Charting The Reign of King James

LeBron by Jeff Benedict Photo courtesy of Simon & Schuster
Sports Illustrated writer Jeff Benedict has an eye for the greats, or as they're commonly referred to by fans, G.O.A.T.s — the greatest of all time. His biography, "Tiger Woods" was the basis for a two-part docu-series on HBO, and his book "Dynasty," covering the unbeatable New England Patriots team led by Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick has been ordered as an upcoming series for Hulu. His latest biography of an American superstar is "LeBron." Known as King James to his NBA fans, Lebron James is undeniably one of the greatest to ever play the game. I spoke with Benedict ahead of a talk he'll give at House of Books in Kent, Conn., on Friday, May 5, at 6 p.m.
Alexander Wilburn: When we talk about these larger-than-life sports figures you’ve written about — Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, and now LeBron James — who almost transcend their role as just athletes to become pillars in the culture, what makes an icon?
Jeff Benedict: To me, those three are the transcendent athletes of the 21st century. I’d add a fourth in Serena Williams. The reason I wanted to write about Tom, Tiger, and LeBron is that they’re not just athletes, they’re global figures. In order to be interesting enough to write a book about someone they have to be more than just a great athlete. Tiger and LeBron were certainly helped by being the two global spokesmen for Nike — Michael Jordan was in the ‘80s and ‘90s — Tom was helped by leading the greatest sports team that we’ve seen in this century. There have obviously been a lot of endorsements and business opportunities. Tom Brady has built a brand as a businessman. That’s also what separates them, they built businesses while they were playing at the peak of their careers. Traditionally most athletes have waited until they retired to try and start a business.
AW: The movie “Air” directed by Ben Affleck is out now about the creation of the Air Jordan. Nike and Michael Jordan teamed up to create a cultural legacy that’s still relevant 30 years later. Why hasn’t LeBron captured that?
JB: Jordan was first. Whenever you’re first, that’s the legacy that lasts, and it should. When he joined Nike it was a low-grade sneaker company. People only bought Nikes if they were going jogging. He was really responsible for catapulting Nike into a global company. In LeBron’s case, he came second, the baton was passed to him from Michael. What LeBron did differently is he really is responsible for opening up China. He has gone to China every single year since he’s been in the NBA, he’s really opened up the foreign markets for Nike. People in America really underestimate the significance of that. We’re so insular here, most Americans don’t really recognize how much impact LeBron has had with Nike in markets that we don’t pay attention to. But China is the biggest market in the world, and LeBron James is the most recognized athlete in China. Michael Jordan was a ground breaker and a trailblazer and the Air Jordan brand is never going to be eclipsed because it is so intricately married to Nike, and “Air,” which I loved, did a good job of showing that. LeBron, he’s more than just Nike. He’s in movies and TV and HBO comedies. He owns a piece of the Boston Red Sox. His portfolio is more diverse.
AW: Just this year LeBron James broke the scoring record previously held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Is that bittersweet?
JB: We’re talking about a handful of players who become the all-time leading scorer, hit the most home runs, and won the most Super Bowls…we can count those players on one hand. When you set a record like that, you’d love for that record to stand forever. But players also realize they’re always going to be someone who’s going to come along and threaten the record. I thought Kareem was gracious. These records are so rarely broken, the person who previously held them usually isn’t alive. So it’s actually neat that Kareem was here to see that happen. That record that LeBron just broke — that record just stood for a long time.
AW: Thinking about his legacy: Jordon was a Bull, Kareem was a Laker, Larry Bird was a Celtic — who will claim LeBron?
JB: By the way, people dismiss the fact that Kareem spent a huge swath of his career as a Buck and he didn’t win there. He didn’t win any championships until he went to the Lakers and paired up with Magic Johnson.
AW: But we think of him as a Laker.
JB: No, that is how we think about him, and you’re absolutely right. LeBron is different from them, and different from all of the great players who came before. He's "The World Traveler." He’s been to four cities and he has delivered a championship to every team he’s played on. That’s what distinguishes him. I wasn’t knocking Kareem when I said he played for the Bucks, but he only won championships with one team [Editor's note: Abdul-Jabbar did win one championship with the Bucks in 1971]. Same with Jordan, same with Bird. There’s no other journeyman, no other greatest of all time, who’s in the conversation, who was able to go to all these teams and deliver.
