1
00:00:54,721 --> 00:00:56,655
<i>Basketball is a vehicle.</i>

2
00:00:57,424 --> 00:00:59,392
<i>It's not the end all of the be all.</i>

3
00:00:59,492 --> 00:01:02,655
<i>It's a vehicle to get you</i>
<i>from point A to point B.</i>

4
00:01:05,298 --> 00:01:07,858
<i>Use basketball, don't let it use you.</i>

5
00:01:18,578 --> 00:01:21,638
<i>Here at Value City Arena,</i>

6
00:01:21,748 --> 00:01:24,182
<i>they've taken on all comers all season long.</i>

7
00:01:24,284 --> 00:01:26,684
<i>They've played in New Jersey</i>
<i>and North Carolina.</i>

8
00:01:26,786 --> 00:01:29,949
<i>A national schedule.</i>
<i>Number-one team in the country.</i>

9
00:01:30,056 --> 00:01:32,684
<i>You know, you certainly think that this team</i>

10
00:01:32,792 --> 00:01:35,556
<i>has put themselves right up there</i>
<i>with the great Middletown teams,</i>

11
00:01:35,662 --> 00:01:39,962
<i>the Cleveland St. Jo teams,</i>
<i>the East teams, Wehrle, all of those.</i>

12
00:01:40,500 --> 00:01:43,731
<i>Let me just say</i>
<i>to all of you in attendance today,</i>

13
00:01:44,304 --> 00:01:47,740
<i>you are part of the largest crowd</i>
<i>ever to witness</i>

14
00:01:47,841 --> 00:01:51,504
<i>a championship game</i>
<i>in the history of Ohio.</i>

15
00:01:53,913 --> 00:01:58,976
<i>James, Joyce, Cotton and McGee</i>
<i>have all been here four consecutive years.</i>

16
00:01:59,252 --> 00:02:05,418
<i>They've all won 100 games trying to become</i>
<i>a three-time winner with this group.</i>

17
00:02:12,799 --> 00:02:14,733
<i>You have a chance to go down</i>
<i>as the greatest team</i>

18
00:02:14,834 --> 00:02:17,098
in high-school basketball history.

19
00:02:17,203 --> 00:02:21,299
You know, that's gonna be around here
long after you guys are gone.

20
00:02:21,508 --> 00:02:23,100
You've taken it full circle, fellas.

21
00:02:24,310 --> 00:02:29,942
This all started in a little gym
with a linoleum floor on Maple Street,

22
00:02:30,250 --> 00:02:31,376
at The Salvation Army.

23
00:02:32,085 --> 00:02:33,677
All the travel we've done,

24
00:02:33,786 --> 00:02:37,449
from the time you guys were 11 years old,
all the way across the country,

25
00:02:37,557 --> 00:02:40,617
through high school,
all the way to culminate,

26
00:02:40,727 --> 00:02:44,629
when that bus pulls up tomorrow,
where at? On Maple Street.

27
00:02:46,633 --> 00:02:48,533
And the only question right now is,

28
00:02:48,635 --> 00:02:52,594
"Do you get off
that bus tomorrow victorious?"

29
00:02:57,977 --> 00:02:59,706
All right, let's go.

30
00:03:13,860 --> 00:03:17,352
<i>So, here we go.</i>
<i>The championship game in Division II.</i>

31
00:03:17,463 --> 00:03:22,093
<i>St. Vincent-St. Mary's</i>
<i>with a national championship on the line.</i>

32
00:04:12,552 --> 00:04:15,885
<i>Growing up,</i>
<i>I had one coach who I looked up to a lot.</i>

33
00:04:18,224 --> 00:04:21,591
<i>I learned a lot from him, and I just thought</i>
<i>that he was someone that,</i>

34
00:04:21,694 --> 00:04:24,629
<i>you know, I could model my life after.</i>

35
00:04:26,799 --> 00:04:30,496
<i>Coming out of college,</i>
<i>I got caught up in corporate America</i>

36
00:04:30,670 --> 00:04:33,571
and really lost my dream
of becoming a coach.

37
00:04:35,608 --> 00:04:37,599
<i>It's kind of always a delicate situation.</i>

38
00:04:37,710 --> 00:04:40,406
<i>You know, you don't want to live</i>
<i>your dream through your child,</i>

39
00:04:40,513 --> 00:04:44,313
but you want to have them enjoy the things
that you have enjoyed.

40
00:04:45,652 --> 00:04:47,517
<i>Myself and some of the brothers</i>
<i>from our church,</i>

41
00:04:47,620 --> 00:04:51,420
<i>we would go every Saturday morning</i>
<i>and have pickup basketball.</i>

42
00:04:51,524 --> 00:04:55,324
<i>Dru was there and you could just see</i>
<i>that he had a love for the game.</i>

43
00:04:55,428 --> 00:04:59,455
<i>I was one of those parents who just came</i>
<i>to every practice that I could come to,</i>

44
00:04:59,565 --> 00:05:02,398
<i>and so the parents just asked me,</i>
<i>"Why don't you coach the team?"</i>

45
00:05:02,502 --> 00:05:04,766
<i>So I jumped at the opportunity.</i>

46
00:05:08,074 --> 00:05:10,907
I can remember having a conversation
with a gentleman in my church,

47
00:05:11,010 --> 00:05:15,037
telling him that I was about to coach
this travel basketball team,

48
00:05:15,815 --> 00:05:17,783
and he happened to be on the board
of The Salvation Army

49
00:05:17,884 --> 00:05:21,684
and he said he could arrange
a place for us to practice, so...

50
00:05:22,622 --> 00:05:27,559
This is where it started.
This is where we came together as a team.

51
00:05:31,664 --> 00:05:33,154
<i>Basketball was just so much fun.</i>

52
00:05:33,266 --> 00:05:35,791
<i>It was a whole new world.</i>
<i>That was my playground.</i>

53
00:05:35,968 --> 00:05:39,597
<i>I mean, I looked forward</i>
<i>to going to the basketball court.</i>

54
00:05:39,706 --> 00:05:41,697
<i>Dru was kind of a hothead.</i>

55
00:05:42,508 --> 00:05:46,103
<i>When he was young, five,</i>
<i>I'd have to play until I let him win.</i>

56
00:05:46,212 --> 00:05:49,340
You know, I mean, that's just who he was.

57
00:05:49,982 --> 00:05:54,282
We would play 10 games of one-on-one.
I'm like, "Hey, I gotta beat you.

58
00:05:54,420 --> 00:05:56,285
"I'm not leaving till I win."

59
00:05:57,623 --> 00:06:01,354
<i>We had trouble keeping players</i>
<i>on the team, and I knew a very good player</i>

60
00:06:01,461 --> 00:06:04,157
<i>and his name</i>
<i>happened to be LeBron James.</i>

61
00:06:05,932 --> 00:06:08,400
<i>He let us know that we were gonna</i>
<i>be traveling across the United States</i>

62
00:06:08,501 --> 00:06:09,763
<i>to play the game of basketball,</i>

63
00:06:09,869 --> 00:06:11,996
which, at that point,
I was starting to get a love for.

64
00:06:12,438 --> 00:06:14,269
<i>I remember he was real flashy.</i>

65
00:06:14,374 --> 00:06:17,639
<i>He came to practice,</i>
<i>he was throwing no-Iook passes.</i>

66
00:06:19,412 --> 00:06:21,676
<i>He and his mom</i>
<i>had some tough early years,</i>

67
00:06:21,781 --> 00:06:25,273
<i>and when I met him,</i>
<i>you would never know that about him.</i>

68
00:06:27,186 --> 00:06:29,347
<i>I'm seeing Dru come out of church school</i>
<i>this one day,</i>

69
00:06:29,455 --> 00:06:32,356
<i>and I'm thinking, "Hey, this is a big kid."</i>

70
00:06:32,458 --> 00:06:35,916
<i>He came to my dad and wanted to know</i>
<i>if I would play for his AAU team</i>

71
00:06:36,028 --> 00:06:37,427
that he was starting up.

72
00:06:38,364 --> 00:06:42,858
<i>My dad was real good. Everywhere we'd go,</i>
<i>people would know him around Akron.</i>

73
00:06:42,969 --> 00:06:45,665
<i>I kind of set out to be better than him.</i>

74
00:06:46,305 --> 00:06:49,968
<i>Sian wasn't very good.</i>
<i>He was big, but he wasn't very good.</i>

75
00:06:50,276 --> 00:06:52,676
<i>He was definitely the biggest kid</i>
<i>on our team,</i>

76
00:06:52,779 --> 00:06:55,247
<i>so we had to use him for something.</i>

77
00:06:56,749 --> 00:06:58,376
<i>Willie was the best player in the city,</i>

78
00:06:58,484 --> 00:07:01,044
<i>and we wanted him to be a part of our team.</i>

79
00:07:01,154 --> 00:07:03,714
<i>Coach Dru called</i>
<i>and asked my brother how my grades were</i>

80
00:07:03,823 --> 00:07:07,657
and things like that,
and if I considered playing on his team.

81
00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:11,696
<i>I remember Willie being real shy.</i>
<i>He didn't really say too much.</i>

82
00:07:11,931 --> 00:07:16,527
<i>He had some different life experiences</i>
<i>that maybe grown him up a little bit more.</i>

83
00:07:16,636 --> 00:07:19,935
<i>He was just a little bit more mature</i>
<i>than the other guys.</i>

84
00:07:20,039 --> 00:07:22,633
<i>He was like the grandfather of it all.</i>

85
00:07:25,912 --> 00:07:27,174
<i>We just started traveling.</i>

86
00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:30,010
We started playing different tournaments
throughout Ohio.

87
00:07:30,116 --> 00:07:32,516
Some of the close states.
Ohio, West Virginia.

88
00:07:42,662 --> 00:07:46,530
<i>We had a natural feel for each other.</i>
<i>I'm not sure what it was.</i>

89
00:07:46,632 --> 00:07:50,932
<i>I guess it was just meant to be,</i>
<i>but we had a chemistry for each other.</i>

90
00:07:55,842 --> 00:07:59,778
<i>Got to the point where we were winning</i>
<i>pretty much all the time.</i>

91
00:08:02,482 --> 00:08:06,179
<i>It was basketball,</i>
<i>but it was more friendship than anything.</i>

92
00:08:07,787 --> 00:08:11,314
<i>We were all kind of, like, strangers,</i>
<i>and we really bonded.</i>

93
00:08:12,458 --> 00:08:16,417
<i>I wanted to finally have some brothers</i>
<i>that I could be loyal to and be trustworthy,</i>

94
00:08:16,529 --> 00:08:19,089
and I think we all kind of shared that bond.

95
00:08:19,198 --> 00:08:21,359
<i>I actually remember being over</i>
<i>at LeBron's house one night,</i>

96
00:08:21,467 --> 00:08:22,491
<i>and he was just talking, like,</i>

97
00:08:22,602 --> 00:08:24,433
<i>"You and I are good friends,</i>
<i>you know what I'm saying?"</i>

98
00:08:24,537 --> 00:08:27,165
It was weird for me,
for somebody to express themselves to me,

99
00:08:27,273 --> 00:08:30,902
including another dude, another boy,
to me like that, you know what I mean?

100
00:08:31,010 --> 00:08:33,535
<i>Like, they were more giving.</i>
<i>They were more accepting.</i>

101
00:08:33,646 --> 00:08:35,807
<i>It just got more comfortable.</i>

102
00:08:36,616 --> 00:08:39,380
<i>The Fab 4, that was like our identity.</i>

103
00:08:41,087 --> 00:08:44,215
<i>We spent the night at each other's houses</i>
<i>every weekend.</i>

104
00:08:44,323 --> 00:08:47,690
<i>I'd look down in the rec room</i>
<i>and there would be just bodies down there.</i>

105
00:08:47,793 --> 00:08:49,693
<i>I wouldn't know who was in there.</i>

106
00:08:49,962 --> 00:08:54,661
<i>It was like the team was like a family.</i>
<i>You play your heart out for your family.</i>

107
00:08:56,302 --> 00:08:58,202
<i>I just said, "You guys are gonna do</i>
<i>something special. "

108
00:08:58,304 --> 00:09:00,932
I didn't know what I meant by that,
but that's what...

