Maybe it takes a Clevelander, as playwright Rajiv Joseph is, to express in art what it meant when the hometown basketball Cavaliers won the NBA championship in 2016, the city’s first major sports championship in more than 50 years. Maybe it also takes a Clevelander to know how much Akron, Ohio-born LeBron James (now a Los Angeles Laker) meant and still means to so many people, of all colors.
Joseph’s play “King James” is not so much about the hoops superstar, but about the impact his athletic greatness has had on those brought together by their fandom.
In “King James,” which opens in previews March 9 in the Old Globe’s theater in the round, the friendship between Matt, who is White, and Shawn, who is Black, grows and evolves as they follow their hero over more than a dozen years.
“The play is not about sports,” said Justin Emeka, who is directing “King James.” “It’s about love and friendship, and the challenge of cultivating a friendship and maintaining a friendship over the passage of time. Sports is just one way that allows them (Matt and Shawn) to do that.”
“King James” was originally a co-production between L.A.’s Center Theater Group and the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, where it premiered in 2022. The story set in Cleveland begins in 2004, early in LeBron James’ career with the Cavaliers, through his 2010 departure for Miami to play with the NBA’s Heat, and his return to Cleveland culminating with that 2016 title win over the Golden State Warriors.
Shawn (Joshua Echebiri) and Matt (Caleb Foote) live and die with each season, each high and each low.
“I’m interested in why this is true,” Emeka said. “What about sports and what about LeBron James helps us express and identify who we are? In a sense, that’s the function of what a hero does for you — you see yourself in them.”
In a joint Zoom interview, co-stars Echebiri and Foote talked about the nature of fandom and friendship.
“I’ve heard that sports is the second greatest bringer together of people outside of religion,” said Foote, a University of Michigan graduate and avid fan of all Detroit sports teams, even the lowly Pistons basketball team. “Sports have this amazing way of breaking down barriers between people. It’s the ultimate ice-breaker.”
Said Echebiri, who admittedly will take the MJ side in the Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James debate: “What it comes down to is everyone wants to belong, to feel like they’re part of a bigger tribe. When it comes to sports, you have this common object of worship, of admiration, of identity. You form your identity within that whole sport or team. A lot of that comes from belonging. When the team is down, you’re down. We’re together in this.”
For both actors, the mythology of LeBron James, now 39 years old and still going strong, is a formidable one.
“We know where we were at all of these pivotal times in (his) career,” Foote said. “I remember where I was when he won a championship with both Miami and Cleveland. He is so captivating.”
Echebiri agreed.
“There’s something almost Cinderella/American Dream that LeBron captures,” Echibiri said. “He’s the closest real-life figure that we’ve had in the last decade to that. You have this young kid from outside Cleveland raised by his mother who from a young age changes not only his mother’s life but many lives around the world and who undergoes challenges.”
That said, to director Emeka, “the heart of the play is a very unique and beautiful friendship between two men — one White, one Black — in America.”
Foote and Echebiri echo that sentiment.
“Even if you’re not a sports fan,” Foote said, “this (play) is a reflection on the challenges of friendship.”
Echebiri called “King James” ultimately a play about hope and one that theatergoers will connect with.
“There are Matts and Shawns in the audience. Or everyone in the room has a Matt, has a Shawn. It might not be sports that brought them together, but something brought them together, something that glues all of us together.”
‘King James’
When: In previews through March 13. Opens March 14 and runs through March 31. 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays.
Where: Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, Balboa Park, The Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park
Tickets: $33 and up
Phone: (619) 234-5623
Online: theoldglobe.org
Coddon is a freelance writer.
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