A former professional NBA 2K gamer is looking to clean up in a different way in Indiana.
Carmel resident Stanley Lebron started Glorious Cleaning, a home cleaning business, in September 2022. The company serves Hamilton and Boone counties.
Lebron, 28, was born In the Dominican Republic and moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., when he was 1 year old. He started working at his father’s grocery store when he was 7.
Lebron became a part of the NBA 2K League season in 2018 after being drafted by the Miami Heat.
“My favorite team growing up was the Miami Heat, so you could only imagine the feeling I had being a part of that organization and representing them as a professional gamer,” he said.
After two seasons, he was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers and moved from Miami to Portland for one season, which was during the COVID-19 pandemic and all the games were remote. Some were televised by ESPN because of the lack of live sports.
“I would call my dad and say ‘Hey, I’m on ESPN, tune in,’” Lebron said.
Lebron spent one year with the Sacramento Kings’ gaming team. Then he moved to Indianapolis in 2022 when he became a member of the NBA 2K franchise from Spain called DUX Infinitos. The team worked out of downtown Indianapolis at the Pan Am Tower. He met his girlfriend in the area and decided to stay.
“I made a decision before the draft in January that I was just going to put (the gaming) on pause, try to pursue this business and see how far I can go with it,” Lebron said.
Lebron’s gaming alias was Majestic, which he was originally going to call his business, but there was too much competition for the website name.
Lebron said the profits have been slow but he’s working at it every day.
“I’m trying to build recurring clients,” he said.
He has been doing 90 percent of the cleaning himself but is hoping to add employees.
“Becoming an entrepreneur has been very humbling, and it’s not what everyone thinks it is,” Lebron said. “It feels like the hard work never ends, and it makes me appreciate everything my dad did for us growing up even more.”
Lebron played the game Call of Duty growing up. He got into NBA 2K after playing basketball his senior year in high school. After graduating from high school, he worked in restaurants for his father and uncle and became proficient at gaming.
As a gamer, he was paid for six or seven months. The average range for NBA 2K gamers was $32,000 to $38,000, depending on where a gamer was drafted. There were bonuses for those making the playoffs and tournaments. The first two years all the games were played in New York.
“That’s kind of why I decided to pivot away from it, because it’s just very inconsistent,” he said. “You work six, seven months of the year, then for five months you’ve got to figure something out.”
However, if his business takes off, Lebron said he would definitely go back to the gaming world.
“It was a lot of fun just playing for the NBA representative franchise,” he said.
Learn more about about Glorious Cleaning at gloriouscleaning.com.