109
00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:02,632
I remember telling them that.

110
00:09:04,744 --> 00:09:08,305
<i>And from there it became my dream</i>
<i>and their dreams</i>

111
00:09:08,414 --> 00:09:10,712
<i>to win a national championship.</i>

112
00:09:12,785 --> 00:09:15,413
<i>The AAU is the Amateur Athletic Union,</i>

113
00:09:15,521 --> 00:09:19,048
and they host national championships
for each age group,

114
00:09:19,158 --> 00:09:21,956
kind of like the NCAA championships.

115
00:09:22,061 --> 00:09:25,155
That's the one you want to go to
and where the best players and teams are.

116
00:09:25,631 --> 00:09:27,929
<i>Financially, we had no sponsors.</i>

117
00:09:28,334 --> 00:09:30,427
You name the fundraiser
and we probably tried it.

118
00:09:30,536 --> 00:09:33,403
We sold Katydids. We did fish fries.

119
00:09:33,739 --> 00:09:36,503
<i>We sold duct tape for a number of years.</i>

120
00:09:36,609 --> 00:09:40,568
Hey, don't laugh. Duct tape.
We made a lot of money selling duct tape.

121
00:09:40,746 --> 00:09:43,772
<i>We were kids who were on the corner</i>
<i>hustling for uniforms,</i>

122
00:09:43,883 --> 00:09:46,875
washing cars
and going around from door to door.

123
00:09:46,986 --> 00:09:50,478
The big moneymaker
was really right by the liquor store.

124
00:09:55,361 --> 00:09:57,420
<i>We rode in a minivan</i>
<i>from Akron, Ohio, to Florida.</i>

125
00:09:57,530 --> 00:09:59,760
<i>Probably, like, nine of us in a minivan.</i>

126
00:09:59,865 --> 00:10:04,632
<i>We went down in caravans.</i>
<i>I drove my wife's van, she drove my car,</i>

127
00:10:04,971 --> 00:10:08,668
<i>and I had five boys in my car</i>
<i>and she had our other three children.</i>

128
00:10:08,774 --> 00:10:10,503
- LeBron.
- Hello.

129
00:10:11,711 --> 00:10:14,680
<i>You go in, they have opening ceremonies,</i>

130
00:10:14,780 --> 00:10:17,647
<i>and the teams are parading through.</i>
<i>It's like the Olympics,</i>

131
00:10:17,750 --> 00:10:21,686
<i>and I'm like, "Wow,</i>
<i>this is more than I had ever expected. "

132
00:10:22,154 --> 00:10:26,215
<i>Northeast Ohio Shooting Stars.</i>

133
00:10:26,759 --> 00:10:30,320
<i>There's teams from New York,</i>
<i>from California, from Florida.</i>

134
00:10:30,429 --> 00:10:32,659
We were a team from Akron,
which no one ever heard of.

135
00:10:34,133 --> 00:10:36,966
<i>Talking to other coaches</i>
<i>and hearing that they had played 60 games,</i>

136
00:10:37,069 --> 00:10:38,764
"We played 50 games,"

137
00:10:38,871 --> 00:10:41,999
and I'm thinking,
"Wow, this doesn't look very good."

138
00:10:43,409 --> 00:10:45,969
<i>Today, there are over 100,000 boys</i>

139
00:10:46,078 --> 00:10:48,205
<i>competing in</i>
<i>AAU basketball tournaments</i>

140
00:10:48,314 --> 00:10:52,876
<i>across America. Are you ready?</i>

141
00:11:01,260 --> 00:11:04,491
<i>No one believed</i>
<i>that we would win any of the games.</i>

142
00:11:04,930 --> 00:11:07,160
<i>It's like we all were just clicking</i>
<i>at the right time.</i>

143
00:11:07,266 --> 00:11:10,758
<i>We won some big games</i>
<i>we didn't think we were gonna win.</i>

144
00:11:11,604 --> 00:11:12,969
<i>Everyone was like,</i>

145
00:11:13,072 --> 00:11:15,040
"You guys won a game?"
It was that attitude.

146
00:11:15,141 --> 00:11:19,874
Not like, "Great game." It's like
they couldn't believe we were still winning.

147
00:11:20,780 --> 00:11:26,082
<i>It's almost like our friendship off the court</i>
<i>was exactly the same as it is on the court.</i>

148
00:11:28,387 --> 00:11:32,687
<i>They started to believe in themselves</i>
<i>and what they could do as a team.</i>

149
00:11:35,628 --> 00:11:38,893
<i>In that tournament,</i>
<i>LeBron really separated himself.</i>

150
00:11:39,465 --> 00:11:43,401
<i>You could see he was, head and shoulders,</i>
<i>the best player there.</i>

151
00:11:46,505 --> 00:11:49,531
<i>We were just on a roll.</i>
<i>We got to that championship game.</i>

152
00:11:49,642 --> 00:11:52,372
<i>We were gonna come home</i>
<i>and say we were national champs.</i>

153
00:11:52,578 --> 00:11:55,706
I mean, what can you say?
We're national champions.

154
00:11:55,815 --> 00:11:58,079
Not knowing if we were gonna go
to high school together,

155
00:11:58,184 --> 00:12:00,414
<i>that definitely added a little bit more drive.</i>

156
00:12:00,519 --> 00:12:04,114
<i>Our dreams of winning</i>
<i>a national championship was upon us.</i>

157
00:12:05,991 --> 00:12:07,117
<i>In just a few moments,</i>

158
00:12:07,226 --> 00:12:12,163
<i>one of these teams will earn the right</i>
<i>to be called national champions!</i>

159
00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:18,331
<i>The place was packed.</i>
<i>Lot of camera coverage and everything.</i>

160
00:12:18,671 --> 00:12:21,799
When they say your name,
your heart just starts beating.

161
00:12:22,108 --> 00:12:23,405
<i>Dru Joyce!</i>

162
00:12:24,243 --> 00:12:25,471
<i>We were definitely the underdogs.</i>

163
00:12:25,578 --> 00:12:28,138
We were playing a team,
Southern California All-Stars.

164
00:12:28,247 --> 00:12:31,580
They had won fifth grade, sixth grade,
seventh grade.

165
00:12:32,818 --> 00:12:35,082
<i>They had two of the best players</i>
<i>in the country.</i>

166
00:12:35,187 --> 00:12:38,782
<i>They had one guy</i>
<i>that was in the</i> Kid's Sports Illustrated.

167
00:12:42,394 --> 00:12:46,490
They were talking trash like,
"Y'all from where? Y'all from Akron?

168
00:12:46,866 --> 00:12:48,299
<i>"All country boys."</i>

169
00:12:48,601 --> 00:12:53,004
They were sponsored by Nike,
had Nike shoes, Nike sweatsuits, Nike bags.

170
00:12:53,139 --> 00:12:55,835
Our uniforms were nice,
until we played them.

171
00:12:55,941 --> 00:12:57,602
Then they were terrible.

172
00:12:57,710 --> 00:13:00,144
When they walked into the gym,
heads turned.

173
00:13:00,279 --> 00:13:02,975
<i>You know,</i>
<i>they had a swagger about themselves.</i>

174
00:13:03,082 --> 00:13:05,915
It was kind of intimidating,
but we were just to point, like, "Forget it."

175
00:13:06,018 --> 00:13:07,781
You know what I'm saying?
They gotta play on the same court

176
00:13:07,887 --> 00:13:09,479
as we gotta play. And they gotta play.

177
00:13:10,756 --> 00:13:13,486
<i>Nice pass up. Bell takes up the left side,</i>
<i>goes to the basket,</i>

178
00:13:13,592 --> 00:13:16,925
<i>spinning pass to Washington,</i>
<i>who plays it in for two.</i>

179
00:13:17,429 --> 00:13:21,297
<i>Outside shot for Bell.</i>
<i>It's good for three points.</i>

180
00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:24,233
<i>At one point in the game,</i>
<i>it started getting ugly.</i>

181
00:13:24,336 --> 00:13:27,567
<i>Our kids just had a never-say-die attitude.</i>

182
00:13:29,041 --> 00:13:32,477
<i>In the fourth quarter,</i>
<i>we started to cut the lead down.</i>

183
00:13:32,945 --> 00:13:36,176
<i>James takes the ball up the side. Now look,</i>
<i>they cut the lead to three and he's about...</i>

184
00:13:36,282 --> 00:13:40,048
<i>What a move by James!</i>
<i>We got a three-point ballgame.</i>

185
00:13:40,886 --> 00:13:44,287
<i>The fans started to get into it.</i>
<i>We started feeding off of their energy.</i>

186
00:13:44,390 --> 00:13:49,293
<i>We made a run and still had the opportunity</i>
<i>to tie it with a two or win it with a three.</i>

187
00:13:49,461 --> 00:13:53,227
<i>We're just seconds away</i>
<i>from crowning the national champions.</i>

188
00:13:54,333 --> 00:13:56,699
<i>Ball to LeBron James,</i>
<i>gotta hurry it up the court.</i>

189
00:13:56,802 --> 00:13:59,566
<i>They double-team him. Shot at the buzzer!</i>

190
00:14:00,806 --> 00:14:02,569
<i>The whole time I'm looking at it, it's like,</i>

191
00:14:02,675 --> 00:14:05,803
"Okay, this is the one
I've always dreamed about.

192
00:14:05,911 --> 00:14:08,778
"It's about to go in. It's about to go in."

193
00:14:14,486 --> 00:14:19,890
<i>... AIl-Stars, 68, Shooting Stars, 66.</i>

194
00:14:20,292 --> 00:14:24,729
And my dreams just shattered.
And we lose by two.

195
00:14:27,466 --> 00:14:31,425
That was it. LeBron put his head
in his hands and that was it.

196
00:14:34,073 --> 00:14:38,772
<i>It was just a sick feeling, like</i>
<i>we were right there but it just slipped away.</i>

197
00:14:47,653 --> 00:14:49,382
<i>... high-school basketball here at Ohio.</i>

198
00:14:49,488 --> 00:14:51,820
<i>So good luck to all those teams</i>
<i>making their way to Columbus.</i>

199
00:14:51,924 --> 00:14:53,721
<i>Of course,</i>
<i>the team on everybody's watch list</i>

200
00:14:53,826 --> 00:14:56,351
<i>is the Fighting Irish of St. Vincent-St. Mary.</i>

201
00:14:56,462 --> 00:14:59,522
<i>Can LeBron James and his team</i>
<i>complete this remarkable season</i>

202
00:14:59,632 --> 00:15:02,032
<i>by bringing home the championship?</i>

203
00:15:13,979 --> 00:15:18,382
<i>We had just lost the national championship.</i>
<i>We were just so together during that time.</i>

204
00:15:18,484 --> 00:15:20,213
It was like,
"Man, we want to keep doing this.

205
00:15:20,319 --> 00:15:22,753
"We don't want to go to high school
and split up."

