CLEVELAND—In his first season ever playing organized basketball, LeBron James went undefeated and won a championship. He was even crowned the most valuable player of his team. But so were Willie McGee, Frankie Walker Jr. and one young girl named Lavette Wilborn.

The Summit Lake Hornets, a team for kids between the ages of 8 and 10 years old who belonged to the same community center, won the Akron Recreation Bureau’s youth league back in 1993. Their championship merited a brief article in the local newspaper, which misspelled...