For more than half of Nat Butler’s 40-year career working as a photographer for the NBA, he has had the opportunity to capture one of his favorite subjects: LeBron James.
“I always loved, and still love obviously, shooting him,” Butler told ESPN. “He’s always engaged. Some guys are only engaged when they have the ball. But if he’s in the corner, if he has the ball, if he’s on the bench, he’s engaged in the game and you just kind of gravitate toward that. I think he also is one of those superstars that understands the moment.”
Butler published an anthology of his work, “Courtside: 40 Years of NBA Photography,” with me last year and chose a shot of James during his first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers, soaring in Madison Square Garden to throw down a dunk against the New York Knicks for the cover.
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James has since bounced to Miami, back to Cleveland and now Los Angeles — and Butler’s camera has followed him.
In this 23-photo gallery that ESPN curated to encapsulate some of James’ biggest moments during his record-setting 23-year NBA career, two photos belong to Butler.
One is from James’ Heat days, when he slammed an alley-oop dunk over Jason Terry (see photo No. 10, below): “He always played well in Boston, and you just felt that coming. … It was just one of those more memorable LeBron dunks, for sure,” Butler said.
And the other is from James’ time with the Lakers, in the aftermath of L.A. winning the 2020 NBA championship in the Orlando bubble.
For the latter photo, Butler had to remain engaged.
James was smoking a celebratory cigar (see photo No. 20, below) during his postgame news conference after beating the Heat.
Butler had tried shooting James straight on, but the cigar smoke was lost in the bright NBA Finals banner set up behind where James was sitting.
So Butler repositioned himself, with the black curtains to his left providing a perfect backdrop to accentuate the plume of smoke from his cigar.
“He was answering questions, so he wasn’t sitting there puffing on a cigar, per se,” Butler said. “He had it lit and then in between questions, just took a puff. … When he exhaled, it was just a cool moment.”
It’s one of many images selected for this gallery on the occasion of James’ 41st birthday on Tuesday.
No. 1
Rocky Widner/ NBAE via Getty Images
James met the moment in his highly anticipated NBA debut. Against the Sacramento Kings, he finished with 25 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals — including one late in the first quarter, where he intercepted a pass and streaked down the other end to break out his signature “Akron Hammer” dunk.
No. 2
Duane Burleson/AP
In a game that James describes as the moment he knew he would live up to the tremendous hype thrust on his shoulders upon entering the league, James scored 25 straight points down the stretch for the Cavs — including the game winner in double overtime — to beat the vaunted Detroit Pistons with an incredible 48-point performance to go up 3-2 in the 2007 Eastern Conference finals.
No. 3
Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
James played 46 of 48 minutes and flirted with a triple-double (20 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists) in Game 6 of the 2007 Eastern Conference finals to help the Cavaliers clinch their first NBA Finals appearance in team history.
He shared the celebration with his firstborn son, Bronny.
No. 4
Hans Deryk/Reuters
After the San Antonio Spurs swept the Cavaliers to win the 2007 NBA Finals, Tim Duncan found LeBron James after Game 4 and passed on some words of encouragement.
“This is going to be your league in a little while, but I appreciate you giving us this year,” Duncan said.
The two would meet two more times in the Finals, with James’ Miami Heat winning in 2013 and the Spurs beating James once again in 2014.
No. 5
Gustavo Caballero/WireImage
The “Heatles” arrived on the scene in South Beach with an unprecedented pep rally to celebrate … before they had actually won anything.
It was here that James uttered his infamous “not five, not six, not seven” championship total prediction — setting the bar impossibly high for the group, which still won two titles in their four seasons together.
No. 6
David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images
James still has the exact date burned into his memory: Dec. 2, 2010. It was his first trip back to Cleveland as a visitor after joining the Heat that offseason.
The crowd was hostile, greeting Miami with nonstop boos, explicit signs and even threw objects onto the court.
James was sharp, though, scoring 38 points on 15-for-25 shooting, handed out eight assists and the Heat romped for their third straight victory in a stretch in which they won 21 out of 22 games as they first found their stride with their big three.
No. 7
Morry Gash/AP
If there is one image that encapsulates the incredible four-year run James had in Miami, it’s this one.
Dwyane Wade grabbed a defensive rebound and streaked down the left side of the court, forcing a fast break. James dutifully filled the right lane, providing a perfect target for Wade to find with a no-look bounce pass. He famously started celebrating before James even finished the play with a dunk.
Wade told ESPN that if there is one photo from his career he wants autographed from James, it’s this one.
No. 8
Elise Amendola/AP
After Miami blew a 2-1 lead in the 2011 NBA Finals, the pressure on the big three experiment was palpable before Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference finals against Boston. Down 3-2, had the Heat lost, they not only would’ve once again fallen short of title-or-bust expectations, but very well could’ve broken up their core trio that offseason.
With that backdrop, James turned in one of the finest performances of his career — dominating the Celtics with 45 points on 19-for-26 shooting, 15 rebounds and 5 assists — to springboard the Heat toward the title.
No. 9
Michael Laughlin/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
After nine seasons and three trips to the Finals, James was finally part of the last team standing in June.
The Miami Heat beat the Oklahoma City Thunder — featuring three future MVPs in Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden — 4-1 for the 2012 title.