206
00:15:22,855 --> 00:15:25,847
<i>We felt like a loyalty to each other.</i>
<i>So, where one person went,</i>

207
00:15:25,958 --> 00:15:28,153
<i>that's where everybody else was going.</i>

208
00:15:28,260 --> 00:15:30,728
<i>If you were an inner-city kid,</i>
<i>you went to Buchtel.</i>

209
00:15:30,829 --> 00:15:34,856
<i>It was definitely an all-black school,</i>
<i>so everybody expected us to be there.</i>

210
00:15:34,967 --> 00:15:38,630
<i>I was on staff at Buchtel High School,</i>
<i>pre-season open gym,</i>

211
00:15:38,871 --> 00:15:42,238
<i>and so I'm bringing Dru around</i>
<i>and letting him play with the guys.</i>

212
00:15:42,341 --> 00:15:45,833
He says, "Dad, they're not gonna
give me a chance here."

213
00:15:46,345 --> 00:15:49,212
<i>They didn't think</i>
<i>he was big enough to play.</i>

214
00:16:04,163 --> 00:16:07,599
He wasn't always the biggest,
wasn't always the fastest.

215
00:16:07,700 --> 00:16:10,533
He wasn't the cutest, either. Oh, man.

216
00:16:11,370 --> 00:16:12,632
But he was tough as nails.

217
00:16:13,973 --> 00:16:16,737
<i>He definitely has a little man's complex.</i>

218
00:16:16,976 --> 00:16:20,503
<i>He won't let anybody pick on him.</i>
<i>He'll stand up to the biggest guy.</i>

219
00:16:20,612 --> 00:16:23,206
<i>He has the biggest heart in the world.</i>

220
00:16:23,482 --> 00:16:25,882
<i>I think, sometimes,</i>
<i>he may have been frustrated.</i>

221
00:16:25,985 --> 00:16:30,547
<i>He had this little pull-up bar in his room</i>
<i>and he'd sort of just hang from it,</i>

222
00:16:30,823 --> 00:16:34,054
<i>trying to stretch or whatever,</i>
<i>make himself taller.</i>

223
00:16:34,860 --> 00:16:37,385
<i>The guys were getting bigger</i>
<i>and I wasn't growing as much,</i>

224
00:16:37,496 --> 00:16:40,294
<i>so I had to add something else to my game.</i>

225
00:16:40,733 --> 00:16:46,365
We took Dru to a Sunday night clinic run by
an ex-college coach named Keith Dambrot.

226
00:16:52,077 --> 00:16:54,568
Well, I remember
that he was a very quiet young man

227
00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:58,047
that was all business,
and really had an unbelievable skill level

228
00:16:58,150 --> 00:17:01,415
and tremendous work ethic
for a fifth or sixth grader.

229
00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:05,718
Most days off, it didn't matter if we were
coming home from a game or tournament.

230
00:17:05,824 --> 00:17:08,622
I remember being here
on Super Bowl Sunday.

231
00:17:08,927 --> 00:17:10,485
I was here all the time.

232
00:17:10,596 --> 00:17:12,223
Keith and Dru really developed a bond,

233
00:17:12,331 --> 00:17:15,789
because they were both little guys
who loved basketball.

234
00:17:16,368 --> 00:17:17,801
<i>Every other coach would tell me,</i>

235
00:17:17,903 --> 00:17:19,996
<i>"You gotta grow, son.</i>
<i>You gotta get bigger. "

236
00:17:20,239 --> 00:17:22,673
Just throwing negative stuff,
right out the gate.

237
00:17:22,775 --> 00:17:25,505
<i>He realized</i>
<i>that I really didn't care much about size.</i>

238
00:17:25,611 --> 00:17:28,478
<i>I just was gonna put him in a position</i>
<i>to be successful.</i>

239
00:17:28,580 --> 00:17:31,208
<i>Keith was now</i>
<i>a high-school basketball coach.</i>

240
00:17:31,316 --> 00:17:32,476
<i>So Dru says to me,</i>

241
00:17:32,584 --> 00:17:35,109
<i>"Dad, I'm not going to Buchtel.</i>
<i>I'm gonna go to St. V. "

242
00:17:35,220 --> 00:17:38,917
And I remember saying to him,
"I'm on the coaching staff.

243
00:17:39,324 --> 00:17:41,315
"Everything's in place. What do you mean?"

244
00:17:41,427 --> 00:17:45,090
He said, "Dad, I know Coach Dambrot
will give me a chance."

245
00:17:48,700 --> 00:17:50,725
<i>Choosing to go to St. V
<i>was definitely bigger</i>

246
00:17:50,836 --> 00:17:53,066
<i>than just picking one high school</i>
<i>over another.</i>

247
00:17:53,172 --> 00:17:55,834
<i>People look at you</i>
<i>like you was choosing race.</i>

248
00:17:55,941 --> 00:18:00,173
The African-American community
wanted us to bring our talents to Buchtel

249
00:18:00,279 --> 00:18:02,747
and felt like we were traitors.

250
00:18:03,115 --> 00:18:04,241
<i>The comment made was,</i>

251
00:18:04,349 --> 00:18:07,284
"Hey, Dru, I understand
you're pimping for St. V now."

252
00:18:08,420 --> 00:18:11,947
<i>Well, even if our own community</i>
<i>looked down on us, it didn't matter.</i>

253
00:18:12,057 --> 00:18:14,184
<i>It was worth it for our friend.</i>

254
00:18:14,293 --> 00:18:16,818
<i>St. Vincent-St. Mary just happened</i>
<i>to be down the street</i>

255
00:18:16,929 --> 00:18:21,593
from where all this stuff started
at The Salvation Army, all on Maple Street.

256
00:18:23,135 --> 00:18:26,229
<i>Coach Dambrot then asked Coach Cotton</i>
<i>and I to be a part of the staff</i>

257
00:18:26,338 --> 00:18:27,930
<i>because we had done a great job</i>
<i>with the kids.</i>

258
00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:31,498
<i>I mean, they were ready to play</i>
<i>high-school basketball.</i>

259
00:18:39,151 --> 00:18:43,554
<i>- Our team was ran like a college.</i>
<i>- He was on us from stretching.</i>

260
00:18:43,655 --> 00:18:46,419
<i>Like, if you wasn't stretching hard</i>
<i>or you wasn't stretching the right way,</i>

261
00:18:46,525 --> 00:18:47,822
<i>he'd be on us.</i>

262
00:18:47,926 --> 00:18:52,659
"Get your... Get this... Do this...
Who the hell you think you guys are?

263
00:18:52,764 --> 00:18:54,197
<i>"You freshmens."</i>

264
00:18:54,299 --> 00:18:56,529
I'm looking at him, like,
"Yo, I'm from the hood.

265
00:18:56,635 --> 00:18:59,536
"I'm about to do something to you,
like, after practice."

266
00:19:00,005 --> 00:19:02,906
<i>I was very difficult at times</i>
<i>but I had a purpose behind it,</i>

267
00:19:03,008 --> 00:19:05,943
<i>and, I think, in the long run,</i>
<i>it proved to be a good thing.</i>

268
00:19:06,044 --> 00:19:08,569
<i>We never knew how to play basketball</i>

269
00:19:08,914 --> 00:19:11,815
<i>at a high level like that</i>
<i>until Coach Dambrot.</i>

270
00:19:11,917 --> 00:19:14,044
<i>He's putting the best players on the court.</i>

271
00:19:14,153 --> 00:19:16,621
<i>If you don't got it, you don't got it.</i>
<i>He's not playing you.</i>

272
00:19:16,722 --> 00:19:19,190
<i>It don't matter if you're a senior.</i>

273
00:19:23,128 --> 00:19:26,120
We have a lot of young kids.
We have four freshmen in our top nine.

274
00:19:30,936 --> 00:19:33,962
They totally hit the ground running,
and they instantly had a chemistry,

275
00:19:34,072 --> 00:19:36,006
and they started blowing teams out.

276
00:19:36,108 --> 00:19:39,976
You could see the cohesiveness
that takes teams time to develop that.

277
00:19:40,078 --> 00:19:42,069
They had it as soon as they were freshmen.

278
00:19:42,181 --> 00:19:45,082
Every time we go out on the floor,
we want to play 110%,

279
00:19:45,184 --> 00:19:46,151
and that's what we did tonight.

280
00:19:51,356 --> 00:19:55,053
<i>Five games in, 5 and 0, 15-0, 20-0,</i>

281
00:19:55,694 --> 00:19:57,958
and the buzz is clicking.

282
00:19:59,598 --> 00:20:01,793
<i>The Eagles fall from the ranks</i>
<i>of the unbeaten</i>

283
00:20:01,900 --> 00:20:03,458
<i>while the Irish roll on.</i>

284
00:20:03,569 --> 00:20:05,935
<i>St. V proves worthy of that top ranking.</i>

285
00:20:06,038 --> 00:20:07,938
We just established who was the best.

286
00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:09,007
It's kind of cool, I think,

287
00:20:09,107 --> 00:20:12,338
"Hey, guys, I think we made
the right decision to go to St. V."

288
00:20:12,444 --> 00:20:14,742
That's what we were saying.
"I think we made the right decision."

289
00:20:14,846 --> 00:20:18,976
<i>These are young kids, 14 and 15 years old,</i>
<i>and they went 27 and 0.</i>

290
00:20:21,053 --> 00:20:23,749
<i>All season long,</i>
<i>when we go out for warm-ups,</i>

291
00:20:23,855 --> 00:20:29,259
you would hear the other teams
laugh at him and call him the mascot.

292
00:20:29,661 --> 00:20:32,528
<i>Dru, at the time, was 4'10" on a good day.</i>

293
00:20:32,898 --> 00:20:33,865
Come on, man, this guy...

294
00:20:33,966 --> 00:20:36,560
They looking at this dude like,
"He's not gonna play."

295
00:20:37,436 --> 00:20:40,928
<i>Lot of guys around Akron,</i>
<i>they felt like he got what he got</i>

296
00:20:41,039 --> 00:20:43,007
<i>'cause Coach Dru was the coach.</i>

297
00:20:43,108 --> 00:20:47,807
I was very hard on him,
and it hurt our relationship.

298
00:20:49,948 --> 00:20:54,180
<i>For a long time it wasn't father-son.</i>
<i>It was coach-player.</i>

299
00:20:55,721 --> 00:21:00,124
<i>Sometimes he could break me down</i>
<i>in a game and I couldn't get through it.</i>

300
00:21:03,428 --> 00:21:06,226
<i>Sometimes I had to mediate</i>
<i>between the two.</i>

301
00:21:06,365 --> 00:21:08,833
Dru did feel it was hard to live up

302
00:21:09,268 --> 00:21:12,726
to the standards that his dad had set.

303
00:21:14,106 --> 00:21:15,971
<i>Maybe I went overboard.</i>

304
00:21:16,208 --> 00:21:20,474
I had enough sense one time to ask Dru
if I was being too hard on him,

305
00:21:21,713 --> 00:21:23,180
and he told me, "Yes."

