LeBron James and Peyton Manning

            Every generation has their set of record-breaking, title winning, superstar athletes. In the 1970s, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar dominated the NBA and Terry Bradshaw prevailed in the NFL. In the ˜80s, it was Michael Jordan and Eric Dickerson. In the ˜90s, it was still Jordan and also John Elway. Now, in the 21st century, the two greatest athletes in their respective sports are LeBron James and Peyton Manning. Although their sports are thoroughly different, there are many fundamental similarities between these two generational talents, including: their careers before they were professional players, the departures from their original teams, and the titles they won in their sports. .
             Not all professional athletes that were the best of their generation were superstars before they went pro, but the story was different for James and Manning. LeBron James was famous for his basketball skills before his senior year of high school started. It was so apparent that he was going to be the "next big thing " that he headed directly to the NBA after graduating from high school. In the 2003 NBA draft, James was chosen first overall by Cleveland Cavaliers. Peyton Manning was also extremely talented in high school but went to the University of Tennessee to play football for the Volunteers. While in college, Manning broke records and won many awards, which led to him being picked first, overall by the Indianapolis Colts in the 1998 NFL draft. Due to the way the NBA and the NFL drafts work, the first round pick goes to the worst team from the previous season, so both James and Manning had a lot of work to do for these undesirable teams. Even in their first games as professional players, they proved that they were up to the task of making a difference. In his first game, LeBron James scored 25 points, the most a prep-to-pro player, someone who went from high school straight to the professional level, had scored in their NBA debut (NBA.