{"id":140512,"date":"2025-05-20T17:29:58","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T21:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=140512"},"modified":"2025-05-20T17:29:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T21:29:58","slug":"ohio-state-university-preparing-honor-lebron-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/20\/ohio-state-university-preparing-honor-lebron-james\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State University Preparing To Honor LeBron James"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether LeBron James has been playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, or Los Angeles Lakers, he\u2019s made it his mission to use his voice and influence to uplift and advance his community.<\/p>\n

Ohio State University Preparing To Honor LeBron James<\/h2>\n

The Akron-based LeBron James Family Foundation and I Promise School aren\u2019t just a couple of the king\u2019s crown jewels, they provide practical solutions to real problems that less fortunate families face. He\u2019s partnered with the University of Akron to provide four-year scholarships<\/a> for students from his I Promise program. James has also been key in establishing a university resource center (I Promise Institute<\/a>, a transitional housing complex (I Promise Village<\/a>), and medical center (I Promise HealthQuarters<\/a>) for the Akron community.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Akron Public Schools Superintendent David James is asked questions by Litchfield Middle School students Makhaila Bonds, 13 (left) (cq) Megan Marsh, 12, and Sharen Mullis, 12 (cq) before the official press conference announcing the mentoring partnership between the Lebron James Family Foundation at Signet Jewelers at a press conference at Litchfield Middle School in Akron, Ohio. (Karen Schiely\/Akron Beacon Journal)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For these projects and his other charitable works, James may soon be honored with an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree<\/a>, per 10TV\u2019s Web Staff. Ohio State University\u2019s board of trustees \u201cwill vote Wednesday.\u201d The school believes James \u201chas redefined philanthropy to create a revolutionary model for community building in his hometown of Akron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. James?<\/h3>\n

There have been a number of former NBA players to receive an honorary doctorate degree.<\/p>\n

Steve Kerr<\/a> (now the Golden State Warriors head coach) was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities degree<\/a> from Arizona. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/a> was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Public Service degree<\/a> from the University of Central Florida. Dikembe Mutombo<\/a> has been awarded three honorary degrees<\/a>, each a Doctorate of Humane Letters. Magic Johnson<\/a> also has multiple honorary degrees, his first a Doctorate of Philosophy in Humanities<\/a> from Rust College. Bill Russell<\/a> has honorary doctorate degrees<\/a> from Harvard University and the University of San Francisco (granted posthumously<\/a>).<\/p>\n

James would be the first active NBA player to receive an honorary doctorate since Johnson.<\/p>\n

In 1989, Johnson received his degree from Mississippi\u2019s Rust College for his work with the United Negro College Fund. Of note, Rust College \u2014formerly known as Shaw University \u2014is a historically black college (HBCU). Interestingly, Johnson attended Michigan State University, which is located more than 700 miles away from Rust College. However, his father was from Wesson (MS)<\/a>, less than four hours away from the Rust College campus.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Jeff Lange \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether LeBron James has been playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, or Los Angeles Lakers, he\u2019s made it his mission to use his voice and influence to uplift and advance his community. Ohio State University Preparing To Honor LeBron James The Akron-based LeBron James Family Foundation and I Promise School aren\u2019t just a couple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":140518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,4,1608,9,20,25,31,16,62,3],"tags":[2140,2047,38,755,528],"class_list":["post-140512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-cavaliers","category-nuggets","category-warriors","category-rockets","category-heat","category-nba","category-news","tag-dikembe-mutombo","tag-kareem-abdul-jabbar","tag-lebron-james","tag-magic-johnson","tag-steve-kerr"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140512"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140520,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140512\/revisions\/140520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}