Sonny Vaccaro and LeBron James. Photo Credit: New York Post

Sneaker industry executive Sonny Vaccaro Discussed Lenny Cooke & LeBron James’ 2001 ABCD Camp Matchup with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson on Scoop B Radio Press Play Below To Listen!

Over the last twenty years, AAU basketball has become just as important as the organized game itself. Sneaker companies, coaches and recruiters all get a glimpse into the future of the game.

One of the most elite programs to step foot in was the now-defunct ABCD camp.

From 1994-2006 ABCD Camp was THE show at Teaneck, New Jersey’s Fairleigh Dickinson College. You name ‘em they played in it: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Rashard Lewis, Kenyon Martin, Kevin Garnett, Sebastian Telfair, Charlie Villanueva.

That picture floating around with a younger Kevin Love and an even younger Isaiah Thomas, now team Cleveland Cavaliers teammates; yup, it happened at ABCD Camp.

Sonny Vaccaro, a former sneaker executive with all three of the major sneaker brands: Nike, Adidas was the braintrust behind that camp.

Vaccaro most notably got Michael Jordan to sign with Nike and signed Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant to Adidas deals. Vaccaro also challenged the NBA’s one-and-done rule by advising Brandon Jennings to play overseas in Italy for a year before declaring for the NBA Draft.

Vaccaro historically signed LeBron James to a $90 million deal with Nike before even playing his first NBA game.

Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s LeBron James heads up the court Thursday, March 13, 2003, against Tallmadge during a state high school regional tournament game in Toledo, Ohio. (AP Photo/J.D. Pooley)

Speaking of James, the world became familiar of him at Vaccaro’s ABCD Camp in 2001. LeBron wasn’t even the headliner; it was Lenny Cooke, a Brooklyn native by way of Northern Valley High School in Old Tappan, New Jersey.” I think that Jay Z might have been in attendance,” Sonny Vaccaro told me on Scoop B Radio.

“What you had was a mystical appearance of this kid from Ohio who had not yet broken into the national scene. The only camp LeBron had gone to was ABCD camp and Lenny was the reigning number one high school player in America and sort of magnified himself by being this very mysterious kid also.”

Cooke averaged 25 points, hauled in 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks per game in his junior year at Northern Valley High School with high school scouts ranking him ahead of retired NBA forward Amar’e Stoudemire, James and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Carmelo Anthony.

In the closing seconds of the game, Cooke’s team had the lead and possession of the basketball. James stole the ball from Cooke, scored on a fast break and won the game. That play introduced the world to the Akron, Ohio baller who was later featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the cover titled, ‘The Chosen One.’  “The funny this about it is that it wasn’t like Lenny did bad,” said Sonny Vaccaro. “But LeBron just won the game.”

James would enter the NBA Draft in 2003 and win three NBA championships.

While speaking at Philadelphia’s Mount Olivet Tabernacle Baptist Church with Rev. Andre L. Price last year, Cooke says that not showing up for team workouts hindered his draft stock. “My kids like LeBron James now,” said Cooke.

“He’s earned everything he’s gotten and taken advantage of every opportunity he’s been given. How can I be mad at him? He built his brand the right way!”“That game didn’t single-handedly mean anything other than it was played in New York at a summertime camp and a lot of people saw it,” said Vaccaro.

Added Vaccaro:

“Lenny was over-confident and had the New York bravado and LeBron was LeBron and he probably didn’t care who he was playing against other than the name and that sort of carried over into his life. LeBron has taken everything that has come his way since that night and today and hopefully for a lot more of playing basketball. LeBron took everything more serious than Lenny Cooke and I think if you play the game, it didn’t begin that night but what it did was dramatize the reign of LeBron and the eventual downfall of Lenny Cooke.”

Lenny Cooke and Carmelo Anthony battling for a rebound at Sonny Vaccaro’s ABCD basketball camp in Teaneck, New Jersey. Phto Credit: New York Daily News

Cooke would declare for the 2002 NBA Draft and went undrafted. An NBA career would never materialize and he’d later play in the Rucker Park league, NBDL and USBL. He’d also play overseas in China and the Philippines.