306
00:21:23,282 --> 00:21:28,310
My dad had me in the gym getting up shots,
watching tapes and watching games,

307
00:21:28,420 --> 00:21:32,322
<i>watch how he shoots the ball,</i>
<i>watch his arc he puts on the ball.</i>

308
00:21:32,758 --> 00:21:36,159
<i>I wanted everyone to understand</i>
<i>that what Dru got</i>

309
00:21:36,862 --> 00:21:41,060
<i>he got because he earned.</i>
<i>But it was hard. It was hard on both of us.</i>

310
00:21:41,533 --> 00:21:46,163
<i>Definitely harder on him because,</i>
<i>as a child, you want to please your parents,</i>

311
00:21:46,271 --> 00:21:49,604
<i>and I'm sure he questioned,</i>
<i>"Do I do anything right?"</i>

312
00:21:55,781 --> 00:21:57,180
<i>Coming up here on ONN,</i>

313
00:21:57,282 --> 00:21:59,648
<i>we have the Division III</i>
<i>State Boy's Basketball Finals.</i>

314
00:21:59,751 --> 00:22:03,551
<i>As Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary</i>
<i>battles Jamestown Greeneview.</i>

315
00:22:03,922 --> 00:22:08,825
<i>They're freshmen. At this level, the crowds,</i>
<i>the pressure is going to get to them.</i>

316
00:22:09,661 --> 00:22:12,687
<i>He's the glue, he's the point guard,</i>
<i>he's the one to make this team go.</i>

317
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:16,958
<i>And they've done a nice job</i>
<i>right here hustling.</i>

318
00:22:17,102 --> 00:22:21,004
<i>Matthews slices into the lane.</i>
<i>And a foul called on Matthews.</i>

319
00:22:22,341 --> 00:22:26,300
<i>But so far Greeneview's done a nice job</i>
<i>of controlling the pace of this game.</i>

320
00:22:26,411 --> 00:22:28,470
<i>To call Dru Joyce,</i>
<i>who's checking into the game,</i>

321
00:22:28,580 --> 00:22:30,775
<i>diminutive would be a vast understatement.</i>

322
00:22:30,882 --> 00:22:33,749
<i>He came into the game,</i>
<i>and the fans were laughing at him.</i>

323
00:22:33,852 --> 00:22:35,683
They thought the ball boy checked in.

324
00:22:35,787 --> 00:22:38,278
His shorts were so big
they looked like sweat pants.

325
00:22:38,390 --> 00:22:41,188
<i>He is generously listed at 5'2",</i>

326
00:22:41,927 --> 00:22:46,660
<i>but I think everyone's under the general</i>
<i>consensus that he may be about 4'11".</i>

327
00:22:47,199 --> 00:22:49,292
<i>Greeneview by three, 11 to 8.</i>

328
00:22:52,537 --> 00:22:56,473
<i>We almost couldn't see him shooting,</i>
<i>and he stuck it to tie the game at 11.</i>

329
00:23:00,946 --> 00:23:03,039
<i>Throws it to Dru Joyce.</i>

330
00:23:03,148 --> 00:23:06,049
<i>Dru Joyce gets open deep in the corner,</i>
<i>and he does it again!</i>

331
00:23:06,651 --> 00:23:09,119
Then when he made the third one,
I didn't want to say anything.

332
00:23:09,221 --> 00:23:12,247
I just wanted to allow this thing to play out.

333
00:23:12,491 --> 00:23:17,053
<i>... and this looks like the Irish</i>
<i>just want to pass it around the outside.</i>

334
00:23:18,530 --> 00:23:20,691
<i>He didn't want anybody to say anything</i>
<i>about his size</i>

335
00:23:20,799 --> 00:23:24,257
<i>because he felt he could go with anybody,</i>
<i>no matter their size.</i>

336
00:23:24,369 --> 00:23:26,769
He'd just do it a different way.

337
00:23:28,106 --> 00:23:30,233
<i>That's where the good guys' point guard...</i>

338
00:23:30,342 --> 00:23:32,435
<i>Dru Joyce!</i>

339
00:23:32,544 --> 00:23:37,038
<i>This tie-breaker. Division III</i>
<i>championship record. Six for six.</i>

340
00:23:40,419 --> 00:23:42,353
<i>Six for six, Dru Joyce.</i>

341
00:23:43,789 --> 00:23:47,691
<i>He has 18 points in six minutes of playtime.</i>

342
00:23:47,793 --> 00:23:50,353
<i>Dru Joyce. There it is.</i>

343
00:23:51,496 --> 00:23:55,091
<i>Twenty-one points for Dru Joyce</i>
<i>at the end of the third period.</i>

344
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:59,296
<i>St. Vincent-St. Mary, a quarter away</i>
<i>from the state championship.</i>

345
00:23:59,604 --> 00:24:01,128
<i>It was a transcendent moment.</i>

346
00:24:01,239 --> 00:24:04,936
<i>It was a moment that most people there</i>
<i>will always remember.</i>

347
00:24:07,579 --> 00:24:10,343
There was a little man on his shoulder
that he knocked off that game.

348
00:24:13,351 --> 00:24:16,582
<i>I think it's the size of that man's heart</i>
<i>and the size of that man's brain</i>

349
00:24:16,688 --> 00:24:19,748
<i>that determines who can play</i>
<i>and who can't play.</i>

350
00:24:33,138 --> 00:24:35,538
<i>Going to the sophomore year</i>
<i>we were playing some tougher teams,</i>

351
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:37,631
<i>so we needed to be better.</i>

352
00:24:40,812 --> 00:24:43,804
<i>I never thought basketball</i>
<i>was gonna be my future.</i>

353
00:24:43,915 --> 00:24:47,976
I just wanted to play it
just because it gets you girls.

354
00:24:48,954 --> 00:24:50,581
<i>Rome transferred in.</i>

355
00:24:50,689 --> 00:24:54,250
He was cool. He was...
No, Rome wasn't cool.

356
00:24:55,260 --> 00:24:58,525
He was funny, but he was so selfish.

357
00:24:58,797 --> 00:25:02,563
<i>I mean, we looked out for each other.</i>
<i>Rome, no sense of that.</i>

358
00:25:02,868 --> 00:25:07,805
They were like sisters, like little girls.
Always giggling and it was touchy feely.

359
00:25:07,906 --> 00:25:12,434
<i>You know, and always sharing,</i>
<i>and I'm not the sharing, caring, loving type.</i>

360
00:25:13,211 --> 00:25:15,805
<i>He called himself angry man.</i>
<i>He'd be like... Somebody had on a hat</i>

361
00:25:15,914 --> 00:25:20,351
and they'll walk down the hall, and he'd
be like, "Hey! That hat is dumb as hell."

362
00:25:20,452 --> 00:25:23,944
You know, something like that.
For no reason, no good reason.

363
00:25:24,055 --> 00:25:28,549
It was like, "Man, why is you... You wake up
angry, like, what is you mad for, like?

364
00:25:28,660 --> 00:25:32,687
"Who did something to you today?"
I mean, he just had an attitude.

365
00:25:33,098 --> 00:25:36,727
<i>Sian was always talking on the court,</i>
<i>you know, playing dirty. I never liked him,</i>

366
00:25:36,835 --> 00:25:42,330
and Dru raked my eyes out like some
wrestling type, like, ripped my eyeball out.

367
00:25:42,707 --> 00:25:45,198
I hit him in the eye. He was crying.

368
00:25:45,377 --> 00:25:48,938
I punched him in the face and Dru,
he's just a little off, he's like,

369
00:25:49,047 --> 00:25:52,744
"Yeah, yeah, hit me again. Hit me again.
I like it, I like it."

370
00:25:55,620 --> 00:25:58,111
<i>The St. Vincent-St. Mary</i>
<i>Irish basketball team</i>

371
00:25:58,223 --> 00:26:02,660
finished the season a perfect 27 and 0
in the Division III State Champion.

372
00:26:02,761 --> 00:26:05,559
So let's tip it off
with their crowning moment as we honor...

373
00:26:05,664 --> 00:26:07,996
- This year's to beat, St. V!
- This year's to beat, St. V!

374
00:26:08,099 --> 00:26:10,192
People saw such high expectations

375
00:26:10,302 --> 00:26:12,827
because we had won the previous year.
We had won state.

376
00:26:12,938 --> 00:26:15,133
It was a team that was young,
and people said,

377
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:17,299
"This could happen for the next two
or three years."

378
00:26:21,513 --> 00:26:25,643
We were starting to get some national
ranking and people were starting to say,

379
00:26:25,750 --> 00:26:28,275
"What's going on over here
in Akron, Ohio?"

380
00:26:30,388 --> 00:26:34,256
<i>We weren't winning by eight or 10 or 12.</i>
<i>We were winning by 20.</i>

381
00:26:37,128 --> 00:26:39,596
<i>You could see</i>
<i>the whole LeBron phenomena</i>

382
00:26:39,698 --> 00:26:42,929
<i>and then the team phenomena grow</i>
<i>and grow and grow.</i>

383
00:26:47,105 --> 00:26:50,074
<i>James with a steal, clocks it,</i>
<i>and finishes with a flourish.</i>

384
00:26:50,408 --> 00:26:52,433
<i>Since we were winning, you know,</i>
<i>it really didn't matter</i>

385
00:26:52,544 --> 00:26:55,138
<i>that Rome had an attitude sometimes</i>

386
00:26:55,246 --> 00:26:58,579
<i>or he didn't want to do</i>
<i>what we needed him to do sometimes.</i>

387
00:26:58,683 --> 00:27:01,675
<i>He's playing well, we playing good,</i>
<i>and he's just trying to make it through it,</i>

388
00:27:01,786 --> 00:27:05,722
instead of gaining friends and
doing it for each other, not just for him.

389
00:27:10,261 --> 00:27:13,196
<i>You know, when you're winning,</i>
<i>you don't see as much as you would see</i>

390
00:27:13,298 --> 00:27:16,461
<i>if you were losing.</i>
<i>So, Romeo not being as tight as us four,</i>

391
00:27:16,568 --> 00:27:19,537
you know, it wasn't so microscopic,
if we were losing.

392
00:27:19,638 --> 00:27:22,232
<i>Akron's St. Vincent-St. Mary</i>
<i>has done it again.</i>

393
00:27:22,340 --> 00:27:24,069
<i>But we were winning.</i>

394
00:27:29,247 --> 00:27:30,976
<i>I didn't care if I was part of the group.</i>

395
00:27:31,082 --> 00:27:32,777
<i>We were playing good ball</i>
<i>and we were winning.</i>

396
00:27:32,884 --> 00:27:36,376
That's all I cared about.
I figured I'd do my own thing.

397
00:27:36,988 --> 00:27:41,425
We definitely reached our goal for that year,
but it also opened our eyes up, like,

398
00:27:41,526 --> 00:27:43,994
at the end of freshman year,
we could do so much more.

399
00:27:44,729 --> 00:27:46,856
<i>Our goals had become bigger,</i>

400
00:27:47,532 --> 00:27:50,763
<i>and we can carry this</i>
<i>to the national championship.</i>

401
00:28:07,752 --> 00:28:11,779
Listen, fellas, hey, big day. It's the big day.

402
00:28:12,557 --> 00:28:15,185
All right? We're better than this team.

403
00:28:15,293 --> 00:28:18,262
They haven't played anywhere near
the competition we played.

404
00:28:18,363 --> 00:28:21,127
But I'm gonna tell you,
they're gonna play hard, fellas.

405
00:28:21,232 --> 00:28:26,101
So if you're not ready to play hard,
let me know now. Come on, let's bring it in.

406
00:28:27,906 --> 00:28:29,032
- One, two, three.
- Team.

407
00:28:29,140 --> 00:28:31,199
- Four, five, six.
- Work hard!

408
00:28:34,379 --> 00:28:39,009
<i>Coach Dambrot and the Fighting Irish</i>
<i>from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School,</i>

409
00:28:39,117 --> 00:28:41,711
<i>what an outstanding season you've had.</i>

410
00:28:46,858 --> 00:28:50,885
<i>Him leaving at that time, you know,</i>
<i>really hurt our morale.</i>

411
00:28:51,529 --> 00:28:53,690
I didn't care
about his personal reasons at all.

412
00:28:54,766 --> 00:28:59,226
<i>I knew what he had said to me, that</i>
<i>he was gonna be there for the four years,</i>

413
00:28:59,337 --> 00:29:04,502
and that's all that came in my mind, like,
"Man, you lied." You know what I mean?

