When LeBron James became the NBA's all-time leading scorer on Feb. 7, many of his loved ones were in attendance at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
The group of family and friends included Willie McGee , Dru Joyce III , Romeo Travis and Sian Cotton, the former St. Vincent-St. Mary basketball players who formed the "Fab Five" with James during his high school days.
They partied into the Hollywood night with James after the Los Angeles Lakers superstar had surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 38,387 regular-season points.
"We've always been friends that celebrate each other, man," McGee said by phone. "If one of us wins, we all win.
"We had nothing to do with those 38,000 points. But we support him, and we're happy for him and couldn't be more ecstatic to see him break that record."
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An NBA champion with the Lakers, Cavaliers and Miami Heat , James seized the scoring throne nearly two decades after playing his final STVM game on March 22, 2003.
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To commemorate the 20th anniversary of LeBron's final season with the Irish , some of the people closest to him shared memories of the greatest high school hoops career Northeast Ohio has ever witnessed. Three state titles (Division III in 2000 and 2001 and Division II in 2003), a USA Today national poll championship (2003) and a trio of Ohio Mr. Basketball awards (2001-03) were among the highlights.
However, LeBron's mom, Gloria James , is even more enthusiastic about her 38-year-old son parlaying success at STVM and beyond into helping other kids from Akron .
"I could tell you a lot of basketball stories about LeBron , but I'd really like to tell you how he became the man he is today," Gloria James wrote in an email. "LeBron's determination to succeed in life stems from unfortunate and unforeseen childhood challenges and disadvantages he had to overcome. But those circumstances have contributed to him vowing to help others overcome their misfortunes. He has accomplished so many things on the court, but I'm most proud of the man that he is and the things he's done in his life off of the court."
This collection of stories gathered by the Beacon Journal about STVM's LeBron era begins with another reflection outside the realm of basketball.
Longtime STVM coach Dru Joyce II got choked up when he thought about a moment he and his wife, Carolyn, shared with James, whom the Cavaliers selected first overall in the NBA Draft on June 26, 2003.
Joyce II's team had stopped for dinner at a restaurant after a road game in Philadelphia during James' senior season. The players were seated apart from Joyce II and Carolyn, but James arose and approached the couple's table.
"I can't remember his exact words, but he came up to us and he said, 'More than anything, I want you to know I want to be like y'all,'" Joyce II said. "He wanted a family, and to see how he's grown with his family, if my wife and our family inspired him in any kind of way, we were just kind of thankful for being placed in that position."
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James and his wife, Savannah, have three children: Bronny , 18, Bryce, 15, and Zhuri, 8. They were all at the Lakers game, along with Gloria James, when LeBron broke Abdul-Jabbar's scoring record last month.
"It just meant the world to us to have him come and share that he wanted to have that kind of family — the family that he saw us have," Joyce II said.
The hype surrounding James took off during his sophomore year, and one scene in particular still stands out to Keith Dambrot, the former STVM coach who went on to guide the University of Akron men's basketball team for 13 seasons and has been leading Duquesne since 2017.
After a Division III district tournament game in Salem, about 500 people lined up in hopes of securing an autograph from James .
"I felt like I was traveling around with Elton John," Dambrot said. "But the worst part of it is there were guys [from the opposing team] in their uniforms that were waiting for his autograph."
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The hype train chugged to another level when James appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a junior with the title "The Chosen One." It happened during Joyce II's first season succeeding Dambrot as STVM's head coach.
"If you think about the hype [James has] had to live up to, I mean, he's handled about everything that came his way, and then when he did hit adversity, he rallied back," Dambrot said. "You never know what money and fame can do to people, but it never affected his competitiveness or his desire to be the best player ever."
After James had played a few games as a freshman, Dambrot called good friend Bob Huggins , one of college basketball's most recognizable coaches.
"I said, 'Hey, Bob. I got a guy I think is the best I've been around,'" Dambrot said. "He says, 'What do you mean, the best in the state of Ohio?' I said, 'No, the best I've ever seen.'
"He says, Brot, you sound like a high school coach now!' You know how high school coaches always embellish their guys? They don't really know how good a guy's got to be to play in college or whatever. So then [Huggins] came and watched him play, and he said, 'Brot, you were right!'"
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Dambrot had already coached three NBA players at Eastern Michigan: Grant Long and twin brothers Carl and Charles Thomas.
"I called those guys when LeBron was 15," Dambrot said. "I said, 'Hey, I got a guy that I think is better than you guys right now.' And they laughed."
Dambrot first encountered James when he was about 13 years old and a guest of Dru Joyce III at basketball workouts held at the Jerry Shaw Jewish Community Center of Akron on White Pond Drive.
"As great as he was physically," Dambrot said, "he was even better mentally and instinctively."
Joyce III laughed when he thought about how NBA fans have labeled the different phases of James as mad LeBron, headband LeBron, no headband LeBron or masked LeBron, among other characterizations.
