Basketball fans may not be familiar with Lenny Cooke, but at one time, he was a hot commodity in the amateur basketball world.
In the early 2000s, he was one of the very top high school basketball prospects in America. A 6-foot-6, 206-pound wing, he was a huge star at multiple high schools on both sides of the Hudson River in the New York City area.
In fact, at one time, he was considered an even better prospect than a kid from Akron, Ohio named LeBron James.
Then came the 2001 ABCD Camp, an elite summer camp for the nation’s top high school basketball players that was held in North Jersey and founded by sneaker executive Sonny Vaccaro. There, even though Cooke was the reigning camp MVP from the previous year, he got outplayed by the then-16-year-old James.
Cooke was recently interviewed, and when asked if there’s a player in today’s player that reminds him of himself, he mentioned James. But when asked if James took anything from his game, he then levied a big criticism toward James that the superstar has heard before — that he doesn’t quite have the same amount of heart as some other superstars and that he doesn’t want to take game-winning shots.
Lenny Cooke, one of LeBron's BIGGEST High School Rival, claims LeBron is “NOT a dog and does NOT want the ball at the end of the game.”
Thoughts?! 👀 pic.twitter.com/XSPpnLGng2
— Joy De’Angela (@joydeangela) July 16, 2024
“Absolutely, everybody does,” said Cooke. “But you know what I mean, one thing that you can’t teach is heart. And I have always been a dog. I just feel like he’s not a dog. He don’t want the ball at the end of the game. He don’t wanna be judged for making the the wrong play. I don’t care about making the wrong play.
“… I mean just watching him in the finals, you know what, big decisions he turn down you know,” Cooke continued when asked why he has that opinion of James. “I mean I just feel like he don’t wanna be judged. And who cares, Bro. You’re LeBron, whether you make or miss that shot.”
Some feel James isn’t quite the clutch performer that other all-time greats such as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Others will point out the large number of clutch and game-winning shots James had hit throughout his 21-year career as proof that he is clutch.
When it comes to game-winning shots, James did hit one over Cooke at that camp in 2001.
Lenny Cooke’s entire life trajectory changed with this end of game performance by……
LeBron https://t.co/MvoGhaJJFE pic.twitter.com/c958bAYg5n
— Wells P (@Wells_P) July 17, 2024
According to former camp director Richard Luchey, it was devastating for Cooke.
Via Basketball Network:
“It was also the atmosphere with it,” said Luchey. “Like, ‘Hey man, this is a big dog shot right here. This is a big dog right here. And that, it just kind of hovered over Lenny. That right there just hovered over him the rest of the camp because that was brewing…It almost like, it’s like it took the soul out of Lenny Cooke after that experience.”
Unfortunately, Cooke never recovered after getting schooled by James. He had academic problems in high school and was even diagnosed with a learning disability at one point. Like James, he skipped college to declare for the NBA draft, but no team picked him in 2002, the year he made himself eligible.
He ended up playing for several teams in other pro basketball leagues before a torn Achilles during the 2006-07 season ended his career. It was his second such injury in a span of approximately just two calendar years.
