'Stranger Things,' 'Shooting Stars' star Caleb McLaughlin admires LeBron James' loyalty

Many will recognize Caleb McLaughlin for his role as Lucas Sinclair on the Netflix hit series “Stranger Things.”

In Akron he’ll likely be remembered for playing a local sports hero, Dru Joyce III, in the upcoming Peacock film “Shooting Stars.”

Based on the book LeBron James co-authored with sportswriter Buzz Bissinger, it chronicles the high school years of James and his friends – Joyce, Sian Cotton, Willie McGee and, down the line, Romeo Travis — as teammates on St. Vincent-St. Mary High School’s basketball team.

James maintains his loyalty to that core of friends to this day, a prevalent theme throughout the film. It’s something McLaughlin picked up on while filming the movie in Akron and parts of Cleveland, he told Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush on “Today with Hoda and Jenna” Wednesday morning.

“Everyone wants to know about LeBron, but you get to learn about the people around him, people that supported him, and also the people he supported,” McLaughlin said. “And he's still friends with these guys till this day. So that just says a lot about him.”

It’s a facet of the film that crept into his interactions with castmates, McLaughlin said. He and Marquis Cook (LeBron James), Willie McGee (Avery S. Wills Jr.), Khalil Everage (Sian Cotton) and Sterling “Scoot” Henderson (Romeo Travis) bonded during the course of filming.

“It was not fake at all. We spent a lot of time with each other,” he said. “We stayed in the same building after long nights on set. We would all hang out, play video games, go outside…And we still hang out till this day in the group chat, everything.”

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 'Shooting Stars' actor Caleb McLaughlin shares LeBron James admiration