Joyce III said he saw "laser-focused" LeBron their senior year.
On Jan. 31, 2003, the Ohio High School Athletic Association ruled James ineligible for the rest of the season for accepting gifts — two throwback jerseys valued at a combined $845 — from a Cleveland clothing store.
"He's been through a lot of struggles and, for that moment, basketball was kind of taken from him," said Joyce III, the top assistant to Dambrot at Duquesne. "That was one of the toughest [times]. It wasn't a long segment, but he didn't know how long it was going to play out."
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The James camp went to court, and a judge ordered a temporary restraining order on Feb. 4, 2003, restoring LeBron's eligibility.
Upon returning, James unleashed 52 points in a 78-52 win over Los Angeles Westchester during a showcase on Feb. 8, 2003, in Trenton, New Jersey. When James left the game with 2:30 remaining, Westchester had totaled 43 points, meaning James had outscored an opponent ranked seventh in the nation by USA Today.
James executed slam dunks on three consecutive possessions during a dominant third-quarter sequence.
"It was just almost like game, set, match — it's done," Joyce III said. "I think it took the soul of the other team.
"I remember one of the opposing players kind of trash talking to me because he had scored a bucket, and I'm like, 'My guy is outscoring your whole team, so I'm good!'"
It wasn't the first time LeBron had produced a statement performance with controversy swirling.
On Jan. 13, 2003, the OHSAA announced an inquiry into how Gloria James had acquired financing for the Hummer H2 sport utility vehicle she bought LeBron for his 18th birthday.
The next day, James played with a remote-controlled Hummer on the court at UA's Rhodes Arena before scoring 50 points in a 92-56 win over Mentor.
On Jan. 27, 2003, the OHSAA cleared LeBron of any wrongdoing, stating its two-week Hummer investigation showed Gloria James had secured financing for the SUV on her own.
In the case of the free throwback jerseys, LeBron was forced to sit out two games.
On occasion, Joyce III would notice James playing left-handed — "almost Larry Bird-style" — throughout a practice.
"The high school game, he was above and beyond it," Joyce III said. "It was too easy, and he had to challenge himself in other ways."
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Joyce III described James as ambidextrous. For example, James writes and eats left-handed, but he shoots the ball right-handed.
"He doesn't take a whole lot of jumpers left-handed, but if he wanted to, it's more than possible," Joyce III said. "You see him finish at a very, very high rate with his left hand. ... But there's also a reason behind that. He put a lot of work into it."
Even as a STVM freshman, James established a reputation for being able to make his teammates burst into laughter. It usually happened in the locker room, sometimes when the coaching staff sought a more serious atmosphere.
"Bron was just silly as hell, man," Willie McGee said. "He was a clown, and he always had the innate ability to turn it [off and on]. When it's time to go, he was ready.
"I just remember Coach Dambrot putting the game plan up on the board and looking back and yelling like, 'LeBron, stop! Everybody can't play around before the game like you. Let them get ready for the game and get their heads right. Everybody can't cut it on and off like you can.'"
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James' comedy often stole the show during STVM's bus rides to and from games.
"Him and Romeo [Travis] are two of the funniest people I know," McGee said.
Joyce III fondly recalled exchanging CDs, listening to music and cracking jokes on buses.
"It was like meeting in the barbershop," Joyce III said.
Now James is an international celebrity with a barbershop-themed TV show, "The Shop: Uninterrupted." The HBO series features plenty of sports talk, debate and, of course, laughs James shares with guests and Maverick Carter , his friend, co-host and fellow STVM graduate.
Romeo Travis and James were competing in a summertime AAU tournament in Las Vegas ahead of their junior year at STVM. James had seen an opposing power forward, Chris Bosh, at a previous AAU event in Colorado, so he had a defensive coaching tip for Travis.
"He's like, 'Hey, [Bosh is] going to get the ball on the post, open up, pump fake and then drive baseline and dunk it really hard. Make sure you don't go for the pump fake,'" Travis said. "I'm like, 'Man, I'm not going for no pump fakes. I'm good. I'm a good defender. '"
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Bosh, who later won two NBA titles with James in Miami, pulled off the move on the first play of the game. Unfortunately for Travis, he took the bait despite James' warning.
"I go for the pump fake so hard. I tried to land as fast as as possible 'cause as soon as I left my feet, I'm like, 'Oh, no!'" Travis said. "Then I tried to recover, and I got dunked on [while fouling Bosh].
"So now there's a free throw. You know how you can feel someone just staring at you? I could just feel Bron just staring a hole in my head. So I finally look up, and he just shakes his head and walks away."
A main takeaway: James is the ultimate student of the game.
"That's what it's like playing with greatness," Travis said.
The greatness has been on display since LeBron's high school years at St. Vincent-St. Mary.
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Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com.
On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: LeBron's St. V days: Gloria James, former coaches, teammates reflect