414
00:29:04,909 --> 00:29:09,039
And I played hard for him.
He cursed me out and treated me bad,

415
00:29:09,814 --> 00:29:12,578
<i>but I felt like he was one of</i>
<i>the best coaches that I had ever played for,</i>

416
00:29:12,684 --> 00:29:17,644
<i>and seeing him go, I couldn't understand it.</i>
<i>I never wanted to talk to him again.</i>

417
00:29:19,390 --> 00:29:21,381
<i>It was one of the hardest decisions</i>
<i>I ever made,</i>

418
00:29:21,493 --> 00:29:23,222
<i>because I wouldn't even</i>
<i>have that opportunity</i>

419
00:29:23,328 --> 00:29:28,288
if it wasn't for the players on that team.
Those guys had resurrected my career.

420
00:29:30,935 --> 00:29:35,599
<i>You know, Keith calls me</i>
<i>and tells me that he wanted me to take over.</i>

421
00:29:36,741 --> 00:29:40,040
My first response, honestly, was no.
I didn't want to do it.

422
00:29:40,145 --> 00:29:42,943
I just felt like,
"I don't want to mess this thing up.

423
00:29:43,047 --> 00:29:44,912
"These kids have so much going for them."

424
00:29:45,016 --> 00:29:47,484
We had upgraded the schedule till it was...

425
00:29:47,585 --> 00:29:50,782
We were playing nationally-ranked teams.
We had them all coming into Akron.

426
00:29:50,889 --> 00:29:53,084
We're moving into Division II.

427
00:29:53,258 --> 00:29:56,250
There were just so many challenges,
and for me to be a first-year coach,

428
00:29:56,361 --> 00:29:58,795
I just felt like I didn't want to mess it up.

429
00:29:58,897 --> 00:30:03,197
And I can remember sharing that
with my wife,

430
00:30:07,338 --> 00:30:10,364
and she said to me, she said,
"Dru, how can you say no?

431
00:30:15,146 --> 00:30:19,446
<i>"This is honoring all those years</i>
<i>that you put in with these kids.</i>

432
00:30:19,551 --> 00:30:21,143
<i>"How can you possibly say no?"</i>

433
00:30:21,252 --> 00:30:24,085
And those words
were what I needed to hear.

434
00:30:26,724 --> 00:30:30,751
<i>I grew up in some very humble beginnings.</i>
<i>My father was a janitor,</i>

435
00:30:31,029 --> 00:30:33,554
<i>and my mother cleaned</i>
<i>wealthy families' homes.</i>

436
00:30:33,665 --> 00:30:37,999
<i>She was what they called a day worker.</i>
<i>But my mother was just adamant.</i>

437
00:30:38,102 --> 00:30:42,835
<i>I mean, going to college for me</i>
<i>was almost like going to high school.</i>

438
00:30:43,241 --> 00:30:46,733
It was never, "Am I going, am I not?"
It was, "You're going."

439
00:30:47,979 --> 00:30:49,844
<i>I wasn't really trying</i>
<i>to climb the corporate ladder,</i>

440
00:30:49,948 --> 00:30:53,941
<i>but as the kids started to come</i>
<i>and the responsibilities started to grow,</i>

441
00:30:54,052 --> 00:30:56,043
<i>the focus was,</i>
<i>"Hey, we need to make a little more money,</i>

442
00:30:56,154 --> 00:30:59,453
<i>"and, yeah,</i>
<i>I'm having a lot of good success at work,</i>

443
00:30:59,624 --> 00:31:04,220
<i>"winning a lot of prizes, a lot of trips."</i>
<i>I was very appreciative of it.</i>

444
00:31:04,662 --> 00:31:08,154
But at the end of the day
I would ask myself,

445
00:31:08,266 --> 00:31:10,928
"What have I done that really matters?"

446
00:31:12,604 --> 00:31:15,630
Let us pray.
Dearly, Father Lord, we thank you

447
00:31:15,740 --> 00:31:18,300
for all the blessings
you've bestowed upon us.

448
00:31:18,409 --> 00:31:22,869
Lord, we understand that basketball
is very small in the scheme of things,

449
00:31:23,147 --> 00:31:28,483
but we recognize there's a lot of people
who'd like to be right here where we are.

450
00:31:29,020 --> 00:31:30,988
But you have blessed us
with this opportunity,

451
00:31:31,089 --> 00:31:33,557
and we want to make the most of it,

452
00:31:34,525 --> 00:31:37,426
not for our own glory but for your glory.

453
00:31:37,595 --> 00:31:39,187
Pray these things
in your son Jesus' name. Amen.

454
00:31:39,297 --> 00:31:40,264
- Amen.
- Amen.

455
00:31:40,365 --> 00:31:41,491
- Team up.
- Team, on the count of six.

456
00:31:41,599 --> 00:31:42,588
- One, two, three.
- Team.

457
00:31:42,700 --> 00:31:43,792
- Four, five, six.
- Work hard.

458
00:31:43,902 --> 00:31:45,597
Superman, let's go.

459
00:31:47,138 --> 00:31:50,130
<i>I took over understanding that if we won,</i>

460
00:31:50,241 --> 00:31:54,837
<i>they were gonna be Keith's kids,</i>
<i>and if we lost, it would be my fault, so...</i>

461
00:31:57,248 --> 00:32:00,809
<i>A doors open for your dream,</i>
<i>you don't think about anything else.</i>

462
00:32:00,919 --> 00:32:02,784
<i>You just run through the door</i>

463
00:32:02,887 --> 00:32:06,482
and try to do the best job
that I was gonna be able to do.

464
00:32:07,759 --> 00:32:11,024
<i>St. Vincent-St. Mary will be playing</i>
<i>a national schedule this year</i>

465
00:32:11,129 --> 00:32:13,495
<i>with an opportunity to win</i>
<i>a national championship.</i>

466
00:32:13,598 --> 00:32:16,032
<i>A lot of pressure, though,</i>
<i>on Coach Dru Joyce</i>

467
00:32:16,134 --> 00:32:19,570
<i>to make sure they have the same success</i>
<i>as the previous two years.</i>

468
00:32:19,671 --> 00:32:22,538
That's one team you gotta buy a ticket
to go see, St. V's.

469
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:26,007
We definitely felt like, you know,
it was our turn.

470
00:32:26,511 --> 00:32:28,877
<i>I was starting to become a man</i>
<i>in my junior year.</i>

471
00:32:28,980 --> 00:32:31,210
<i>I was 16, about to turn 17, so...</i>

472
00:32:32,150 --> 00:32:33,549
It was like, "Whatever, let's get down."

473
00:32:46,431 --> 00:32:51,459
We're playing these highly-ranked teams
in the country and we're winning 100 to 50.

474
00:32:51,569 --> 00:32:54,663
<i>And the Irish blew away the Bulldogs</i>
<i>76 to 36.</i>

475
00:32:55,807 --> 00:32:57,274
Eighty to 35.

476
00:32:57,375 --> 00:33:00,776
<i>St. Vincent-St. Mary's dominate again,</i>
<i>78- 49.</i>

477
00:33:04,749 --> 00:33:09,345
I kept hearing about this player
Carmelo Anthony and I'm like, "Whatever."

478
00:33:13,057 --> 00:33:15,890
Country, stateside, city-side,
it was bananas.

479
00:33:15,994 --> 00:33:19,691
It was like we felt invincible.
We was, like, untouchables.

480
00:33:20,064 --> 00:33:24,694
<i>Travis from LeBron James.</i>
<i>Travis from James.</i>

481
00:33:24,802 --> 00:33:29,171
They seemed to never let anybody down.
They really were defending all the hype.

482
00:33:29,273 --> 00:33:31,138
After a while you started saying,

483
00:33:31,242 --> 00:33:35,736
"Wow, is this one of the greatest teams
in high-school basketball history?"

484
00:33:42,587 --> 00:33:44,817
First time I saw LeBron play was in Akron,

485
00:33:44,922 --> 00:33:49,052
and I think that the tendency, especially
when you're a skeptical sports writer,

486
00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:51,856
is to try and nitpick and say to yourself,

487
00:33:51,963 --> 00:33:55,399
"This kid isn't as good
as everyone says he is."

488
00:33:56,968 --> 00:33:58,959
And yet, he was that good.

489
00:34:01,739 --> 00:34:04,867
<i>And so I pitched the story</i>
<i>to</i> Sports Illustrated.

490
00:34:07,779 --> 00:34:11,237
<i>He's been dubbed the chosen one.</i>
<i>According to</i> Sports Illustrated,

491
00:34:11,349 --> 00:34:16,218
<i>LeBron is the first high-school athlete</i>
<i>to grace the magazine's cover in 36 years.</i>

492
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,551
<i>Nobody from Akron had ever been</i>
<i>on the cover of</i> Sports Illustrated <i>before.</i>

493
00:34:19,657 --> 00:34:22,353
<i>You've got kids from Texas</i>
<i>and New York City</i>

494
00:34:22,460 --> 00:34:24,792
<i>reading about this kid from Akron, Ohio.</i>

495
00:34:24,896 --> 00:34:26,761
<i>The Ohio, national and world media</i>

496
00:34:26,864 --> 00:34:29,162
<i>have been following</i>
<i>the St. Vincent-St. Mary star</i>

497
00:34:29,267 --> 00:34:30,632
<i>all season long.</i>

498
00:34:30,735 --> 00:34:37,607
Once the <i>Sports Illustrated</i> thing goes on,
everything was just amplified.

499
00:34:43,714 --> 00:34:47,150
<i>Today's ESPN, Internet generation,</i>

500
00:34:47,385 --> 00:34:50,946
<i>what happens in one small corner</i>
<i>of the country or the world</i>

501
00:34:51,055 --> 00:34:52,579
<i>can be worldwide.</i>

502
00:34:52,690 --> 00:34:56,251
<i>And these kids were right at the forefront</i>
<i>of it, so when they went someplace,</i>

503
00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:57,725
<i>people knew them by name.</i>

504
00:34:57,829 --> 00:35:01,230
LeBron James has his own T-shirt
that you can buy here at the game today.

505
00:35:01,332 --> 00:35:05,860
<i>You have to go back, I think,</i>
<i>to Lew Alcindor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar now,</i>

506
00:35:05,970 --> 00:35:11,033
<i>who got that kind of attention as a high</i>
<i>school player before their senior season.</i>

507
00:35:11,409 --> 00:35:13,741
<i>But when you have to go back that far,</i>

508
00:35:13,845 --> 00:35:16,837
you realize how rare it is,
what LeBron was doing.

509
00:35:16,948 --> 00:35:20,076
They moved all their high-school games
over to the University of Akron

510
00:35:20,184 --> 00:35:24,348
just for sheer seating purposes, and even
there, some of the higher-profile games,

511
00:35:24,455 --> 00:35:25,979
the 5,000 seats weren't enough.

512
00:35:26,090 --> 00:35:28,684
<i>The Cavs/Gund Arena has only sold out</i>
<i>twice this year.</i>

513
00:35:28,793 --> 00:35:33,162
<i>Once when Michael Jordan came to town,</i>
<i>and the other was to see this guy.</i>

514
00:35:33,264 --> 00:35:37,928
<i>LeBron James, and a 30-point win</i>
<i>sends the Irish to the regional semifinals.</i>

515
00:35:38,336 --> 00:35:41,169
<i>LeBron James!</i>

516
00:35:41,739 --> 00:35:43,639
<i>It was almost like playing in the NBA.</i>

517
00:35:43,741 --> 00:35:47,233
<i>People at our hotels,</i>
<i>girls trying to get up to the room.</i>

518
00:35:47,345 --> 00:35:49,870
<i>People out front scalping tickets</i>
<i>for 300 bucks</i>

519
00:35:49,981 --> 00:35:52,541
to see a high-school basketball game.

