High school junior could be first to challenge NBA eligibility

What's the story on this guy? Big man or what?

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"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak. Because someday you will have been all of these."

 

All I could find about him was that he's 6-5

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps/basketba/00buc.htm

[This message has been edited by SteveFrancis3 (edited July 11, 2001).]

 

Here's one more:

http://ohio.com/bj/sports/pluto/docs/023853.htm


How good is LeBron James?

Howard Garfinkel paused for a long time before answering.

For 35 summers, Garfinkel has run the famed Five-Star camp for the
nation's top high school players. Name a great player, and he probably has
passed through Garfinkel's camp.

Today's name is LeBron James, the 6-foot-6 sophomore from St.
Vincent-St. Mary.

Dick Vitale says James is among the top five sophomores in the country.
He doesn't rate them in order. In ESPN Magazine, he writes, ``James is a
tall, athletic point guard with serious skills and a brilliant first step.''

The Sporting News says James is the second-best sophomore in the
nation.

A magazine called Athlon has James at No. 1.

Garfinkel doesn't care about the rating services. He isn't concerned that St.
V-M was 27-0, that it won the Ohio Division III title last spring, or that James
had 25 points, nine rebounds and shot 8-for-11 in the championship game.

Garfinkel has even higher standards, a historical perspective. He talked
about the 100-plus NBA players who have attended his Five-Star camp,
names such as Grant Hill, Stephon Marbury, Rasheed Wallace, Christian
Laettner, Elton Brand, Dell Curry and Bobby Hurley.

``I'm afraid to tell you the truth about James,'' Garfinkel said.

Why?

``Because I don't want to ruin a kid,'' he said. ``I've seen a lot of kids get big
heads, stop working ''

His voice trailed off.

``I'll say this,'' he said. ``You heard all those NBA guys I mentioned? LeBron
played as well or better than any one of them when they were sophomores
at my camp. It was ridiculous; he totally dominated. I've never seen anything
quite like it.''

How so?

``In the middle of the week, we had some guys hurt in our NBA (high school
junior and senior division), and we moved him up,'' Garfinkel said. ``He was
playing four games a day, with both the sophomores and our NBA
divisions.''

Garfinkel's gravelly voice rose.

``He made both all-star teams,'' he rasped, ``both of them, in his own
division and the NBA division. In the 35 years that I've had this camp, that's
never happened before. He can shoot it. He can pass off the dribble. He
knows the game. He seems like a great kid. Like I said, I don't want to say
too much, but I like this kid a lot. I don't want something to happen to him.''

That's because LeBron James is a kid. Just 15 years old.

Remember that as you hear the things said about him. Remember that
even if, right now, he would be good enough to make most Division I
college teams.

Remember that he's 15, that his friends tease him about his big ears and
he talks about their teeth or their feet.

Remember at 15, you're supposed to be silly.

But at 15, he has already played summer basketball in Utah, in Memphis,
in Las Vegas, in Pittsburgh, and, believe it or not, in Milan, Italy.

He talks about a stretch last summer where he had attended camps in
Pittsburgh, Orlando and Tennessee. ``I was gone almost all July,'' he said.

Then he sounds like a weary businessman, saying next summer he plans
to cut down on his travel schedule. That's because all the camps and
tournaments want a piece of LeBron James. They want a seat, even in the
caboose, just in case his train carries him all the way to the NBA.

James has people telling him that he'll be the next Kobe Bryant or Tracy
McGrady, the next kid to go right from high school to the pros. And he has
pictures of them in his room.

But his favorite player is Michael Jordan. He even tells everyone he's
6-foot-6 1/2, because that is Jordan's exact height. Jordan is the perfect role
model for James, and not just because he is arguably the greatest
basketball player ever. Jordan had strong values from his family. He played
three years of college and considers North Carolina's Dean Smith to be a
father figure, a man he still calls ``Coach Smith.'' Jordan went back to North
Carolina and earned his degree, even though he had enough money to buy
the library and name it after himself.

Those pictures on the wall of James' room demonstrate the war for this
young man's soul.

Jordan, who waited for the game and fame to come to him.

Or Bryant and McGrady, who went directly from the senior prom to the NBA.

