Sports Illustrated is no longer the national conversation-setter it once was, but way back in 2002, being on the cover of the then-weekly magazine was a huge deal. Before the internet and social media turned sports discourse into a daily battle, the front of that magazine was a sign of what the biggest story in sports that week was. So when then-SI journalist Grant Wahl wrote a cover story on LeBron James, just a 17-year-old high school junior at the time — under the somehow not-hyperbolic, and ultimately prescient caption, “Chosen One” — it served as much of the sports world’s introduction to a teen who is now on-track to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and arguably greatest ever player.
LeBron James pays tribute to Grant Wahl, the journalist who introduced the world to LeBron James