Cooke has recently found his niche: coaching. Cooke coaches high school basketball in Atlantic City, New Jersey and travels across the country mentoring kids and speaking on panels at swanky locations like Microsoft.

Cooke recently weighed in on the NBA’s one and done rule stating that a player must be 19 years old or one year removed from their high school’s graduating class.

“I mean I disagree a little bit,” Cooke told me on Scoop B Radio.

“If you’re just going for one year, it ain’t really benefitting you. You’re still a child. I mean, at the end of the day, one year’s not going to [do anything]. If you get hurt, then you’re done.”

A subject of a 93-minute documentary, called “Lenny Cooke,” the film documents his high school career. The film was directed by brothers Josh and Bennie Safdie and executive produced by New York Knicks forward, Joakim Noah. “It is easy to tell stories about your success,” Joakim Noah told me.

“But extremely courageous to do the same with your failures,”

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The post Sonny Vaccaro On LeBron James & Lenny Cooke At ABCD Camp: “It wasn’t like Lenny did bad, but LeBron just won the game” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

High school basketball phenoms Schea Cotton, and Lenny Cooke drop by Scoop B Radio with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson. Photo Courtesy of Ismael ‘Calligrafist’ Sayeed (Calligrafist Photography/Scoop Vision Media)

In the last twenty years, the names Schea Cotton and Lenny Cooke carried much weight in AAU hoops. The two shined in an era where the preps to pros culture was the norm.

Cotton was the cream of the crop in the late 90s. Mentioned nationally among top players like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Baron Davis, Jermaine O’Neal and Stephen Jackson, the former high school All American was a star at Saint John Bosco and Mater Dei. Cotton averaged 24 points and 10 rebounds, leading Mater Dei to a 36–1 record.. Cotton declared for the 2000 NBA Draft where he went undrafted.

Check Out Lenny Cooke, Schea Cotton & Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson On Scoop B Radio

In 2001, Lenny Cooke, a Brooklyn, NY native, was a man among boys. Scouts ranked the 6’6 slasher ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James, New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony and Miami Heat’s Amar’e Stoudemire. Cooke was a stats stuffer at Northern Valley High School in Old Tappan, NJ. Cooke averaged 25 points, 10 rebounds, two steals, and two blocks and looked primed to make a splash in the NBA. But just two years later, Cooke found himself playing ball not for an NBA team, but for the Shanghai Dongfang Sharks.

During an ABCD camp high school basketball tournament run by Sonny Vaccaro in Teaneck, NJ, Cooke’s AAU team went head to head with LeBron James’ team. Cooke’s team had the lead and possession of the basketball. James stole the ball, scored on a fast break and won the game, in a play that introduced the world to the Akron, Ohio born baller who was later featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the cover titled, “The Chosen One.” Many believed that that play was a turning point for Cooke’s career.

Dropping by Scoop B Radio, both Cooke and Cotton weighed in on the NBA’s age requirement that states that a player must be 19 years old or one year removed from their high school’s graduating class.

 “I mean I disagree a little bit,” Lenny Cooke told me on Scoop B Radio.

Added Cooke:

“Because I feel like when you making these kids go to school before they put their name in the draft they should have to do at least 2 years instead of one because two years you got, it take 2 years to get an associates degree. So if you’re just going for one year, it ain’t really benefitting you. You’re still a child. I mean, at the end of the day, one year’s not going to; you know what I’m saying, make you or break you. But at the same time, if you get hurt, you see what I’m saying?  Then you’re done.”

“I just feel that, you know, people shouldn’t be denied their right to work,” Sched Cotton told me on Scoop B Radio.

Schea Cotton added:

“You know, they do a lot of different things, but in tennis and you know, different sports, you see them turning pro at a young age. And soccer and baseball, we could go down the list. But in basketball, its dominated predominately by guys coming out of inner cities of North America and they make a big deal out of it. You know, one year of college is like a training ground for them to go on to the NBA, but like Lenny said: ‘if you get hurt you know, there’s no insurance for the student athlete.’ They need to do something about that, because you earn that scholarship every second of your day in college, you know whether you’re in study hall, whether you’re in individual workouts, the team practice; you know team meetings, whatever it may be. They monopolize your schedule, you don’t even know yourself at the end of the night, you just wanna hit the sack, you know? So things need to change, guys are making a lot of money for these universities as well as these coaches.”

