LeBron James, the star player of the Los Angeles Lakers, has displayed exceptional skills not only throughout his professional career but also during his high school years. The 39-year-old star honed his basketball talent at St. Vincent–St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio.
As fans eagerly anticipated his future in the NBA, a former high school coach recognized the young star’s potential and offered him valuable advice on protecting his millions of dollars.
During a recent appearance on the Hoop Collective Homecoming live show in Akron, Ohio, James’ former coach at St. Mary High School, Keith Dambrot, recalled a hilarious incident about James during his high school years. You can listen to the conversation at the 44:19 mark of the video mentioned below.
So, we’re playing at the University of San Francisco, and if anyone knows LeBron, he kind of beats to his own drum, whatever he feels like, he does. And so we’re playing and I don’t know whether his shorts were too big or he just didn’t feel like playing, but he was messing with the shorts the whole time and he wasn’t playing very good. Dambrot said.
During a conversation with ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, Dambrot mentioned that he had called Sonny Vaccaro, an Adidas executive and the founder of the ABCD camp, to watch James demonstrate his skills. However, James was seen struggling with his shorts, which led to a serious discussion between James and Dambrot.
The Coach Reminded James Of The Significance Of Impressing Vaccaro
Vaccaro is best known for his time at Nike, where he signed basketball legend Michael Jordan to his first sneaker deal. However, he later left Nike to go to Adidas. During a game, Coach Dambrot noticed that James’ shorts were distracting him from playing well.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NBA stories via Google! Follow Us
The coach called James and reminded him of the importance of impressing Vaccaro. Later in the game, James demonstrated his skills on the court, leading to him signing a seven-year, approximately $90 million deal with Nike in 2003.
So I took him out on the hallway and said, ‘LeBron, do you know who that guy is?’ And he says, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Well, you know you’re going to cost yourself millions of dollars if you [don’t] quit messing around,’ and that probably wasn’t the term I used, as most of you know. Dambrot added.
James has amassed millions of dollars with Nike’s deal, thanks to Dambrot’s advice. According to Forbes, the all-time points leader is projected to have a net worth of $1.2 billion by 2024. Furthermore, James and the Lakers have recently reached an agreement on a contract extension, sparking excitement among fans who are looking forward to witnessing the dominance of the 4-time NBA champion.
Also Read: LeBron James Emotionally Admits Missing 2019-20 Version Of The Lakers
