Hip-hop icon T.I. recently shared a heartwarming story about how LeBron James visited his grandmother before she passed away, cementing his status as a lifelong fan of the basketball legend. In a recent appearance on the Broken Play podcast, the rapper recounted how King James paid a visit to his grandmother's home in the Bankhead neighborhood of Atlanta for the last Mother's Day she was alive to see, Complex shares.
According to T.I., LeBron “ate barbecue, kicked it with me, my grandmama, and all my cousins and s***” on the front porch of his grandmother's home. This gesture left a lasting impression on the rapper, who said, “I’ma always be a LeBron James fan.” T.I.'s grandmother was also a big fan of the NBA star and would always ask about him, leading T.I. to joke that she was more interested in LeBron than her own family.
The rapper's memory appears to be from the 2009 NBA Playoffs, when LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers swept the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. While James has never struggled against the Hawks during his postseason career, beating the team all three times he faced them while playing for Cleveland, his visit to T.I.'s grandmother had a lasting impact beyond basketball.
T.I. also praised LeBron for leaving a positive impression on his family, saying, “He wasn’t a billionaire at the time, but he left that billionaire residue.” The rapper's story is just one example of the many ways that LeBron James has used his platform to positively impact people's lives, both on and off the court.
While T.I.'s grandmother may have passed away, her memory lives on through the kindness that LeBron James showed her in her final days. And for T.I., the experience will always make him a devoted fan of one of the greatest basketball players of all time.