Report: LeBron James Was Successful Because of This Move in High School

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Rashard Lewis, Kenyon Martin, Kevin Garnett, Sebastian Telfair, and Charlie Villanueva were part of the ABCD Camp. Sonny Vaccaro is a former sneaker executive with Nike and Adidas. He got MJ to sign with Nike, and gave Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant deals with Adidas. Vaccaro is responsible for LeBron James’ $90 million deal with Nike before he even took part in the first NBA game.

“What you had was a mystical appearance of this kid from Ohio who had not yet broken into the national scene,” Vaccaro said. “The only camp LeBron had gone to was ABCD camp and Lenny was the reigning number one high school player in America and sort of magnified himself by being this very mysterious kid also.”

That’s how the world of NBA got to know LeBron.

“The funny this about it is that it wasn’t like Lenny did bad,” said Vaccaro. “But LeBron just won the game.”

LeBron entered the NBA Draft in 2003 and won three championships.

“My kids like LeBron James now,” said Cooke.

“He’s earned everything he’s gotten and taken advantage of every opportunity he’s been given,” Vaccaro added. “How can I be mad at him. He built his brand the right way! That game didn’t single-handedly mean anything other than it was played in New York at a summertime camp and a lot of people saw it.”

“Lenny was over-confident and had the New York bravado and LeBron was LeBron and he probably didn’t care who he was playing against other than the name and that sort of carried over into his life. LeBron has taken everything that has come his way since that night and today and hopefully for a lot more of playing basketball. LeBron took everything more serious than Lenny Cooke and I think if you play the game, it didn’t begin that night but what it did was dramatize the reign of LeBron and the eventual downfall of Lenny Cooke.”

Cooke weighed in on the league’s one and done rule according to which a player must be 19 years or one year removed from the high school’s graduating class.

“I mean I disagree a little bit,” Cooke said. “If you’re just going for one year, it ain’t really benefitting you. You’re still a child. I mean, at the end of the day, one year’s not going to [do anything]. If you get hurt, then you’re done.”