520
00:35:52,783 --> 00:35:55,217
<i>You knew that it was a phenomena</i>
<i>that you wanted to see,</i>

521
00:35:55,319 --> 00:35:57,344
<i>'cause you knew that you were gonna</i>
<i>be able to tell your kids,</i>

522
00:35:57,455 --> 00:35:59,514
<i>"I saw LeBron play when..."</i>

523
00:35:59,657 --> 00:36:03,753
<i>He's like the next Michael Jordan, so</i>
<i>my brother told me he had to get a picture.</i>

524
00:36:03,861 --> 00:36:06,125
I mean, he wasn't the only celebrity.
He was just...

525
00:36:06,230 --> 00:36:08,460
He had a little more star power
than the rest of us.

526
00:36:11,302 --> 00:36:14,703
<i>We were like a rock band.</i>
<i>He was just the lead singer.</i>

527
00:36:14,872 --> 00:36:16,840
We had jogging suits. We was all matching.

528
00:36:16,941 --> 00:36:19,705
<i>We was laced from head to toe.</i>
<i>We were sponsored by Adidas now.</i>

529
00:36:19,810 --> 00:36:21,801
We was rocking. We like...

530
00:36:21,946 --> 00:36:26,383
<i>Signing autographs everywhere we went.</i>
<i>Taking pictures, you know, kissing babies,</i>

531
00:36:26,484 --> 00:36:29,647
that kind of thing, so, you know,
it was all good.

532
00:36:30,221 --> 00:36:32,621
<i>If that wasn't bad enough,</i>
<i>300 people waiting for autographs,</i>

533
00:36:32,723 --> 00:36:35,692
<i>but there were guys in their uniforms</i>
<i>that had just played the game</i>

534
00:36:35,793 --> 00:36:37,761
<i>who wanted his autograph.</i>

535
00:36:38,029 --> 00:36:40,725
No autographs, gentlemen. No autographs.

536
00:36:40,932 --> 00:36:41,899
- LeBron.
- Come on.

537
00:36:41,999 --> 00:36:43,557
- LeBron.
- LeBron.

538
00:36:44,502 --> 00:36:47,164
- LeBron.
- LeBron.

539
00:36:47,905 --> 00:36:50,066
- There he is!
- LeBron!

540
00:36:50,908 --> 00:36:52,739
We love you, LeBron!

541
00:36:53,277 --> 00:36:57,236
<i>You know, for me, as a first-year coach,</i>
<i>how do you manage this?</i>

542
00:36:57,348 --> 00:37:00,146
<i>It was all new, so there were times that,</i>
<i>you know,</i>

543
00:37:00,251 --> 00:37:03,448
I wanted to go out in my backyard
and just scream.

544
00:37:03,621 --> 00:37:07,216
<i>He had to try to handle that circus,</i>
<i>plus keep us on track.</i>

545
00:37:07,325 --> 00:37:08,690
<i>With the amount of expectations,</i>

546
00:37:08,793 --> 00:37:10,556
<i>the amount of people</i>
<i>that were going to the game,</i>

547
00:37:10,661 --> 00:37:11,753
<i>the teams we were playing,</i>

548
00:37:11,862 --> 00:37:15,161
<i>they were drawing more than we were</i>
<i>at the universities.</i>

549
00:37:15,266 --> 00:37:17,063
<i>We'd be sitting in the athletic office</i>

550
00:37:17,168 --> 00:37:21,002
and the answering machine would come on
and it would be <i>The Letterman Show.</i>

551
00:37:21,105 --> 00:37:23,903
We'd all look at each other like,
"Oh, my, God."

552
00:37:24,008 --> 00:37:27,774
You know, we were like...
It turned adults into kids.

553
00:37:28,346 --> 00:37:32,442
<i>When someone has a tremendous amount</i>
<i>of talent at such a young age,</i>

554
00:37:32,717 --> 00:37:36,847
<i>we go nuts for it in the United States.</i>
<i>More so, I think, than in other countries.</i>

555
00:37:36,954 --> 00:37:38,854
<i>As a journalist, you do think about</i>

556
00:37:38,956 --> 00:37:42,187
<i>what it's gonna do to somebody's life</i>
<i>when someone that young,</i>

557
00:37:42,293 --> 00:37:46,662
<i>who hasn't really done anything yet,</i>
<i>is put on the cover of the magazine.</i>

558
00:37:46,764 --> 00:37:49,460
<i>How do you tell 16, 17- year-old kids,</i>
<i>"Don't let it get to your head,</i>

559
00:37:49,567 --> 00:37:53,367
"but there's about 300 kids out there
waiting for autographs"?

560
00:37:58,843 --> 00:38:02,301
We definitely had a swagger about us,
and we had a strong swagger.

561
00:38:10,855 --> 00:38:13,380
<i>Can you talk about your relationship</i>
<i>with LeBron James?</i>

562
00:38:13,491 --> 00:38:16,153
I've seen him play. He's very talented.

563
00:38:24,135 --> 00:38:26,501
<i>Ultimately, what it comes down to</i>
<i>is the belief in yourself.</i>

564
00:38:26,604 --> 00:38:28,367
If he has that, he'll be fine.

565
00:38:33,511 --> 00:38:35,809
LeBron can do some damage
on the next level, too.

566
00:38:41,385 --> 00:38:43,945
Damn. Shoots off for another landing.

567
00:38:44,755 --> 00:38:47,315
One more time. Go slow one more time.

568
00:38:48,125 --> 00:38:49,149
One more time.

569
00:38:49,260 --> 00:38:51,990
You get that invincibility trait
where you think that,

570
00:38:52,096 --> 00:38:55,293
"Hey, it doesn't matter.
I can turn it on and off whenever I want."

571
00:38:55,399 --> 00:38:57,492
One thing that you need to be a champion

572
00:38:57,601 --> 00:39:02,038
that all the greats have done
throughout the years, eat Wheaties.

573
00:39:03,541 --> 00:39:07,204
Eat Wheaties. Right? Right?
That's all you gotta do, right?

574
00:39:07,311 --> 00:39:11,077
When you've coached a group of guys
from the time they were 10,

575
00:39:11,182 --> 00:39:14,379
<i>sometimes, you know, you get to a point</i>
<i>where they stop listening to you,</i>

576
00:39:14,485 --> 00:39:15,645
<i>they stop hearing you.</i>

577
00:39:15,753 --> 00:39:18,221
How is that not a part of the play?

578
00:39:18,689 --> 00:39:22,955
Sian was right here, the ball was here.
We're gonna spread the play. Go.

579
00:39:23,594 --> 00:39:25,789
- Even if we don't, Dru'll set it up.
- Go!

580
00:39:26,497 --> 00:39:29,557
I could see some problems coming
that could lead to disaster,

581
00:39:29,667 --> 00:39:32,795
and I didn't think there was anything
Coach Dru could do about it.

582
00:39:32,903 --> 00:39:34,734
<i>We were winning and we were young,</i>
<i>so, you know,</i>

583
00:39:34,839 --> 00:39:38,502
we blew them off, like,
"Whatever, we're gonna win anyway."

584
00:39:45,916 --> 00:39:47,474
Partying late at night,
you know what I'm saying,

585
00:39:47,585 --> 00:39:49,985
<i>having people come visit at the hotel.</i>

586
00:39:50,087 --> 00:39:52,988
We got a game the next day,
but who cares? We still winning by 40.

587
00:39:54,325 --> 00:39:55,519
<i>There were people who were starting to talk</i>

588
00:39:55,626 --> 00:39:58,424
<i>about whether they could win</i>
<i>a national championship that year.</i>

589
00:40:00,364 --> 00:40:02,628
<i>The difference between a good team</i>
<i>and a great team,</i>

590
00:40:02,733 --> 00:40:05,167
it's the attention to the details.

591
00:40:05,503 --> 00:40:07,471
No one wants to talk to one another.

592
00:40:07,571 --> 00:40:10,904
You don't start talking,
you never gonna play for me.

593
00:40:11,275 --> 00:40:14,176
You'll just be a JV guy
sitting at the end of the bench.

594
00:40:14,278 --> 00:40:16,075
I mean, I'm just being real with you.

595
00:40:16,180 --> 00:40:19,149
All right? If you can't do those little things,
how can we play?

596
00:40:20,918 --> 00:40:24,718
<i>Off the court, you know, Romeo,</i>
<i>he was distant from everybody,</i>

597
00:40:24,955 --> 00:40:29,517
<i>so when it came to on the court, you know,</i>
<i>we were kind of distant from him.</i>

598
00:40:39,937 --> 00:40:43,873
We had it rough growing up and, you know,
you had to fend for yourself.

599
00:40:43,974 --> 00:40:46,238
Everything we got,
it was, like, precious to us.

600
00:40:46,343 --> 00:40:49,972
Saying thank you, thank you, thank you.
Through Christ I pray. Amen.

601
00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:51,445
- Amen.
- Amen.

602
00:40:51,715 --> 00:40:52,807
So I thought you...

603
00:40:52,917 --> 00:40:55,408
<i>Growing up was hard.</i>
<i>It was real hard, you know.</i>

604
00:40:55,519 --> 00:40:57,544
<i>Sometimes we didn't have nothing to eat</i>

605
00:40:57,655 --> 00:41:00,783
<i>and my sister would go put on</i>
<i>a big, thick winter coat,</i>

606
00:41:00,891 --> 00:41:02,688
<i>go steal some ingredients</i>
<i>to make some spaghetti,</i>

607
00:41:02,793 --> 00:41:05,956
<i>you know, just whatever we needed to do</i>
<i>to get by.</i>

608
00:41:07,198 --> 00:41:10,463
<i>My family moved around so much</i>
<i>it was ridiculous.</i>

609
00:41:10,568 --> 00:41:13,969
<i>Like, I went to maybe six</i>
<i>or seven elementary schools.</i>

610
00:41:14,905 --> 00:41:18,534
He wasn't able to establish
really long-term friendships

611
00:41:18,642 --> 00:41:20,439
maybe the way he should have.

612
00:41:20,544 --> 00:41:23,035
He took on an attitude,
"Each man for his self.

613
00:41:23,147 --> 00:41:24,273
"I have to get mine.

614
00:41:24,381 --> 00:41:28,750
"No one is gonna look out for me.
If I don't get it, then I won't have it."

615
00:41:28,853 --> 00:41:32,118
<i>He wanted to leave. They were a clique,</i>

616
00:41:32,256 --> 00:41:37,159
<i>and he wasn't a part of it, and it hurt</i>
<i>his feelings, and he just felt like, you know,</i>

617
00:41:37,261 --> 00:41:38,819
<i>why even bother?</i>

618
00:41:39,964 --> 00:41:44,958
<i>You know, I had known Romeo not well</i>
<i>or well enough where he could talk to me.</i>

619
00:41:45,069 --> 00:41:48,971
<i>But Dru, Willie and Sian</i>
<i>gave him no chance.</i>

620
00:41:49,607 --> 00:41:50,733
No chance at all.

621
00:41:51,242 --> 00:41:52,971
Why you all complaining?

622
00:41:53,077 --> 00:41:54,942
Hey, hey! All right.

623
00:41:58,182 --> 00:42:00,446
Hold on, hold on.

624
00:42:00,885 --> 00:42:03,877
- That will always get you in trouble.
- But I didn't do anything!

625
00:42:03,988 --> 00:42:06,957
- We need a police escort.
- Is you sitting down?

626
00:42:07,157 --> 00:42:09,990
- Sit down.
- We need a police escort, man.

627
00:42:10,094 --> 00:42:12,892
<i>Everything with Dru and me is intensified.</i>

628
00:42:13,664 --> 00:42:17,430
<i>Now we're on a national scale,</i>
<i>and I don't want any mistakes.</i>

629
00:42:17,768 --> 00:42:21,260
<i>If Dru had a turnover,</i>
<i>it was like he had 10 turnovers.</i>

630
00:42:22,540 --> 00:42:27,477
We bumped heads because, you know,
now I'm requiring perfection from him,

631
00:42:28,112 --> 00:42:30,478
<i>and maybe not from everyone else.</i>

632
00:42:30,681 --> 00:42:35,778
If you can't let it go, then let me know it
and then I'm not going to play you.

