• ESPN

Oct 30, 2024, 12:00 PM

When the NBA schedule comes out each summer, LeBron James has several dates he immediately zeroes in on.

Playing on Christmas Day is a given — this year he will play in the signature holiday game for the 19th time, already a record. Then there’s his birthday, Dec. 30, a day he’s played and thrived on dating back to high school. One of the most memorable birthdays was just two years ago in 2022, the day he turned 38, when he scored 47 points in a win against the Atlanta Hawks.

But there are two more dates he circles. The first is Halloween, James’ favorite holiday since he was a child. A lifelong fan of scary movies, James has helped make dressing up as an adult cool over the past two decades. His elaborate costumes often go viral and become the centerpieces of lavish parties he throws for teammates and friends.

The other date, since 2010, has been his return home to Cleveland, where he started his NBA career. Ironically, his first game back in northeast Ohio after he left for the Miami Heat — Dec. 2, 2010, the date is burned in his memory — was one of the more unpleasant moments of his career.

But that has long been pushed to the side. The visits evolved from vitriol sessions to recruiting trips — which started happening at the end of his Heat tenure — to annual lovefests with Cleveland fans appreciating their favorite hometown hero, who brought the Cavaliers their only NBA title in 2016.

That makes this season particularly special as Halloween and James’ return to the Cleveland Cavaliers nearly intersect for the first time in the 11 seasons he’s played with the Heat and Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers’ annual visit to Cleveland is Wednesday, Oct. 30 — one night before Halloween. As James returns to the city he called home for 11 seasons, his son Bronny — now his Lakers teammate — will join him, playing in the arena where he once roamed the locker room as a small child.

What James has planned for this Halloween remains unknown. The Lakers are off on Halloween night, but do have a game the next night against the Toronto Raptors. Still, with James getting a chance to celebrate his 22nd NBA Halloween at his first NBA home, here’s a look back at how King James became the NBA’s King of Halloween with some of his most elaborate (and terrifying) costumes and parties over the years:

2008: ‘Grease’

Not exactly his most impressive effort, but the leather jackets and 1970s mop were unexpected and he leaned into it. LeBron as John Travolta’s Danny Zuko wasn’t something the NBA world had on its bingo card.

2010: mouthguard fangs

Just a week into his high-stress tenure with the Heat, James wasn’t comfortable yet with Pat Riley’s rules about player attire. So he expressed himself with a special mouthguard that certainly took some Orlando Magic players by surprise that night.

2015: Prince

The Halloween gala James had in 2015 marked the true beginning of his prime costume years. He was fully committed to the Prince look that was weeks in the making and included a “performance” for teammates, who gleefully recorded him.

2016: Jerome from ‘Martin’

“Martin” was one of James’ favorite TV shows growing up and he dressed as an ode to a beloved character. But the theme of the Cavs’ party that year — which celebrated the Cavs’ 3-1 Finals comeback over the Golden State Warriors — garnered considerably more attention, especially the tombstone-shaped cookies with Warriors players’ names on them.

2017: Pennywise

This terrifying costume, based on the Stephen King “It” character, opened a new phase of James leaning into his love of horror movies and his willingness to sit for major makeup transformations. His dance party, in costume with former teammate Isaiah Thomas, who came as Eazy-E, might’ve been the highlight of their brief time together as teammates.

2018: Jason Voorhees

The Friday the 13th movies were staples for James as a teen and Jason was his favorite character. His arrival at Staples Center, in his second week as a Laker, in full regalia including an ax, was an indication of things to come in future Halloweens.

2019: Edward Scissorhands

Or as James dubbed himself “LeDward Scissorhands.” This costume showed off that in his second year living in Los Angeles, he’d discovered the many talented makeup and costume artists available to aid him in his annual Halloween obsession.

2021: Freddy Krueger

James celebrated the post-pandemic return of the Halloween season with a “Nightmare on Elm Street” theme. It came the same year James showed off his new ink, a tattoo featuring Krueger, Michael Myers and Voorhees.

2023: Beetlejuice

The preparation for James’ costume last year became the opening scenes in Netflix’s recently released “Starting 5” documentary. It took hours to perfect the Michael Keaton-style look from the 1980s classic, a movie James has watched an innumerable number of times. The cameras also revealed just how much the rest of his family, especially wife Savannah, has followed him in their love of the holiday.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst contributed to this story.