'A Really Special Kid': Alabama's Justin Lebron Keen on Giving Program His All

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Alabama baseball shortstop Justin Lebron is one of the top talents in the college game. Twice an All-SEC honoree, he batted nearly .340 as a freshman in 2024 before leading the Crimson Tide in home runs this past season with 18 (alongside 73 hits and an OPS of 1.057). He's received multiple All-America nods and been a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award.

As top prospects for the 2026 MLB Draft go, Lebron is one of the headliners. His play on both offense and defense is the envy of clubs nationwide, but in an era of the sport rife with marquee names transferring, the Florida native remains in an Alabama uniform. The upcoming junior is a player who would start virtually anywhere in the country.

"I wish we could take credit for that," head coach Rob Vaughn said Friday before the team's first fall practice. "You see people that, they do, they chase money. They chase being the sexy thing... I think winning here was important to him. I think doing it here was important to him."

Lebron, who started at short from the very beginning of his college career, is the kind of talent who can propel the Crimson Tide program to its first appearance in the College World Series since 1999. That goal has been on Vaughn's mind since he arrived. Lebron shares it, also valuing his time at Sewell-Thomas Stadium and the direction things are going in with the team.

"I'm very big on loyalty," Lebron said on Friday. "I won't leave somewhere that I haven't given my all to, and I felt like leaving a place like this, especially with this coaching staff, what they're building here is just phenomenal. There's nothing like it anywhere else and that's for sure."

For as skilled as Lebron is on the diamond, Vaughn placed that level of emphasis on who Lebron is as a human being. From the start of his tenure in Tuscaloosa, one of Vaughn's main areas of focus has been putting the right people in the program and onto the field.

"We got very fortunate to have a young man and a family that puts a priority on things that matter," Vaughn said. "The thing that's really neat about him is that it's a really special kid. I think it's a really unselfish kid. That's what winning baseball is... Players of that caliber and that makeup don't come around super often."

To put those remarks in perspective, Vaughn named rookie Chicago Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw as a player whom Lebron is similar to. Shaw played shortstop at Maryland, where Vaughn coached him, and was a first-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft. He then broke camp with an eventual playoff team less than two years after his professional debut.

Fans of the Crimson Tide have expressed worry in the past that Lebron might have intended to pull up stakes and play someplace else, whether after his breakout freshman campaign or after his strong sophomore year. However, he dissuaded any such notion, still intent on helping the squad reach heights it has aspired to since before he arrived.

"There was literally never a doubt in my mind that I wouldn't not be here," Lebron said.