AW: When the topic of The GOAT comes up — the greatest of all time — it’s likely you’ll get a different answer depending on the generation of the basketball fan. Is it actually worth trying to rank Kareem, Jordon, and LeBron, or should we let the different generation have their own GOATs and appreciate the players on their own?
JB: It’s great discussion material for sports talk radio, but to me, I don’t ever weigh in on that. The only people I think can really weigh in with authority are those players themselves. When you look at Michael Jordan, I like what Michael said at the pinnacle of his career and being compared to Bill Russell. He said he thought it was inappropriate to compare, because they played in different eras, and the game was very different in those eras. To me, that makes a lot of sense with Michael and LeBron as well. Michael played his last game as LeBron was being drafted. Literally, one era closed and another opened in the same summer. Sometimes history had a beautifully poetic way of unfolding. I think in the end, LeBron will be remembered for a lot of things besides his talent in basketball. That’s not a knock on Michael, he was a world-class entertainer who happened to be an athlete. LeBron has branched out into areas that Michael purposefully stayed away from, like politics and social activism. That is another form of legacy.
The legal case, if approved by the court, would nullify a 2024 zoning regulation change that allows hotels in the RR1 zone via special permit application.
LAKEVILLE — At nearly 11 p.m. on Monday night, Oct. 20, Salisbury’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-1 to approve, with conditions, Aradev LLC’s controversial application to redevelop the Wake Robin Inn.
The decision came more than 4 hours after the meeting began at 6:30 p.m., and more than a year since Aradev submitted its first application to expand the longstanding country inn. The approved plans call for a new 2,000-square-foot cabin, an event space, a sit-down restaurant and fast-casual counter, a spa, library, lounge, gym and seasonal pool.
Aradev withdrew its first application in December 2024 after P&Z indicated it would likely deny it based on concerns about sewer approval, noise levels and the general size and intensity of the proposed development. During a pre-application meeting held with Aradev in January 2025, the Commission informed the developer that those three topics were the cruxes of both P&Z’s and the public’s objection to the first proposal.
The nine-page, 40-condition draft resolution that was ultimately approved on Monday night states that in the revised application, those “three major areas of concern have been addressed.” The document, which is available for public viewing on P&Z’s “Meeting Documents” web page, lists a number of changes that have eased doubts: a reduction in the number of auxiliary cabins, a tightening of the central campus that brings external elements like the spa and pool closer to the core of the development, a thorough sound analysis and noise pollution mitigation plan, approval from the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority, and moving the “event barn,” once planned to be a free-standing structure, into the main inn building expansion.
In the Commission’s deliberations following the closure of the public hearing for the revised application in September, several commissioners expressed their satisfaction with Aradev’s responsiveness to the commission’s and community’s concerns. During the first deliberation session on Oct. 7, Chair Michael Klemens said he found the new plans to be “much better designed this go around,” though he did qualify that the proposed development was “still large.”
At the same meeting, commissioner Allen Cockerline voiced his approval of the renewed application’s technical details, such as its sound survey, a robust stormwater management plan, and relocating the event facility inside the main building, which he described as a “very, very positive move.”
Vice Chair Cathy Shyer, though, felt differently. “The bottom line is, this is a big development,” she said during the Oct. 7 discussion. “It’s as big as the last one.”
During the seven public hearing sessions that took place in August and September, cries that the revised application had not mitigated in any meaningful way its most invasive components — namely, the “inappropriate” size and scale of the development in a rural residential (zoned RR1) neighborhood — were a common refrain from neighbors of the inn.
Over the course of those seven meetings, and an additional six during the hearing process for Aradev’s first application last year, P&Z heard hours of testimony from the community, the vast majority of it in opposition to the project.
Shyer echoed those sentiments at the Oct. 20 meeting: “Some things just don’t belong in some places.”
She expressed her frustration at the Commission for its debate over conditioning the approval to remove three of the four cottages in the site plans, which she felt was a red herring towards the broader issue. “This project is so big and so intense that taking three keys away is not making any difference.”
The meeting eventually took a 45-minute recess to allow Land Use Director Abby Conroy to draft a new resolution that included the stipulation to remove the three cottages, leaving only one still included in the plan. Upon resuming the meeting at 10:30 p.m., Klemens asked for a motion to approve the resolution, which was followed by a lengthy silence before Cockerline eventually offered it up. The vote passed 4-1, with Shyer voting no.
