LeBron James Is on “a Hell of a Ride.” Now He’s Got a New Maybach for the Journey.
James worked directly with the Mercedes-Maybach Manufaktur Made to Measure individual customization atelier at corporate headquarters in Stuttgart to make the car his own. (Such services are available in the States as well.)Perusing thousands of available color options, he sought a soothing softer palette, selecting a bone-deep ivory for the exterior and an indigo stormy blue leather for the interior. He added a metal plate listing the birth dates of each of his three children—LeBron “Bronny” Jr., Bryce, and Zhuri—onto all the doorsills so it would be the first thing he sees when he enters the car. He added an etched plaque on the console between the front seats featuring Akron’s latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, beneath the letters LLTK, for “Long Live the King.”And his personal King James logo—a blocky mirror-linked capital L and J, for his initials, with a crown atop their extended feet—appears throughout the vehicle: as badges on the front fenders, in ribbed metal on the climate vents, embroidered on the headrests and floor mats, and even on the leather lumbar pillows in back. “That’s super personalized,” James says.As individuated as the car is, it isn’t exactly one of one. James and Maybach produced a second S 680, nearly identical to the one he spec’d. This car will be auctioned off later this year to benefit his LeBron James Family Foundation and the I Promise educational initiatives it runs for at-risk students in his hometown.LeBron James in his one-off Mercedes-Maybach S 680
Mercedes-Benz Group“I’m just trying to change the landscape of my community for the better,” James says. “And for the Mercedes-Maybach team to want to partner with me and to help me continue to make strides on impacting my community means everything to me.”James’s experiences behind the wheel began well before he had a license, at around nine years old. He says he would sit on his uncle’s or his mom’s lap, and “they’re telling you to turn the wheel a little bit to the right, a little to the left, and they got the gas and brake.” By 12 or 13, he was driving his uncle’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo on his own.When he earned his driver’s license at 16, his mom got him a seven-year-old Ford Explorer SUV. But two years later, he was drafted into the NBA. So the first car he bought for himself was a luxurious BMW 7 Series, in forest green and tan, “to match my high school colors, which I love,” he says.
