LeBron files trademark for phrase 'Nothing is given. Everything is earned.'

LeBron James appears to be taking a page out of Kobe Bryant's trademarking playbook. James has filed to trademark the phrase "Nothing is given. Everything is earned." with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The filing lists the term to be trademarked for "clothing, namely, t-shirts, sweatshirts, and caps," related to "educational services."

The filings are connected to James' I Promise School - his partnership with Akron, Ohio, public schools to build an elementary school in fall of 2018, according to ESPN's Darren Rovell.

James and Sports Illustrated writer Lee Jenkins used the term in his 2014 return-to-Cleveland letter, writing, "in Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have."

Bryant famously - and appropriately - once filed a trademark claim on the phrase "Friends Hang Sometimes, Banners Hang Forever."