A teen had his wish come true after he was able to meet Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James. Seventeen-year-old Corey Groves was in attendance for the Lakers’ walkthrough and got to meet James.
Groves was diagnosed with Stage 4 sarcoma cancer and given a year to live about six months ago. He dying wish has been to meet James, a wish that finally came true.
Groves shared a photo of himself and James inside the Staples Center on Instagram. The teenager was able to make the trip to Los Angeles along with his mother and younger brother.
“Merry Christmas 🙂 I got my wish .so thankful to everyone that helped make this happen 🙂 @kingjames @coreyswish2019 #coreyswish2019, he wrote on his Instagram post.
“Before getting sick, I would eat, sleep basketball,” Groves told the Toronto Sun earlier this month. “Chances are [being in L.A. for the Christmas Day game] will be my last holiday ever. I’m hoping to spread the word and maybe get LeBron’s attention so I can shake my hero’s hand.”
Groves also had great thing to say about James outside of being an athlete. “LeBron James just does so many good things off and on the court. Recently he fed tacos to the first responders – no one is asking him to do that but he goes ahead and does it anyways,” Groves told CTV News Toronto recently. “Some athletes are there for the money but he really cares about this job.”
James recently sent the 3rd graders from his I Promise School on a Polar Express trip to the North Pole, a tradition that has been apart of the Lebron James Family Foundation for the past seven years.
The four-time MVP and three-time champion said that his most important accomplishment was opening his I Promise school in Akron, Ohio. “Besides having three kids and marrying my wife, putting my mom in a position where she never has to worry about anything ever again for the rest of her life, this is right up there,” James said. “Championships, MVPs, I mean points, rebounds and assists, that stuff is whatever. But for me to be able to open up a school and give back to my inner city, so many kids that I know because I was those kids.”