James was named Finals MVP after averaging 28.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game.
No. 10
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images
Miami pushed its winning streak to 23 straight by beating the Boston Celtics 105-103. James’ fingerprints were all over the victory, scoring 37 points with 12 assists and finishing this alley-oop over longtime foil, Jason Terry.
The streak eventually settled at 27 games, the second longest in NBA history.
No. 11
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
There are few plays that capture James’ combination of physicality and graceful precision as this one, when he elevated to meet the Spurs’ 6-foot-11 center Tiago Splitter at the peak of his leap to thwart the dunk attempt.
With it happening on the NBA Finals stage in 2013 makes it all the more memorable.
No. 12
J Pat Carter/AP
It wasn’t just that James scored a career-high 61 points, or that he did it against the team that his childhood hero, Michael Jordan, owned at the time in the Charlotte Bobcats; it was the way he did it in March 2014.
James shot 22-for-33 from the field (8-for-10 from 3), capping off an incredibly efficient six-game stretch in his final season in Miami during which he shot 65.2% from the field (51.4% from 3) and the Heat went 6-0.
No. 13
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
It’s the play that will be forever identified in Northeast Ohio by two words: The Block.
With points hard to come by late in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, Warriors wing Andre Iguodala seemingly had an easy go-ahead layup with just 1:50 remaining. That is, until James tracked him down for an epic chase-down block to help the Cavaliers upset the 73-win Golden State Warriors and snap a 52-year championship drought for the city of Cleveland.
No. 14
Beck Diefenbach / AFP via Getty Images
James was named 2016 Finals MVP, after averaging 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks per game.
The Cavs rallied back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Warriors on their home floor in an all-time classic Game 7 that was seen by more than 30 million people in the United States.
No. 15
David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images
After the Cavaliers became the first team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the Finals to win the championship, an estimated 1.3 million people made the pilgrimage to Cleveland to celebrate the city’s first pro sports title in more than 50 years.
Along the parade route, James posed in front of his 10-story billboard draped over the Sherwin-Williams building.
No. 16
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
With a trip to the 2018 Finals on the line and the Cavaliers trailing by eight points after the first quarter, James played all 48 minutes of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on the Celtics’ parquet and finished with 35 points, 15 rebounds and 9 assists to reach the championship round for the eighth straight year.
In what ended up being his last playoff run with Cleveland, James was magnificent, averaging 34 points, 10 rebounds and 8.5 assists before the Cavs were swept by Stephen Curry and the Warriors.
No. 17
Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
Perhaps the greatest postseason game of James’ career was marred by a bizarre end of regulation before the Warriors outscored the Cavs by 10 to win in overtime. Game 1 of the 2018 Finals is remembered as much for James’ 51 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists as it is for JR Smith not remembering the time and score late in the fourth quarter, eliciting this reaction from James.
No. 18
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Five days after Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others died in a tragic helicopter crash, the Lakers resumed their season with a home game against the Portland Trail Blazers in what served as shared space for the city of Los Angeles to grieve.
Lakers players wore Bryant’s Nos. 8 and 24 uniforms during warmups. The team was moved to tears from a video tribute to Bryant and musical performances by Usher, Ben Hong and Boyz II Men before James addressed the crowd before the game.
“I want, along with my teammates, to continue his legacy not only for this year, but as long as we can play the game of basketball that we love,” James said. “Because that’s what Kobe Bryant would want.”
No. 19
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
After the tragic helicopter crash that took the lives of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others, the 2019-20 Lakers season became a tribute — with L.A. dedicating its championship run to Bryant.
Along the way, the Lakers wore special Black Mamba uniforms on occasion, and James seemingly channeled Bryant on this breakaway, two-handed reverse dunk that was a near mirror recreation of a slam from early in Kobe’s career.
No. 20
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images
After spending nearly 100 days straight in the NBA bubble in Orlando that the league created to finish the season after a 4½-month hiatus because of COVID-19, James and the Los Angeles Lakers emerged as the champions.
L.A. won its 17th title and James his fourth — becoming the first player in league history to win Finals MVP with three different franchises while doing so.
No. 21
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
The shot — a 14-foot fadeaway jumper that swished through the net late in the third quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder — was routine. Its significance was anything but. James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, eclipsing The Captain’s career total of 38,387 points with a 36-point night as a 38-year old.
Abdul-Jabbar was on hand that night to honor James for breaking his record.
No. 22
Maja Hitij/Getty Images
USA Basketball’s team at the 2024 Paris Olympics became known as “The Avengers” and James was its Captain America.
James tipped off the event as the U.S. flagbearer for the opening ceremony alongside tennis star Coco Gauff and finished by being named tournament MVP as he won his fourth Olympic medal — and third gold — teaming up with the likes of Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant to beat France in an epic title game.
No. 23
Harry How/Getty Images
As the clock ticked toward the four-minute mark of the second quarter of the Lakers’ opening night game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2024, head coach JJ Redick called to the end of the bench for both LeBron James — and LeBron James Jr. — to check in.
The duo made history as the first active father-son pairing in NBA history, with Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. sitting courtside to witness it.
Senior photo editor Kacy Burdette contributed to this story.
