re: The Lenny Cooke Story *kind of like JaMarcus* features Melo, Noah, LeBron, Kobe

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Pretty sure you didn't weigh 185 at the time though

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They're my decisions and I am not going to let anyone else make them for me," Cooke said, adding that his grades and his 1-year-old son, Anahijae, are the most important factors in his life. "I am not thinking about all of that right now. I am thinking about going out and winning the MVP again."

Cooke said he will not make up his mind until he completes the summer basketball circuit, and at this point he has not even contacted any prep schools. He insists he would be fine not playing competitively for a year.

"It wouldn't be that hard, I would just work on my game everyday," Cooke said. "Also, I could keep my grades up, which is what the schools I am interested in want me to do."

The five leading colleges for Cooke's services are North Carolina, Cincinnati, Miami (Fla.), St. John's, and Ohio State. But the NBA remains a strong possibility for a player who has challenged ABCD alumni Kobe Bryant to play him one-on-one at each of the last two camps.

Cooke, who said the challenges were meant to give him a chance to learn from Bryant, sees the Lakers' star as proof that big men are not the only prep players who can go directly to the NBA.

"I don't think it is harder [for guards], because Kobe did it, so why can't I?" Cooke said. "I'm not saying I am better than Kobe, because I'm not, but if I feel I can handle the competition why shouldn't I go?"

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Melo left the day before the championship game. Throughout the camp, members of LeBron’s entourage had planted bugs to nearly anyone who’d listen that James was the true star of ABCD. Some entertained the thought, some – like Louisville’s Rick Pitino believed the hype from the moment he dropped his first no-look dime – and some showed a tad-bit more restraint. After all, high school talent came a dime-a-dozen, and claims of the next great transcendent talent emerge every year.

Cooke’s undeniable moment of glory came when he rocked LeBron several times on a crossover and then nailed the jumper. The gym erupted – including an uber-ecstatic Joakim – but LeBron owned the game. James ran the floor better, passed better, rebounded better, played on-court general better, anticipated the passing lanes better and ran out to a 21-9 scoring advantage over Lenny. In an eerie representation of LeBron’s first several years in the NBA, however, his team still trailed by two in the closing seconds.
Expecting LeBron to attack the basket, Cooke was caught off guard when James elevated from the three-point line hitting nothing but the bottom of the net. James walked off the court with a newfound aura of invincibility and suddenly the narrative of the entire camp shifted into his favor. His camp looked like geniuses. Cooke, so befuddled by the moment, could only utter the quote, “How’d he make that? Oh my God.” Give or take a curse word here and there.*

Both Carmelo and ABCD founder Sonny Vaccaro agreed through one way or another, Lenny was never the same after LeBron came on his turf and waxed the floor with him. “After that, we just didn’t hear very much about him,” said Anthony. The next fall and spring resulted in a tale of two explicitly different high school careers; one destined for pop culture legend and the other for self-inflicted destruction.

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