633
00:42:37,087 --> 00:42:39,487
I just told you, I don't have an attitude.

634
00:42:39,590 --> 00:42:41,785
- Why don't you listen?
- Really.

635
00:42:43,460 --> 00:42:45,189
Point guard, leader.

636
00:42:46,063 --> 00:42:49,863
The only team that's gonna beat
St. Vincent-St. Mary is us,

637
00:42:49,967 --> 00:42:52,868
and these kind of attitudes
is what is going to beat us.

638
00:42:52,970 --> 00:42:58,306
<i>You just see a complacency</i>
<i>that's creeping in because of the status.</i>

639
00:42:59,043 --> 00:43:04,174
<i>You're being built up on this pedestal.</i>
<i>It's so easy for that thing to fall.</i>

640
00:43:08,085 --> 00:43:11,054
<i>We're the defending state champions,</i>
<i>you know? They gotta come beat us.</i>

641
00:43:11,155 --> 00:43:14,124
I'm not being cocky,
but that's just the type of player I am.

642
00:43:14,224 --> 00:43:17,057
I'm guaranteeing,
I'm not gonna let my team lose.

643
00:43:17,161 --> 00:43:19,857
I don't want my team losing,
and I know they don't want to lose,

644
00:43:19,964 --> 00:43:22,432
and I ain't going to let it happen.

645
00:43:24,902 --> 00:43:27,769
<i>A sellout crowd awaits us here</i>
<i>at the Value City Arena.</i>

646
00:43:27,871 --> 00:43:30,305
<i>Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary</i>
<i>will throw their high-powered offense</i>

647
00:43:30,407 --> 00:43:34,867
<i>up against a team that fully expected</i>
<i>to be playing in this game today.</i>

648
00:43:35,179 --> 00:43:38,615
<i>You guys are not ready to play.</i>
<i>You're underestimating these guys.</i>

649
00:43:38,716 --> 00:43:42,777
<i>You guys think you can turn it on</i>
<i>and off like a faucet, but you can't.</i>

650
00:43:42,886 --> 00:43:47,619
If you think this team is gonna walk out
there and let you walk away with this,

651
00:43:47,925 --> 00:43:51,156
you're fooling yourselves, right, fellas?
You're fooling yourselves.

652
00:43:51,261 --> 00:43:54,389
<i>A new head coach, Dru Joyce,</i>
<i>really stepped into a pressure-cooker job.</i>

653
00:43:54,498 --> 00:43:56,762
<i>It's gonna be a tough roll for St. Vincent.</i>

654
00:43:56,867 --> 00:44:01,429
Complacent, arrogant, selfishness,
that's not what we're about.

655
00:44:02,306 --> 00:44:03,898
<i>They believe in their style of play...</i>

656
00:44:04,008 --> 00:44:06,169
<i>We're not backing down from these guys.</i>
<i>We're not changing a thing.</i>

657
00:44:06,276 --> 00:44:10,372
<i>- We're going right at them.</i>
<i>- That's why I like this match-up today.</i>

658
00:44:12,316 --> 00:44:14,807
<i>The opening tip for Division II</i>
<i>State Championship game,</i>

659
00:44:14,918 --> 00:44:18,251
<i>and the opening tap was controlled</i>
<i>by Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary.</i>

660
00:44:18,355 --> 00:44:20,721
<i>We played them earlier that year</i>
<i>at Kent State. We blew them up.</i>

661
00:44:20,824 --> 00:44:23,520
You know, we're thinking,
"Hey, they can't beat us."

662
00:44:23,627 --> 00:44:25,185
<i>James working on Wyrick.</i>

663
00:44:25,295 --> 00:44:28,128
<i>Spins to the baseline,</i>
<i>leaves it inside for Travis.</i>

664
00:44:28,265 --> 00:44:31,257
<i>I'll tell you, this young man can pass...</i>

665
00:44:31,769 --> 00:44:35,762
<i>Early on, Roger Bacon, they made it</i>
<i>very clear they were a very good team,</i>

666
00:44:35,873 --> 00:44:37,568
<i>that it wasn't going to be easy.</i>

667
00:44:37,675 --> 00:44:40,166
<i>... the Spartans from Roger Bacon.</i>

668
00:44:40,277 --> 00:44:42,575
<i>And it's Beckham Wyrick put his team</i>
<i>back ahead by a point.</i>

669
00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:44,614
<i>They go up and down the floor here</i>
<i>in the first quarter.</i>

670
00:44:45,082 --> 00:44:47,516
- Let's go!
- Let's go! Pick it up!

671
00:44:48,052 --> 00:44:49,519
<i>We struggled early.</i>

672
00:44:49,620 --> 00:44:52,612
<i>LeBron couldn't do some of the things</i>
<i>that he had done so easily.</i>

673
00:44:52,723 --> 00:44:54,418
<i>They played here this morning in Columbus.</i>

674
00:44:54,525 --> 00:44:58,052
<i>The media crush... And the fourth</i>
<i>personal foul on LeBron James</i>

675
00:44:58,395 --> 00:45:01,523
<i>as he spins into the lane</i>
<i>and a charge is called.</i>

676
00:45:01,999 --> 00:45:05,662
<i>It's just like everything happened wrong</i>
<i>at the right time.</i>

677
00:45:05,769 --> 00:45:08,431
<i>In this third quarter with no points...</i>

678
00:45:13,377 --> 00:45:15,902
<i>Able to answer the drive by James.</i>

679
00:45:16,146 --> 00:45:20,606
<i>Seven minutes and 10 seconds remaining</i>
<i>in the Division II State Championship game</i>

680
00:45:20,718 --> 00:45:22,117
<i>here in the Value City Arena in Columbus.</i>

681
00:45:22,219 --> 00:45:24,084
<i>Offensive rebounding a big factor.</i>

682
00:45:24,188 --> 00:45:27,248
<i>In this one, that's been one of the reasons</i>
<i>that Roger Bacon has...</i>

683
00:45:27,357 --> 00:45:30,190
<i>James can't finish it inside.</i>
<i>Took the lob from Dru,</i>

684
00:45:30,294 --> 00:45:33,388
<i>Dru Joyce, who can't finish,</i>
<i>and it's a five on four game right now.</i>

685
00:45:33,497 --> 00:45:35,362
<i>James a little slow</i>
<i>getting back down the court.</i>

686
00:45:35,466 --> 00:45:37,627
<i>And that's what's hurting 'em.</i>
<i>That's what's hurting 'em.</i>

687
00:45:37,735 --> 00:45:41,899
<i>- St. Clair from the baseline scores.</i>
<i>- You cannot sit back and watch.</i>

688
00:45:42,806 --> 00:45:44,865
<i>We just started unraveling.</i>

689
00:45:45,175 --> 00:45:47,666
<i>It's on the baseline now.</i>
<i>Wyrick got blocked from behind.</i>

690
00:45:47,778 --> 00:45:51,145
<i>And if that's on Romeo Travis,</i>
<i>he's just fouled out of the game.</i>

691
00:45:51,248 --> 00:45:53,113
<i>Travis beside himself.</i>

692
00:45:56,286 --> 00:45:59,414
<i>And Travis has fouled out of the game.</i>

693
00:45:59,990 --> 00:46:03,153
<i>We're in the back seat right now.</i>
<i>We gotta do something.</i>

694
00:46:03,260 --> 00:46:07,128
<i>Under a minute and a half to go,</i>
<i>LeBron James flies to the baseline and...</i>

695
00:46:07,231 --> 00:46:09,597
<i>Finishes with a big-time flourish.</i>

696
00:46:09,700 --> 00:46:11,827
<i>That was definitely big time there.</i>

697
00:46:11,935 --> 00:46:13,926
<i>Working on Wyrick, into the lane.</i>

698
00:46:14,037 --> 00:46:16,801
<i>They kick it back to Dru Joyce,</i>
<i>and it's knocked away...</i>

699
00:46:29,086 --> 00:46:31,680
<i>The lead stands at three</i>
<i>with 22 seconds left.</i>

700
00:46:31,789 --> 00:46:33,984
<i>66-63, Cincinnati Roger Bacon,</i>

701
00:46:34,091 --> 00:46:37,322
<i>Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary</i>
<i>with the basketball,</i>

702
00:46:37,594 --> 00:46:39,960
<i>with 17 seconds left in the game.</i>

703
00:46:40,230 --> 00:46:43,927
<i>Score and time, lower right of your screen.</i>
<i>Mraz curls up a...</i>

704
00:46:46,203 --> 00:46:49,070
<i>With nine seconds left and a foul is called.</i>

705
00:46:49,173 --> 00:46:51,232
<i>And a technical foul has now been called</i>

706
00:46:51,341 --> 00:46:54,310
<i>on Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary's Dru Joyce.</i>

707
00:46:54,645 --> 00:46:57,808
<i>The player, Dru Joyce,</i>
<i>who disgustedly fires the basketball</i>

708
00:46:57,915 --> 00:47:00,247
<i>at the basket after the foul was called,</i>

709
00:47:00,350 --> 00:47:02,648
<i>and Dru Joyce has just been hit</i>
<i>with a technical foul.</i>

710
00:47:02,753 --> 00:47:05,153
<i>The key to this is now, after the free throws,</i>

711
00:47:05,255 --> 00:47:07,553
<i>Roger Bacon gets the basketball.</i>

712
00:47:07,691 --> 00:47:11,923
<i>Well, for all intents and purposes, that put</i>
<i>the nail in the coffin, I think, for St. V.</i>

713
00:47:12,029 --> 00:47:16,762
<i>A lack of composure down the stretch</i>
<i>has hurt Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary.</i>

714
00:47:17,034 --> 00:47:18,899
<i>At the line will be...</i>

715
00:47:34,051 --> 00:47:37,612
<i>Cincinnati Roger Bacon has upset</i>
<i>Akron's St. Vincent-St. Mary</i>

716
00:47:37,721 --> 00:47:39,916
<i>and won</i>
<i>the Division II State Championship.</i>

717
00:47:40,023 --> 00:47:43,049
<i>The first loss to a team</i>
<i>from the state of Ohio</i>

718
00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:46,056
<i>since the 1998-'99 season.</i>

719
00:47:46,163 --> 00:47:49,758
<i>Cincinnati Roger Bacon</i>
<i>is the Division II State Champions.</i>

720
00:48:44,688 --> 00:48:49,819
<i>I never thought I'd be a basketball coach.</i>
<i>I grew up playing football,</i>

721
00:48:50,127 --> 00:48:54,530
<i>and if it was gonna be anything</i>
<i>coaching-wise, it would've been football.</i>

722
00:48:54,998 --> 00:48:57,558
The way I approached basketball,

723
00:48:58,101 --> 00:49:01,229
once I understood
that this is what Dru wanted to do,

724
00:49:01,338 --> 00:49:04,933
<i>was to give him the best</i>
<i>that I could give him,</i>

725
00:49:05,042 --> 00:49:08,910
and, honestly,
my knowledge of basketball was not great.

726
00:49:11,348 --> 00:49:14,511
I think that I've learned
in a nontraditional way.

727
00:49:14,851 --> 00:49:16,910
I'm a lot older getting started doing this

728
00:49:17,020 --> 00:49:21,616
because I was just a dad, honestly,
helping out my son.

729
00:49:22,592 --> 00:49:26,153
Interspersed in here
are books from different authors.