The moment marked the end of an application process that has seen heightened emotions, community organizing that includes two petitions against the project with hundreds of signatures each, and litigation against P&Z for a regulation change that allowed the proposal to see review in the first place.
The legal case, if approved by the court, would nullify a 2024 zoning regulation change that allows hotels in the RR1 zone via special permit application. Klemens said that, because of this, “the applicant is proceeding totally at its own risk.”
P&Z’s attorney Charles Andres stated that he believed it was unlikely Aradev would even be able to begin construction in the next several months as the case sees court review: “It’s highly unrealistic that they will proceed while that is still pending.”
SALISBURY — Amanda Cannon, age 100, passed away Oct. 15, 2025, at Noble Horizons. She was the wife of the late Jeremiah Cannon.
Amanda was born Aug. 20, 1925, in Brooklyn, New York the daughter of the late Karl and Ella Husslein.
She was widowed at the age of 31 and worked as a bookkeeper for the Standard Oil Company and other oil companies in New York City until she retired at age 72.
Amanda moved to Noble Horizons in 2013 to live near her daughter Diane and son-in-law (the late) Raymond Zelazny.
She enjoyed her time in the Northwest Corner and was an avid nature lover, albeit considered herself a native New Yorker as she was born and resided in NYC for 88 years.
She was a faithful parishioner of St. Mary’s Church in Lakeville and attended Mass regularly until the age of 99.
Amanda was the grandmother of (the late) Jesse Morse and is survived by her daughter, Diane Zelazny, her grandsons, Adam Morse, Raymond Morse and his wife Daron and their daughter and her great granddaughter Cecelia Morse.
A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Thursday, Oct. 23, 11 a.m. at St Mary’s Church in Lakeville, Connecticut.
Memorial donations may be made to St. Mary’s Church.
The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.
LAKEVILLE — Barbara Meyers DelPrete, 84, passed away Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, at her home. She was the beloved wife of George R. DelPrete for 62 years.
Mrs. DelPrete was born in Burlington, Iowa, on May 31, 1941, daughter of the late George and Judy Meyers. She lived in California for a time and had been a Lakeville resident for the past 55 years.
Survivors, in addition to her husband, George, include son, George R. DelPrete II, daughter, Jena DelPrete Allee, and son Stephen P. DelPrete. Grandchildren; Trey, Cassidy, and Meredith DelPrete, Jack, Will and Finn Allee, and Ali and Nicholas DelPrete.
A Funeral Mass was held at St. Mary’s Church, Lakeville, on Saturday, Oct. 4. May she Rest in Peace.
Ryan Funeral Home, 255 Main St., Lakeville, is in care of arrangements.
To offer an online condolence, please visit ryanfhct.com
SHARON — Shirley Anne Wilbur Perotti, daughter of George and Mabel (Johnson) Wilbur, the first girl born into the Wilbur family in 65 years, passed away on Oct. 5, 2025, at Noble Horizons.
Shirley was born on Aug. 19, 1948 at Sharon Hospital.
She was raised on her parents’ poultry farm (Odge’s Eggs, Inc.).
After graduating from Housatonic Valley Regional High School, she worked at Litchfield County National Bank and Colonial Bank.
She married the love of her life, John, on Aug. 16, 1969, and they lived on Sharon Mountain for more than 50 years.
Shirley enjoyed creating the annual family Christmas card, which was a coveted keepsake.She also enjoyed having lunch once a month with her best friends, Betty Kowalski, Kathy Ducillo, and Paula Weir.
In addition to John, she is survived by her three children and their families; Sarah Medeiros, her husband, Geoff, and their sons, Nick and Andrew, of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, Shelby Diorio, her husband, Mike, and their daughters, Addie, Lainey and Lyla, of East Canaan, Connecticut,Jeffrey Perotti, his wife, Melissa, and their daughters, Annie, Lucy and Winnie, of East Canaan. Shirley also leaves her two brothers, Edward Wilbur and his wife Joan, and David Wilbur; two nieces, three nephews, and several cousins.
At Shirley’s request, services will be private.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Sharon Woman’s Club Scholarship Fund, PO Box 283, Sharon, CT 06069.
The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.