[23] The Fighting Irish went 27–0 en route to the Division III state title, making them the only boys high school team in Ohio to finish the season undefeated.

[32] Later in the season, James accepted two throwback jerseys worth $845 from an urban clothing store in exchange for posing for pictures, officially violating OHSAA rules and resulting in his being stripped of his high school sports eligibility.

[25] With a starting five featuring James, Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Aleksandar Pavlović, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the Cavaliers finished the season with 50 wins for the second consecutive year and entered the playoffs as the #2-seed in the Eastern Conference.

[61] After the game, play-by-play announcer Marv Albert called the performance "one of the greatest moments in postseason history" and color commentator Steve Kerr described it as "Jordan-esque".

They argued that other NBA greats had benefitted from talented teammates: Magic Johnson had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy, Larry Bird had Kevin McHale and Robert Parish on the Celtics, and Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen with the Bulls.

[151] Miami eventually finished the year with a franchise and league best 66–16 record,[152] and James was named MVP for the fourth time, falling just one vote shy of becoming the first player in NBA history to win the award unanimously.

[165] In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, James missed most of the fourth quarter because of leg cramps, helping the San Antonio Spurs take an early series lead.

[190] In Game 7, he posted a triple-double and made a number of key plays, including a chasedown block on Andre Iguodala's go-ahead layup attempt,[191] as Cleveland emerged victorious, winning the city's first professional sports title in 52 years and becoming the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3–1 series deficit in the Finals.

[195] Following a January defeat to the New Orleans Pelicans, James publicly criticized Cleveland's front office for constructing a team that he felt was too "top heavy", for which he received countercriticism.

[198] The Cavaliers won the game and the series, advancing to the NBA Finals for the third consecutive time against the Golden State Warriors, who had signed James' rival Kevin Durant during the off-season.

[205] Following another round of trades in February, Cleveland returned to form and James reached a number of historical milestones; on March 30, he set an NBA record with 867 straight games scoring in double digits.

During the offseason, the Lakers hired Frank Vogel as their new head coach, and traded the majority of their young core to the Pelicans for superstar big man Anthony Davis.

[246] The 2020–2021 season, reduced to 72 games for each team and starting on December 22, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, began after the shortest offseason in NBA history with a 116–109 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

[346] On April 9, in the final game of the 2022–23 season, James posted 36 points, six rebounds, and six assists to lead the Lakers to a 128–117 victory over the Jazz, earning the seventh seed in the Western Conference play-in tournament.

[351][352] In the Western Conference finals, the Lakers were swept by the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets; James set his personal playoff record with 31 points in the first half.

[438] Teams would try to exploit these weaknesses by giving him space in the half court and forcing him to settle for three-pointers and long two-pointers, a strategy famously used by Spurs coach Gregg Popovich in the 2007 Finals, where James converted on only 36 percent of his field goals in four games.

[475][476][477] On the basis of his career longevity and on-court performances, sports publications have consistently included James in rankings of the best basketball players in history,[g] and he was named the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Decade for the 2010s.

[486] In addition to praising James' on-court accomplishments, analysts have also noted his influence on player empowerment throughout the NBA, which stemmed from his willingness to change teams during free agency.

Ben Golliver of The Washington Post opined that James' move to the Heat in 2010 "defined a decade of player movement", and that he "fundamentally flipped the power balance between stars and their organizations.

Biopsy results showed that James developed a benign jaw tumor, specifically in his parotid gland,[514] which required a five-hour surgery to remove on June 2 after the end of the Cavaliers' run in the 2009 playoffs.

[516][517] His opinions have yielded significant influence on people who make important league decisions; for example, in 2014, James asked commissioner Adam Silver to increase the duration of the All-Star break, and the request was granted the following season.

[534] In response, ESPN columnist Jemele Hill considered the cover offensive and "memorable for the wrong reasons", describing the demeanor of James and his holding Bündchen as a reference to classic imagery of the movie monster King Kong, a dark savage capturing his fair-skinned love interest.

Following a players' committee to discuss the boycott, James and others reached out to former president Barack Obama, who reportedly advised them to continue playing and finish that year's NBA season.

[586] James has signed numerous endorsement contracts; some of the companies that he has done business with are AT&T,[587] Audemars Piguet,[588] Beats by Dre,[589] Blaze Pizza,[590] Coca-Cola,[591] Dunkin' Brands,[592] Intel,[593] Kia,[594] McDonald's,[595] Nike,[591]PepsiCo,[596] State Farm,[597] and Taco Bell.

[602] In 2011, Fenway Sports Group became the sole global marketer of his rights, and as part of the deal, James was granted a minority stake in the English Premier League football club Liverpool,[603] who he has claimed his support for.

[606] In 2014, James realized a profit of more than $30 million as part of Apple's acquisition of Beats Electronics; he had originally struck a deal to get a small stake in the company at its inception in exchange for promoting its headphones.

[632] This largely contributed to James creating a documentary film series looking at the changing role of athletes in the current political and cultural climate, aptly named, Shut Up and Dribble on Showtime.

[633] James partnered with Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2018 to found Ladder, a company that developed nutritional supplements to help athletes with severe cramps after dealing with that issue during the 2014 Finals.

[642] During the 2019 offseason, James filed for a trademark through a shell company on the term "Taco Tuesday" for use in downloadable audio/visual works, podcasts, social media, online marketing, and entertainment services.

[658] During the 2011 NBA lockout, James received contract offers to play professional football from the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks,[659] which he gave serious consideration to and even began training with it in mind.