares Instagram photos of them. As a way to cheer on her boys’ basketball teams, she attends games and writes enthusiastic blog posts about them.

It brings me joy to watch my grandkids grow into wonderful young men, much like me, on and off the court. She shared photos of herself with her grandkids during competitions in April 2022 and said, “I’m so proud and I love you both very much @bronny @_justbryce!!” in the captions.

Visits to amusement parks like Universal Studios and Disneyland have been among the numerous romantic moments she and Zhuri have had over the years.

During his time in prison, LeBron thought about her often.

The hardest thing for LeBron to do when the COVID-19 pandemic first started was to avoid being around Gloria. In July of 2020, during a press conference, LeBron confessed, “It’s the first time in my life that I went that long without seeing my mom,” and added that being with Gloria was “the only thing that [he] really missed.”

He recounted the time he last saw his mother, which was “all-Star weekend”—before seeing her again two or three weeks before they were required to report to their various places. Just so you know: “That was extremely for me.”

According to LeBron, Gloria’s positive outlook helped him get through the plague quarantine period, and she assured him that they would be reunited “in due time.”

After the 2020 NBA Finals, LeBron James called her first.

Upon learning that he and the Lakers had won the 2020–21 NBA championship in October, LeBron contacted Gloria over FaceTime to break the news.

now we have LeBron and Gloria sitting on the floor, and in the video, he says, “Everything that you have been through, everything that I’ve seen, it’s nothing that can stop me, ’cause this s— right here, this is nothing compared to the s— you had to go through.” The video has since gone viral on Twitter. The Lord is wonderful and kind. Rest assured, mother, I will strive to make you proud.