LeBron Turns 40, Reminding Me Of ‘Amico Report’ Days And How Our Careers Began

Back in 2003, I was a sportswriter in Wheeling, W.Va. So I was covering a lot of high school sports — football, basketball, tennis, golf, volleyball, you name it. But I had NBA dreams.

So aside from a regular job, I began writing an NBA email newsletter. My wife came up with the name: “The Amico Report.” I wrote and emailed out The Amico Report every Wednesday at noon. It was free and worth every penny.

Where was this newsletter delivered? To the email address of every NBA employee that I could find. That included then-commissioner David Stern. It included every league and team PR person, general manager, broadcaster, and so on. I even sent it to writers covering the respective teams.

It took some time, but I built up a subscriber base of about 7,500. And I wasn’t making a nickel. But it was before Twitter and Facebook took over the internet, and it was a way to communicate my feelings and thoughts to the rest of the NBA and some fans. People started signing up on their own. NBA coaches and GMs started to email back and tell me how much they enjoyed it. It was just fun.

And it eventually led to a full-time job covering the NBA. 

When I think about LeBron James turning 40 today, I think about The Amico Report. After all, it was in that newsletter that I begged Stern to rig the NBA lottery — to help James get drafted No. 1 overall by the Cavaliers. It was a joke, of course, but it ended up coming true.

James to the Cavs. Austin Carr cried tears of joy. So did a lot of other people associated with pro basketball in Cleveland. As an Akron native living in Wheeling, I couldn’t wait to write more about James, the Cavs, and the journey of the league’s new face.

I knew the newsletter would take off. And it did. As did James, who immediately lived up to the hype of being The Next Great NBA Superstar while at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.

Who knew that several years later I’d be covering LeBron on a full-time basis, with someone actually paying me to be in the locker room and ask him questions? In fact, if I didn’t show up to cover NBA games, I’d get in trouble.

I sure didn’t think that would ever happen. I just assumed that I’d be bouncing around small newspapers covering high school sports (and nothing wrong with either of those things) for the rest of my career.

When LeBron came in, though, it helped to change the NBA from a league looking for an identity in the post-Michael Jordan era to one that could soar again. And frankly, it went a long way in helping change the entire trajectory of my career.

So happy 40th, LeBron. And thanks. Without you, I might still be writing The Amico Report for free today. Now, instead, we’re two kids from Akron who have lived out our NBA dreams.

(P.S. Here’s a look at The Amico Report, written in November 2003, shortly after LeBron’s first game.)

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