I love LeBron James. And it’s not just because he makes clips from The Lion King appropriate.httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJuvLndCMfc

LeBron James is going home. Last Thursday, the best basketball player in the world wrote a letter describing his reasons for leaving the Miami Heat and rejoining the community that raised him. LeBron James has returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but more importantly, again ensconce himself in the northeast Ohio region that loves him dearly, and that he, in turn, loves back. In lieu of an announcement, or rather a “Decision,” James dictated a letter to Sports Illustrated‘s Lee Jenkins. In it, James clarified why he had chosen to leave Miami, where he had won two championships, and detailed that his decision to return home was about more than basketball. James’ letter is incredibly touching, and yet again reveals that he is an incredibly thoughtful person and game-changer:

I feel my calling here goes above basketball. I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously. My presence can make a difference in Miami, but I think it can mean more where I’m from. I want kids in Northeast Ohio, like the hundreds of Akron third-graders I sponsor through my foundation, to realize that there’s no better place to grow up. Maybe some of them will come home after college and start a family or open a business. That would make me smile. Our community, which has struggled so much, needs all the talent it can get.

In Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.

 I’m ready to accept the challenge. I’m coming home.

Between this explanation of his motives and the wonderful essay he wrote about being raised by a single mother, where he argued that we need to support single mothers and not, say, castigate them, I am here for LeBron James. He has always been a gifted and jaw-dropping player. But if these writings are any indication, he’s a dude who genuinely believes he can change his own community and strives to do so. And he articulates that aim in a way that doesn’t blame folks for their situations, but by recognizing that he is a member of the community and that he has the ability to bring about positive change.

As a native Midwesterner from a city much less glamorous than Chicago, I understand the joy Cleveland felt when James made his announcement. The midwest is full of cities like Akron, like my hometown, where folks’ biggest goal is to leave–for a variety of reasons, one of which is the difficulty in establishing and maintaining a kind of livelihood that drove blacks in particular to those locations in the first place. (I’m one of those folks.) So it means something when someone not only expresses unequivocal love for these towns, but wants to aspire to help make them even greater than they already are. When the jobs, when the people go away have consistently just gone away, it means more than many on either coast can understand when a native son returns and says that he’s doing so because he flat-out loves home.

I’m so glad that the King has returned. We should all stand and cheer.