It’s a shirts-off evening on the colourful court in Akron, Ohio, and the caged rectangle is brimful of basketballers dreaming they might one day be like their king, LeBron James, famous and adored.

James used to be just like these boys, running up and down basketball courts, hungry to overcome the disadvantages of his upbringing.

One cocky kid tells Foreign Correspondent he wants to be an NBA player and “beat his record”.

“No disrespect (to James),” he adds.

The same talented boy charges at the hoop, misses an improvised shot, smirks at our lens. “Delete that,” he says.

A languid teen takes the ball so that he can show the Aussie crew a slam dunk.

He bounces the sphere into the muggy air and leaps after it, stuffing the ball through the basket with a blow.

Young men play basketball on courts at the I Promise School in Akron, Ohio, which receives funding from LeBron James’s foundation.(Foreign Correspondent: Matt Roberts)

There’s no argument here, in LeBron James’s home town, about who’s the greatest basketball player of all time is.(Foreign Correspondent: Matt Roberts)

Sounds of the court – the swish-puff of nets and the whistle-screech of shoes on concrete – form a chorus of youthful games that you can find in any of the world’s pockets of poverty.

Brazilians play football in favelas, Mexicans box in crowded gyms, Indians play cricket in the streets.

But this is Akron (don’t pronounce the o), where a local boy once grew up to become arguably the greatest of all time (have your Michael Jordan rant elsewhere), so it is basketball they play while dreaming.

James’s rise from poverty to NBA all-time leading scorer and billionaire entrepreneur has always been underpinned by his connection to this small city an hour’s drive from Cleveland.

LeBron James is pouring millions of dollars into an initiative to keep at-risk kids in school.(Foreign Correspondent: Matt Roberts)

Now, two decades after he was drafted into the professional ranks from high school, he is putting his reputation at stake to redefine the way kids like him are being raised.

It’s an ambitious social experiment that James and his charitable foundation — The LeBron James Family Foundation — hope will inspire celebrities, corporations and cities throughout the United States.

“The entire nation is watching this,” says senior education analyst at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Ohio, Jessica Poiner.

“The stakes are really high for him, right? This is legacy, his [reputation] … he’s invested all this time and energy and money. And this is his home.”

The ‘chosen one’ makes a promise

Akron was once famous as America’s Rubber City, home of the big four tyre makers and the Goodyear blimp.

But by the time James was born here in 1984 and raised by his mother Gloria, the boom was over.

James’s first decade was itinerant and lonely. He missed 83 days of school in the fourth grade.