Ten years ago LeBron James made his highly anticipated NBA debut for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Ten years ago award-winning poet and playwright Lemon Andersen paid tribute to LeBron with a poem titled “King,” a piece that honored James’s ascension into professional basketball. Ten years later Anderson has penned a new poem “Rubber City Soul” that celebrates LeBron James and is featured in this new Nike commercial.
“Rubber City Soul”
For In a land far away
Under a blanket of the stars
On a moonless night
a child was born in a kingdom
Of basketball gods
In a county they called
the summit
north of the capital
a rubber city
Where the Akronites run it
This child earned
Learned
the labors of his love
From watching his neighbors
Rise above hard work
At the local mills
Watching the sweat of their brow
Seeing his comrades growing up
Trying to conquer the hill
A steep field of wheat
worn from cleats and cold
pounding the bottom of their soles
Against tough Ohio winters
and unconditional vertigo
But he rose
from the dusk
of Elizabeth Park
And her projects
till the arrival of the dawn
rose from a high school phenom
Straight to the pros
never forgetting how
the sun set on Lake Erie
How the rough waters
of the spotlight
can ravage
Flow savagely along
always high tide
Knowing the odds against him
Yet his will to compete
Remained Hickory Street strong
For In all this love for his land
He learned to live
by the code of a warriors song
and glorious were the
wins stacked
to the back of the wall
banners dropped
from the top of the rafters
For all the world to see
this man child rise up
against the odds
under the Akronite philosophy
In his mind ever burned:
Talent is given
Greatness is earned.