``I try not to think about that stuff,'' James said. ``I have Dick Vitale's
magazine on the wall of my room. To see my name there, I want to live up to
that. It's like Dick Vitale invented college basketball, you know what I
mean?''

To a 15-year-old reared on Vitale screaming about ``Diaper Dandies'' on
ESPN, maybe the bald former coach of the University of Detroit did start
college basketball. Or at least, Vitale helped make it what it is today: An
industry where 15-year-olds like James are rated and then dated by the top
colleges and even the pros.

More than 100 colleges have written James. The coaches can't talk to him
until his junior year, but they all know his name. Coaches from Michigan
State, Duke, North Carolina, California, Ohio State -- virtually every major
basketball school in the country -- are in contact with St. V-M coach Keith
Dambrot, telling him of their interest in James.

LeBron James, 15 years old.

Gloria James loves her son, wants him to be 15, to enjoy high school.

``He keeps telling me that soon I won't have to worry about a thing,'' she
said. ``I'll have a house, a car, everything paid for. I tell him to take his time. I
tell him that I don't need those things. My dream is to have my own chef,
because I love to eat.''

Then Gloria James laughs. She is 32, meaning LeBron was born when
she was very young. She's only 5-foot-5 and played volleyball at
Central-Hower. She is astonished at how her only child has grown, how he
is blessed with such God-given athleticism.

``When he was 4 years old, he was dunking on our Nerf basketball hoop,''
she said. ``I kept raising it, and he still kept dunking.''

In the eighth grade, James was 5-foot-8.

When he enrolled in high school, he was 6-foot-2.

Now, he's 6-foot-6, oops, make it the Jordan-like 6-foot-6 1/2.

His arms seem to hang down to his knees. His hands are huge, his
fingers long and delicate. His body flows like a river, and his rangy legs
seem to cover the court in but a few incredible strides. Despite the growth
spurts, he's never endured one of those uncoordinated stages where arms
and legs refuse to function in harmony.

Gloria James talks about her son, the student. His grade-point average is a
2.8, which is a B-minus. His freshman English teacher, Jake Robinson,
says James ``has excellent penmanship and wrote some nice essays. He
still has to work on his writing, but he cares about it.''

Dambrot and his assistant coach, Steve Culp, the former head coach at
Firestone High, run a study table each afternoon for the St. V-M players.
James willingly finishes his work, even if he does it in between jokes.

``I never had to spank LeBron, not even once,'' Gloria James said. ``When I
tell him something, he listens.''

That's because James truly loves and appreciates his mother. He talks
about the hard times, especially when he was in the fourth grade and they
``moved from place to place to place'' because of money problems.

He says things are better now, adding, ``My mother is my mother. But she
also is my sister, my brother, my best friend, my uncle, my everything.''

He has a tattoo on his arm, a woman with the name ``Gloria,'' his way of
honoring his mother.

James is at St. V-M because of Dru Joyce.

That's Dru Joyce Sr. and Dru Joyce Jr.

Dru Sr. is ``a special person to LeBron,'' according to Gloria James. He is a
summer league coach.

James said, ``Coach Dru teaches me a lot, like how to be polite to
grown-ups.''

On that count, the pleasant James certainly has listened.

Meanwhile, Dru Jr. is St. V-M's point guard, the wisp of a lad who is only
5-foot-2, 102 pounds. Yet, he swished seven outrageously long and
high-arcing 3-pointers in the state title game last spring.

James got to know the Joyce family when he was 11 years old. Dad
coached the AAU team; the son played. As did Sian Cotton and Willie
McGee.

``We called ourselves the Fab Four,'' James said. ``We decided we'd all go
to the same school together. We promised that nothing would break us up
-- girls, coaches, basketball. We'd hang together, no matter what.''

They're doing it at St. V-M, partly because the Joyce family was very
impressed with the summer basketball camp run by Dambrot and the
academics offered by the private Catholic school in central Akron.

``Dru (Jr.) was the first to say we should go to St. V's,'' said James. ``The
rest of us followed.''

When the Irish were 27-0 last season, they were led by senior Maverick
Carter, now playing at Western Michigan. He also is James' cousin. But
four of the top eight players were freshmen, the Fab Four as they called
themselves.

