The Four Seasons conference room in New York was filled with producers, cameramen, and the obligatory anxiety that comes with waiting to receive a very famous person. There were basically two guys in charge in the room, one in a decent suit and one in a bad suit. Bad Suit worked for the Bloomberg Global Business Forum and explained what LeBron James was doing there: They needed "a world leader of equal stature" to the attendees of their upcoming summit—statesmen and businessmen like Emmanuel Macron, Justin Trudeau, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Tim Cook, and Jack Ma (Asia's richest man). It was one of those highly exclusive gatherings where all the world's problems would either be solved or spawned. In the conference room, there were ten or so people setting up to record the greeting, a pre-taped call to action to be broadcast at the opening of the summit. "How many world leaders are actually known around the world?" Bad Suit said. "We needed him."

When LeBron enters a room, it feels like the floor tilts down in his direction. And this afternoon was no different. His voice carried. His hand, extraterrestrial, extended with seasoned celebrity coyness. Our necks craned up. The King smiled down, a smile as wide as his wingspan. His Lanvin shirt looked painted on. He had a pair of Nike Air Zoom Generation sneakers on his feet. He was about to address the leaders of the Free World in a pair of Nikes.

Decent Suit ushered LeBron to his seat in front of a teleprompter and gave him directions he didn't need. "You're representing all of us," he said. Meaning: people who want more from their elected and unelected leaders. LeBron politely insisted, "I got it."

After the prompter scrolled the speech a few times, LeBron gave it—a speech he was seemingly reading for the first time—a try and nailed it on the first attempt. He never hesitated or second-guessed a single word. Bad Suit's eyes filled with the same hope Morpheus's did when he found out that Neo was in fact the One. Someone in the back gasped, like out of a movie. And then, to just about every head of state and titan of industry worth a damn, 32-year-old LeBron James said, "We know the world needs us to step up."

Us.

A moment like that is the most significant reason why LeBron James is the greatest living athlete. Greatness has an all-encompassing burden. It's a beauty and brains type of mandate. Floyd Mayweather could go undefeated for 50 more fights, but he'd never be the greatest living athlete. Because he's selfish. And tacky. And consequently, small. You have to transcend sport to be the greatest—beyond sneakers and drinks that replenish electrolytes and video-game covers and money teams.

“I think, um, they can love what LeBron James does. Do they know what LeBron James completely represents? I don’t think so.”

It's the Ali Test. It's a people's-champ-ness one needs. It's the ability to turn fans into followers and followers into consequential action. To be able to legitimately have an effect on the way people live in the world, as corny as it sounds. And LeBron, more than any other living athlete on earth, has that in him. The fact that he's putting over a thousand kids through college is commendable. But when assessing his imprint and the potential of his reach, it seems relatively small. Like a 30-point game. He's reaching for something bigger. Something that most athletes eschew and that LeBron himself wasn't always inclined to do. It's not like he was out there his rookie season stumping for candidates. But things have changed. It's a different world now. Which is why I figured I'd test out the upper limit of his ambition.

Gold-leaf stained-glass backboard: Literally Balling by Victor Solomon, at literallyballing.com

Would you ever want to be president?

"Of the United States?" He pauses. "Nah."

That didn't seem like a confident answer.

"I say no because of always having to be on someone else's time. From the outside looking in, it seems like the president always has to be there—gotta be there. You really don't have much 'me time.' I enjoy my 'me time.' The positive that I see from being the president… Well, not with the president we have right now, because there's no positive with him, but the positive that I've seen is being able to inspire. Your word has command to it. If you're speaking with a knowledgeable, caring, loving, passionate voice, then you can give the people of America and all over the world hope."