The joy of LeBron's historic moment and why sport should unite us

At 38, James is playing like he did at 18 and, more importantly, has the same hunger for success he displayed as a teenager. 

But when you're a poor kid from the outskirts of Akron, success isn't guaranteed. "I've seen drugs, guns, murder. It was crazy," LeBron recounted in a 2003 interview. 

With a teenage mother (16 at the time of his birth) and a violent father, young LeBron found himself in a different house every few months, chased away with his mother by landlords who no longer tolerated late rent. 

A statistician could probably tell us that for a child in his situation the likelihood of getting it wrong was immense. And yet, thirty-some years later, here we are, witnessing a historic moment not just in basketball, but in sports in general.

What made the difference for LeBron? It's hard to pinpoint one thing or one moment. Events can happen in any of our lives that can change our trajectory in the blink of an eye, for better or worse. 

For LeBron James a big factor was undoubtedly his high school football coach, Frank Walker, who when he learned of his predicament took him under his wing and guided him to the right path.

"My life changed then. I had shelter and food. I'll never forget what Walker did for me," James confessed in that 2003 interview. 

But perhaps the most important factor in his rise was a huge desire to escape poverty.

"But who doesn't want to escape poverty?" you might ask. Yes, they do, but often it's not enough just to want it and work hard for it.

It also takes a dose of luck, and generally for the dominoes to fall into place at the right time. And for James that's what happened.

And not just for him. Think of Cristiano Ronaldo and the stories about his childhood without toys and the McDonald's salesgirl who slipped him a few burgers without her bosses seeing.

Think of the legendary Pele whose team of kids were nicknamed 'the one without shoes'.

World number one in tennis, Novak Djokovic, grew up in a war-torn country at a time when no one was guaranteed a loaf of bread on the table. The examples are countless. 

The beauty of these stories comes when some of the success returns to the communities where it originated.

"What good is a Ferrari to me?" asked Sadio Mane, the footballer who invests some of his money in the development of his native Senegal. 

LeBron James started a foundation named after him that fights for the children of Akron to help them thrive or at least not slide down the path of violence. 

All the more important are these historic moments in the lives of these athletes and should be appreciated for their true value.

In a world where everything seems fast forward, society is constantly looking for another moment to excite itself, to give it its daily dose of adrenaline.

Sport can be an inexhaustible source of such moments, but that shouldn't stop us from putting everything on pause for a bit and thinking about what a beautiful moment we might have witnessed. 

It is also important as individuals and as a society to know how to lose gracefully when faced with such moments too.

Let's not get drawn into pointless battles where everything is either black or white, where the friend next door becomes the enemy just because he or she is with the rival team.

Sport can be the glue we need to at least try to be more united. We just have to let it do that.

It's important that we learn to reach out to the opponent who has beaten us and have the strength to say, "You were better today." 

The best example of this was the game where LeBron James broke the NBA scoring record.

It's not very often that the record holder is there when his performance is surpassed, but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was there first.

No one can know what was really in his heart, but the moment the cameras were pointed at him, we could see a man laughing and applauding every success of the man who was about to beat his record.

And when THAT basket was scored, he stood up, grabbed a basketball and handed it to LeBron.

Although their relationship was never a great one ("There never was one," James said), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hugged him and told him simply, "You deserve this!" And no one can deny it.