Dru Joyce Sr. and Lee Cotton (father of Sian) help out as assistant coaches
at the school. Dambrot likes having them around, not only because he
considers them solid basketball men, but strong, positive influences on all
his players, not just James. When Dru Joyce Sr. or Lee Cotton talk about
James, they both immediately start with, ``He's a good kid.'' They mention
his loyalty to the other players on the AAU team and his unselfishness with
his high school teammates.

Last year, James led the Irish by averaging 17 points and shooting 50
percent from the field.

``If he wanted, LeBron could have scored 25 points a game, easy,''
Dambrot said. ``But he'd rather pass than shoot. That's why I think he can
handle things and still fit in with the rest of the team.''

At 15, LeBron James made a decision that surprised a lot of people.

He played football, catching 42 passes, 14 for touchdowns. He was picked
as St. V-M's Most Valuable Player on offense this fall.

Not bad for a sophomore.

``Some people said I should just stick to basketball,'' he said. ``But I like
football. I like being with the guys on the team. It's fun.''

It's fun

Nothing wrong with a 15-year-old saying that, at least when the subject is
football. He likes being a part of a team. In the 1999 regional semifinals,
James caught six passes when his school lost 15-14 to Wickliffe. After the
game, he was in tears, unhappy that the season had ended -- especially for
the seniors.

``He's a heckuva football player,'' Dambrot said, ``probably one of the best
receivers in the state. I wouldn't be surprised if he played again next year.''

That's rare in an era where great athletes are pressured to play one sport.

``I just want to make sure LeBron does well academically,'' Dambrot said.
``All the big schools already want him. We are already preparing him for the
standardized tests. We want to give him every chance to get the scores he
needs, because it would break my heart if he ends up at a junior college.''

Dambrot is a former college coach at Ashland and Central Michigan. He is
43-9 in two years at St. V-M.

``LeBron is one of those players who comes around every 25 years,'' he
said. ``He knows he's good, but he doesn't seem to be very caught up in all
the hype around him. He's really just a nice kid.''

And those who know James are praying that he doesn't change.

 

I read about this kid while reading up on this past draft and prospects. Everything I hear about him is that his skills are insane for someone that young. I've always thought highly of DeJuan Wagner and thought he would be "the next big thing". Heck, we may have "2 next big things" around the corner. Another thing I remember reading about the guy is that he was first team all state wide receiver.

I went ahead and dug up some articles for you guys if you're interested :

Howard Garfinkel who runs the Five Star camp is mesmerized by the kid's play saying he's never seen anything like James in his 35 years running the camp. This includes seeing players such as Grant Hill, Stephon Marbury, Rasheed Wallace, Christian Laettner, Elton Brand, Dell Curry, and Bobby Hurley :

http://www.ohio.com/bj/sports/pluto/2000/November/docs/023853.htm

As a 15 year old, he tore up Rashaad Carruth who is one of the most highly recruited high school prospects. His team barely lost to Oak Hill Academy -- the "all-star" team that had Carruth and Diop on it.

http://www.dispatch.com/news/sports01/jan01/562803.html

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"I'll tell you this, the older I get, the less I trust people. It's true. It's damn true." -- gr8-1 going through some growing pains.

[This message has been edited by Dr of Dunk (edited July 11, 2001).]

 

I saw him play in this years state HS basketball torny hear in Columbus. Does have great skills, but he plays in in the small school division (D3 out of 4) so I didn't see him having much competition. Problem was in the championship game he played against a bunch of small, non-athletic white kids (sorry not trying to bring race into it just giving my details) from Piqua, Ohio (near Dayton, Ohio). He did play great, but I personally didn't think he looked like the 2nd coming of MJ. He was clearly the best player on the court, but there wasn't much competition there. Then again he's only a sophmore too!
Also I didn't goto the Oak Hill game in the early season tournament but from what I understand he was awesome.
So I don't know he has mad skills, just depends on how well he develops.


The kid has great skills

 

I wonder what it is like to peek at 15

With all this high praise he has no where
to go but down. When he enters the league
- if he not a 20-5-8 guy folx will wonder
if he over hypes

If god forbid he gets hurt. . . .
a life filled with what could have been

Rocket River

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