LeBron James museum: From artifacts to memorabilia, here's what you can experience, all details
The 'LeBron James Home Court' museum opened to the public on Saturday morning. The LeBron James Foundation built the museum after renovating the former Tangier restaurant, now named House Three Thirty, taking guests through LeBron’s journey through life.
The museum contains memorabilia dating from LeBron's boyhood to the present. The museum allows guests to take a self-guided tour down LeBron-themed memory lane.
The basement of House Three Thirty is decorated with wallpaper made of enlarging the letters that the four-time NBA champion has received from fans in his NBA career.
The visitors also get the opportunity to access the re-creation of Spring Hill Apartment No. 602, where the NBA star grew up. The guests can use a personal key to open the door to a place where LeBron grew up with his mother, Gloria James, from 1996 until 2003.
The apartment has a very authentic feel to it, including mail addressed to Gloria and college offer letters that LeBron received during his draft years. It also has the magnet pictures from LeBron's youth attached to the refrigerator.
Once the visitors transition from the apartment, the next stop is the St. Vincent-St. Mary basketball locker room. It was the place where the famous St. Vincent-St. Mary’s “Fab Five” came together. The next stop is the LeBron James Arena, which has the original basketball hoop from St. Vincent-St. Mary’s gymnasium. LeBron took the hoop when his foundation was remodeling it in 2013.
Other parts of the museum are also embellished by putting a spotlight on James being drafted first overall in 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers. It also showcases his four NBA championships: 2012 and 2013 with the Miami Heat, 2016 with the Cavs, and 2020 with the Lakers.
It also proudly shows his two gold medals with the U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team in 2008 and 2012.
Gloria James made LeBron James' museum rich with her son’s childhood memories
A mother knows more about her child’s childhood than he or she herself does, and Gloria James enriched LeBron’s museum with unseen childhood memories. When the museum was being made, it was Gloria who curated the replica of the apartment, which consisted of Lebron’s small bedroom, a living room and a kitchen.
LeBron said that as a child, he used to ask his mother to save everything since he started playing sports. No surprise; Goldria had it all with her.
“I used to get on my mom a lot about saving everything since I started first playing sports,” James said. “And she kind of threw it back in my face when the stuff was being prepared down at the museum because a lot of stuff in there was because of the stuff that she saved.”
She had saved things that even LeBron had no idea about, like his MVP when he was nine years old. The ticket for the museum is $23, the same as LeBron’s jersey number. The money collected would go to a training model that employs students, educators, parents and family members who are affiliated with I Promise School.