There’s a component of this partnership that relates back to your I Promise School. Why does it feel important to bring biking into that part of your world, too?
Because when I was a kid, when me and my friends used to ride our bikes from one part of town to the next part of town, not only was it fun, you just felt like you was tapping into a whole other world. You felt like you could be so creative. You’ll have moments where obviously you’re paying attention to the road, you’re paying attention to the people with cars and things of that nature. But we also had this big hill in my hometown called North Hill. It starts at the very top and then it’s a big old hill going down. And we used to use that moment to just feel euphoric, rejoice, look in the clouds and imagine things. Imagine things that you could actually possibly become in life. Riding bikes outdoors with your friends just gives you an unbelievable feeling. And even individually, too, you really get an opportunity to just be self-reflecting and open up to a whole other dimension, a whole other world.
In your career, we’ve seen you biking in Cleveland, and then in Miami. LA’s obviously a little trickier. Tell me about where biking fits into your life right now.
It’s definitely a lot trickier, because it’s heavy traffic here, things of that nature. But we ride bikes here a lot. Not as much as I do back home when I’m in Ohio, because we have a lot of bike paths and things like that, which helps. But yeah, biking’s still a part of our life here in Los Angeles.
Do your kids ride?
No, my kids don’t ride as much. My daughter—she’s nine—does, when we go back home. It’s funny you say that. We just went back to Ohio last week and the first thing she grabbed when we opened the garage was her bike. And she just started riding around the house and outside. So that was pretty cool.
I feel like your sons—your teenage years, your early 20s, that’s the period where you’re like, “I’m not doing this, dad. I want to be in a car.”
Well, yeah, my oldest son, he loves to drive. My younger son, he’s of age to drive, but he actually doesn’t want to drive right now. He just likes sitting in the back of the car and just being lazy, I guess.
So give me the breakdown: Cleveland, Miami, and Los Angeles as bike cities. What stands out to you about biking in each of them?
Well, for me, growing up in my hometown in Akron, Ohio, it was transportation for us. From when you first started riding a bike at whatever, three years old, to about 15 and and a half, when you got your permit to even drive, that’s how you got around. Obviously your parents would take you to school if you had that opportunity, or take you to basketball practices and football practices, or whatever the case may be. But for me, my whole middle school, from sixth to eighth grade, I rode a bike every day to school. During the winter, during the spring, during the fall, I would ride a bike every day, unless every now and then a parent would take me to school. I spent almost 25 years of my life in Akron, Ohio. And then I spent another four years when I went back to Cleveland. So 29 of my 39 years were spent in northeast Ohio. Four years in Miami—I did a lot of cycling there. It was, I forgot what it was called—we used to do this race every, was it the first Friday or the last Friday of every month? The whole city would come.
Critical Mass, right?
Critical Mass. I would ride in that. When I was available and I was there, we were riding Critical Mass. I don’t know if it was the first Friday or the last Friday. That shit was fun. That was extremely fun. It’d be like 250, 300 people on bikes riding around the city of Miami and obviously it’d be mapped out, and we’d usually end back downtown. We would start downtown, go all the way around Miami, and end up back downtown. It was pretty cool.
Does anything stick out from that? It’s not the most normal thing in the world, to see LeBron James when you’re on your bike ride.
No, no. It would be hilarious when you’d ride past somebody in Critical Mass and they’re like, “Was that…? No, there’s no way. Oh shit, that was!” I think the thing that stood out most to me was just how the whole community—we just started being one with the community. Obviously I’m not from South Florida, but doing Critical Mass with my guy Randy—he’s the one who told me about it. He’s like, “Man, you got to do one with us, man. It’s super cool. You’ll love it.” And you just felt one with the community and that was a treat in itself for me.
Are there lessons you’ve taken from riding a bike—from the feelings you have riding bike—that apply in your career as a basketball player?
Yeah, just always feeling like a kid. As a professional, you can get caught up in so much—the responsibility of it, the hard work, obviously the dedication it takes, the scrutiny. Sometimes it feels like work. You don’t want it to feel like work, but sometimes it becomes so grueling that you’re like, “I don’t know if I’m going to get through it.” And biking just always brings me back to my childhood, where you literally had no responsibility besides being a good person. And from time to time you got to make your bed up. Other than that, you don’t have no bills, you don’t have kids to look after, you don’t have to worry about if my taxes are signed and done, things of that nature. You just get to live life very peacefully and freely.
