What began with a Twitter campaign ended with LeBron James realizing the dreams of 16-year-old cancer patient Ebony Nettles-Bey. She's a star high school basketball player from Milwaukee who was blindsided last October with a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Her teammates decided to cheer her up by starting a Twitter campaign that aimed to unite her with LeBron James.
On Saturday, it worked.
According to an ESPN profile, Nettles-Bey was diagnosed with Stage 4 soft-tissue sarcoma but has not given up on her passion for basketball. She's played games while undergoing chemotherapy and often heads to the court right after hospital stays. The inner-city youth has gone through a lot already in her life. When she was just 5 years old, she lost her father after he was shot 16 times.
The Twitter campaign was launched in February and soon took off. More than 20,000 tweets and retweets with the hashtag #LeBronMeetEbony have been made since.
Well, with the Heat in town Saturday to play the Milwaukee Bucks, James decided to make Nettles-Bey's dreams come true.
Nettles-Bey got to warm up with James before the game, stood in the Heat's pregame huddle, and led the team onto the court.
She then watched James from a courtside seat and afterward received not only the shoes he wore (autographed, to boot) and his jersey but also his headband.
"Tonight I had the privilege of meeting and making someone's dream come true," James wrote on Instagram. "Basketball has put me in position that I will never take for granted. Being a hero to this girl Ebony is the reason that I keep going every single day! She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer out of nowhere towards the end of last year and force her to be home schooled and away from her friends. But didn't stop her from doing what she loves more than anything and that's playing basketball at Verona High outside of Milwaukee. Ebony your strength, courage and energy is out of this world and u will win and defeat this. I just know it! Love you forever and I got your back and front! #EbonyMetLeBron #CancerWho #EbonyEqualsStrong #StriveForGreatnessFollow."
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