Check Out Cooton Cooke Unedited

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The post Scoop B: High School Hoops Legends Lenny Cooke & Schea Cotton Discuss NBA’s One And Done Rule appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

In the last twenty years, the names Schea Cotton and Lenny Cooke carried much weight in AAU hoops.

The two shined in an era where the preps to pros culture was the norm. Manhattan was bumping and jumping on Friday, April 22 when the high school basketball legends came together for the first time in an exclusive and UNEDITED panel at the Microsoft Flagship Store. There they discussed their journeys, after the stardom, starting over and telling the world, ‘what happened,’ in a discussion moderated by Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, host of CBS Sports Radio’s Brown and Scoop and a writer who has covered the two extensively.

Cotton, now 37, was the cream of the crop in the late 90s. Mentioned nationally among top players like Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Baron Davis, Jermaine O’Neal and Stephen Jackson, the former  high school All American was a star at Saint John Bosco and Mater Dei. Cotton averaged 24 points and 10 rebounds, leading Mater Dei to a 36–1 record. After a myriad of red tape issues with the NCAA over questions of SAT testing, he was unable to play for Long Beach State where he’d have joined his brother, nor would he be able to play at UCLA where he’d have been teammates with Baron Davis.

Following that controversy, he had a prep school stint at St. Thomas Moore High School in Connecticut. Cotton, an explosive combo shooting guard/small forward would end up going to Alabama where he played out of position at power forward. Cotton declared for the 2000 NBA Draft where he went undrafted. After playing professionally overseas for ten years, Cotton now trains the next generation of kids and also travels around the country speaking to the next generation about the importance of making good choices. “Basketball is something that I did, it’s not who I am,” Cotton told the crowd at the panel.

“For these kids today, I tell them to go to class. Take care of your books.”

In 2001, Lenny Cooke, a Brooklyn, NY native, was a man among boys. A  6’6 slasher who in high school scouts ranked ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James, New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony and Miami Heat’s Amar’e Stoudemire was a stats stuffer at Northern Valley High School i Old Tappan, NJ. Cooke averaged 25 points, 10 rebounds, two steals, and two blocks and looked primed to make a splash in the NBA. But just two years later, Cooke found himself playing ball not for an NBA team, but for the Shanghai Dongfang Sharks.

During an ABCD camp high school basketball tournament run by Sonny Vaccaro in Teaneck, New Jersey,  Cooke’s AAU team went head to head with LeBron James’ team. Cooke’s team had the lead and possession of the basketball. James stole the ball, scored on a fast break and won the game, in a play that introduced the world to the Akron, Ohio born baller who was later featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the cover titled, “The Chosen One.” Many believed that that play was a turning point for Cooke’s career. “LeBron deserves all that he got because he worked at it,” said Cooke. “I didn’t. I went off of talent.”

Cooke, now 33 lives in Virginia and is involved with hoops in some capacity, coaching at high school camps. “My name is Leonard Cooke, not Lenny,” Cooke said at the panel. “I am more than basketball. I’m a dad and I want to travel the world and inspire kids.” Ironically enough, he enjoys cooking, a craft he picked up while playing overseas. He plans to go back to school, get a degree and coach basketball.

Currently, Cotton’s documentary, Manchild, The Schea Cotton Story: A Dream Deferred, has been making its rounds in screeners across the country. Cooke was the subject of a documentary directed by brothers Josh and Benjamin Safdie who travel back in time and takes you through the life of a guy who had it all at an early age.  SLAM Magazine, Parade Magazine and ESPN specialty shows like “The Life” were where Cotton and Cooke would get their shine in an age that existed before platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. Both think that things would be different had those things existed back then. “If there was social media when I played I’d be in a mansion overlooking the ocean,” said Cotton.

“If there was social media when I played I would have a million followers,” said Cooke.

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The post Schea Cotton and Lenny Cooke Discuss HS Hoops, Disappointments At NYC’s #CottonCookeUnedited appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.