When the NBA summer league was quaint, when it was just the business of evaluating basketball before the evaluation of basketball and the pleasures of Las Vegas, it was played in Boston. In the summer of 2003, LeBron James was there. He hadn't yet played an official professional game, but he was already rich, having signed a seven-year, $87 million endorsement deal with Nike before sinking his first basket. LeBron in the University of Massachusetts Boston gym 20 years ago represented two things at once, a staggering physical presence for a mere 18-year-old, and physically, a mere child compared to what his fearsome adult body would become.
Beyond the points and winning, LeBron James' legacy -- for better or worse -- will be his empire
