Another Finals on tap, James blossoms into living legend

Tim Rogers covered high school sports for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He was making calls to boys' basketball coaches before the start of the 1999-2000 season. Keith Dambrot was in his second year as the coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, Cleveland's large neighbor 35 miles to the south.

"Maverick Carter was an upperclassman and the returning star," Rogers said. "Keith told me, 'I have a freshman who is a very special kid.' I didn't know Keith well at that point. I figured it was just a coach talking, like they do before the start of a season.

"Then I called a coach from another school — a rival — and he started talking about this freshman at St. V. So I went to see this kid, LeBron James, play in the third or fourth game of the season.

"It was before his birthday [Dec. 30], meaning he still was 14. He was 6-foot-3, but lean, thin-shouldered, not at all like America got to know him. He could play, but I wasn't knocked out of the gym."

Rogers wound up watching St. Vincent-St. Mary and LeBron about a dozen times that winter.

"By the time they were in the state tournament, LeBron was completely different; he could dominate," Rogers said. "Maverick had a good game in the semis, but he had an off night in the finals. LeBron took over and won the game."

Dambrot had been the head coach for two seasons at Central Michigan from 1991-93, then went into the investment business. Akron was home and when the coaching urge returned, he took the job at St. Vincent-St. Mary for the fall of 1998.

He had Carter on that first team, and then came a group of five close friends — all freshmen — who wound up calling themselves the "Fab Five," high school ancestors of the famed 1991 Michigan Wolverines recruiting class.

Dru Joyce III. Romeo Travis. Sian Cotton. Willie McGee. And LeBron James.

"The assumption was that four of them were going to go to Buchtel, the public school, and then Little Dru came to see me and said they wanted to come to St. V," Dambrot said. "What was interesting about that was that Little Dru's dad, Dru II, was an assistant coach at Buchtel."

Dambrot first saw LeBron when he attended clinics the coach conducted at the Jewish Community Center in Akron.

"He was 13 and had skills, but he was under 6 feet and skinny," Dambrot said.

LeBron sprouted to 6-4 and remained skinny, at 170 pounds, when he showed up at St. Vincent-St. Mary as a freshman.

"I was an assistant at Eastern Michigan and had a chance to coach three NBA players: Grant Long, who had a long career, and the Thomas twins [Carl and Charles]," Dambrot said. "So I knew what an NBA player looked like, what it took to get there.

"Four games into LeBron's freshman year, my thought was, 'He's going to play in the NBA.' Four games into his sophomore year, it was, 'He won't go to college; he's going from high school to the NBA.' "

St. Vincent-St. Mary won state titles both those seasons. Dambrot then took a job as an assistant coach at the University of Akron.

"I'm the only guy dumb enough to leave when he had a chance to coach the greatest player ever for two more seasons," Dambrot said.

Rogers recalled Dambrot telling him after LeBron's sophomore season that he would be the biggest thing ever to come out of northern Ohio, the next Michael Jordan, the next Magic Johnson.

"LeBron was exceptional, but I thought, 'Michael, Magic, come on,' " Rogers said.

Things worked out OK for all parties. Dambrot became head coach at Akron in 2004 and has had a successful 11-year run, with a 252-121 record (.676) and 10 consecutive seasons with 21 or more victories.

Dru Joyce II took over as head coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary. He was there for LeBron being on the Sports Illustrated cover as "The Chosen One" as a junior in 2002, for the rock star treatment LeBron and his Fab Five received during his senior season — playing on ESPN and drawing good ratings, and in historic arenas such as the Palestra in Philly and Pauley Pavilion in L.A.

Rogers, Brian Windhorst of the Akron Beacon Journal and a few other northern Ohio reporters traveled the national circuit with St. Vincent-St. Mary that winter.

"LeBron filled the arena everywhere he played," Rogers said. "People lined up a couple of hours ahead of time to see a high school team get off the bus."

James is now 30 and ready to start his sixth NBA Finals, and fifth in a row. The prior four had been in Miami, with two championships. This time, he's back home with the Cleveland Cavaliers, back as the biggest thing ever to come out of northern Ohio.

The Chosen One.

Mark that down as a Sports Illustrated cover that carried no jinx.

Patrick Reusse can be heard 3-6 p.m. weekdays on AM-1500. • preusse@startribune.com