730
00:49:26,863 --> 00:49:29,923
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he wrote a book.
I got his book,

731
00:49:30,033 --> 00:49:33,525
and <i>Great Quotes,</i>
I use that all the time with the guys.

732
00:49:34,004 --> 00:49:40,341
These are all the videos. That's how
I've learnt the games and grown as a coach.

733
00:49:40,711 --> 00:49:44,169
This is where I spend a lot of time.

734
00:49:44,715 --> 00:49:47,149
You keep learning.
You don't ever stop learning,

735
00:49:47,250 --> 00:49:49,582
and I'm committed
to never stopping to learn.

736
00:49:49,686 --> 00:49:52,655
As long as I coach,
I'm going to keep learning.

737
00:49:52,756 --> 00:49:53,780
I want them to be the best

738
00:49:53,890 --> 00:49:58,350
and for them to be the best I felt like
I had to try to be the best, so...

739
00:50:08,905 --> 00:50:11,499
<i>My dad took the loss real hard. I mean,</i>

740
00:50:11,608 --> 00:50:15,203
<i>a lot of articles</i>
<i>and reporters really let him have it.</i>

741
00:50:16,513 --> 00:50:20,108
<i>There was an article written</i>
<i>after the loss of the state championship,</i>

742
00:50:20,217 --> 00:50:24,415
<i>and he wrote, "When the team</i>
<i>needed me most, I wasn't there. "

743
00:50:29,059 --> 00:50:31,527
<i>You have to consummate your dreams.</i>

744
00:50:33,764 --> 00:50:36,961
<i>We can only do that</i>
<i>by being dreamers ourselves</i>

745
00:50:37,067 --> 00:50:40,036
<i>and pondering for years</i>
<i>what dreams look like.</i>

746
00:50:42,172 --> 00:50:46,666
<i>You got a choice, and your choice</i>
<i>has impact upon your direction.</i>

747
00:50:47,110 --> 00:50:50,273
<i>And if you don't use your choice,</i>
<i>don't blame God,</i>

748
00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:53,608
<i>don't blame the people around you,</i>
<i>don't blame your circumstances.</i>

749
00:50:53,717 --> 00:50:58,279
<i>You can use your choice.</i>
<i>You can exercise your...</i>

750
00:51:01,858 --> 00:51:06,295
After the season,
I thought about it and I recognized that

751
00:51:08,231 --> 00:51:12,759
I had gotten caught up, you know,
and lost that perspective.

752
00:51:14,204 --> 00:51:17,002
<i>My job wasn't about basketball.</i>

753
00:51:17,908 --> 00:51:22,902
It was about helping them become men,
and I got caught up

754
00:51:23,413 --> 00:51:29,545
in the winning and the losing,
and I forgot, really, what I was there for.

755
00:51:32,889 --> 00:51:36,620
I'm going to do what I believe
God sent me here to do,

756
00:51:37,794 --> 00:51:40,854
and that's to build some character
in you guys.

757
00:51:42,099 --> 00:51:45,193
You can get onboard with me
and run with me,

758
00:51:45,302 --> 00:51:49,432
or you don't have to,
but this is the direction I'm taking the team.

759
00:51:52,309 --> 00:51:56,405
They just recommitted themselves,
you know, to the game and to each other.

760
00:51:59,416 --> 00:52:03,580
<i>They looked at it and they had a resolve,</i>
<i>"We're not losing anymore."</i>

761
00:52:13,563 --> 00:52:16,760
Five, six, seven, up.

762
00:52:28,078 --> 00:52:31,536
Come on, boys. You gotta give me more...

763
00:52:43,126 --> 00:52:45,993
<i>Going into senior season I started thinking,</i>

764
00:52:46,096 --> 00:52:48,860
<i>"How am I gonna set our team up</i>
<i>the right way to win it next year?"</i>

765
00:52:48,965 --> 00:52:51,024
It was an eye-opener for me,

766
00:52:51,601 --> 00:52:55,002
on me being a leader
that I wanted to be for our team.

767
00:52:55,305 --> 00:52:57,535
<i>I remember sitting</i>
<i>in an American Government class</i>

768
00:52:57,641 --> 00:52:59,939
<i>with Sian and Bron, like, "Man,</i>

769
00:53:00,043 --> 00:53:04,241
"this is our last year. We have to win.
I'm doing whatever Coach Dru say.

770
00:53:04,347 --> 00:53:05,974
"If anybody say something to him,

771
00:53:06,082 --> 00:53:08,516
"I'm getting on them.
You know what I'm saying?"

772
00:53:08,618 --> 00:53:12,247
<i>We couldn't get past that father-son part</i>
<i>and the coach and player part.</i>

773
00:53:12,355 --> 00:53:14,346
<i>I just handled it terribly.</i>

774
00:53:14,457 --> 00:53:17,688
<i>I just been trying to listen to everything</i>
<i>he has to say 'cause I know,</i>

775
00:53:17,794 --> 00:53:19,921
<i>even though I might think I'm right,</i>
<i>he's the coach.</i>

776
00:53:20,030 --> 00:53:24,865
<i>I can't look at it with that father-son thing.</i>
<i>I can't bring that into the table.</i>

777
00:53:27,037 --> 00:53:31,064
If we're going to be the best,
we have to beat the best.

778
00:53:31,241 --> 00:53:32,469
And the only way you can beat the best

779
00:53:32,576 --> 00:53:35,443
is if you put them on a schedule
and play them.

780
00:53:35,679 --> 00:53:39,581
<i>We were ranked 23.</i>
<i>We took that as a sign of disrespect.</i>

781
00:53:39,849 --> 00:53:42,511
We were committed to proving them wrong.

782
00:53:42,619 --> 00:53:44,211
It was gonna be the last time
we played together.

783
00:53:44,321 --> 00:53:45,549
That's what made it so important.

784
00:53:45,655 --> 00:53:47,885
<i>This was our last opportunity to do</i>

785
00:53:47,991 --> 00:53:50,926
<i>what we've been dreaming about</i>
<i>since the fifth grade.</i>

786
00:53:55,065 --> 00:53:58,398
It was tough because Willie
had been through so much,

787
00:53:58,969 --> 00:54:03,668
<i>but I recognized that, for the good</i>
<i>of the team, that Corey had to start.</i>

788
00:54:10,013 --> 00:54:13,881
This is Willie's yearbook.
Think he was, like, fifth grade.

789
00:54:14,150 --> 00:54:18,610
"What do you want to be in the future?"
"A basketball player in the NBA."

790
00:54:19,789 --> 00:54:21,689
"If you had one wish, what would it be?"

791
00:54:22,592 --> 00:54:25,083
"For my future to come true."

792
00:54:26,296 --> 00:54:29,265
<i>I looked up to him at everything.</i>
<i>A person I could talk to,</i>

793
00:54:29,366 --> 00:54:32,130
<i>wanted to be a point guard just like him.</i>

794
00:54:33,069 --> 00:54:37,472
<i>Growing up in Chicago, my mother</i>
<i>and father going through things at the time.</i>

795
00:54:37,574 --> 00:54:40,304
<i>My sister was taking care of me</i>
<i>at the time, primarily.</i>

796
00:54:40,410 --> 00:54:46,212
<i>Willie saw a family pretty much be stifled</i>
<i>by drugs and alcohol and jail</i>

797
00:54:46,316 --> 00:54:48,011
<i>and things like that.</i>

798
00:54:48,118 --> 00:54:52,452
He was struggling at school.
Self-esteem was really low.

799
00:54:52,922 --> 00:54:55,891
My sister felt like I needed
a male influence in my life.

800
00:54:55,992 --> 00:54:59,758
Willie moved from Chicago in here,
moved in with his brother, who was still,

801
00:54:59,863 --> 00:55:02,957
you know, fresh out of college.
It was kind of tough on Willie.

802
00:55:03,066 --> 00:55:05,830
<i>You know, Willie was the youngest child</i>
<i>in the family at that time,</i>

803
00:55:05,935 --> 00:55:07,835
<i>so it was emotional.</i>

804
00:55:07,937 --> 00:55:09,336
I remember the weekend before I left,

805
00:55:09,439 --> 00:55:13,205
my sister taking me to go wash
all my clothes, so I have stuff clean.

806
00:55:13,310 --> 00:55:15,471
<i>She folded all my stuff, put it in a trash bag,</i>

807
00:55:15,578 --> 00:55:19,412
<i>and I remember waking up early</i>
<i>that morning and being excited to go,</i>

808
00:55:19,516 --> 00:55:21,450
<i>and then her being there,</i>
<i>you know what I'm saying,</i>

809
00:55:21,551 --> 00:55:23,451
<i>making sure all my clothes were there,</i>

810
00:55:23,553 --> 00:55:27,853
you know what I'm saying, driving off
and her being in the rearview,

811
00:55:28,325 --> 00:55:30,020
that was real hard.

812
00:55:34,564 --> 00:55:38,227
<i>I'm thinking I was probably</i>
<i>maybe about 22, 23</i>

813
00:55:38,335 --> 00:55:41,463
<i>when he came up here,</i>
<i>and, you know, it was hard.</i>

814
00:55:42,038 --> 00:55:46,304
<i>We didn't have any money, you know.</i>
<i>We were college students,</i>

815
00:55:46,710 --> 00:55:49,645
<i>and to bring a child into our lives,</i>

816
00:55:49,946 --> 00:55:54,178
<i>we just couldn't do some of the things</i>
<i>that a 22-year-old college student would do.</i>

817
00:55:54,284 --> 00:55:58,983
<i>We had to stay home some nights</i>
<i>when friends of ours had invited us out,</i>

818
00:55:59,089 --> 00:56:02,991
<i>or we had to find a babysitter</i>
<i>or something like that.</i>

819
00:56:03,727 --> 00:56:06,389
- Well, Will, what you think?
- I like it.

820
00:56:07,197 --> 00:56:09,290
- Were you surprised?
- Yes.

821
00:56:10,567 --> 00:56:14,731
<i>Going into high school, he was probably</i>
<i>one of the top athletes in the city.</i>

822
00:56:14,838 --> 00:56:17,568
<i>In my freshman year playing football,</i>
<i>I dislocated my shoulder.</i>

823
00:56:17,674 --> 00:56:21,440
<i>Ever since then, I just felt like</i>
<i>my basketball game wasn't the same.</i>

824
00:56:21,544 --> 00:56:27,039
He lost his touch, you know.
He could never get really fully in shape,

825
00:56:27,150 --> 00:56:30,779
and it was just... I just think that shoulder
just really did him wrong.

826
00:56:30,887 --> 00:56:36,086
I felt his pain, as an athlete,
as a big brother, as a father figure.

827
00:56:36,459 --> 00:56:42,329
You know, the passion that he has,
and to see something taken from him.

828
00:56:43,400 --> 00:56:46,426
<i>That probably was the hardest time</i>
<i>of his life.</i>

829
00:56:47,971 --> 00:56:50,599
<i>It hurt a lot. It really did.</i>
<i>You know what I'm saying?</i>

830
00:56:50,707 --> 00:56:53,870
<i>But you can make your opportunity</i>
<i>happen wherever.</i>

831
00:56:55,979 --> 00:56:58,971
<i>I definitely learned a lot from my brother</i>
<i>about sacrifice.</i>

832
00:56:59,082 --> 00:57:02,779
<i>I can't imagine what he had to go through</i>
<i>for me to be there.</i>

833
00:57:07,490 --> 00:57:13,895
I think in order for you to excel or achieve,
you have to make sacrifices,

834
00:57:14,063 --> 00:57:18,124
and if you really love
and you care for people around you,

835
00:57:18,802 --> 00:57:22,135
you know, you sacrifice for them
as well as yourself.

836
00:57:24,207 --> 00:57:28,610
When Willie didn't start, he could've cried
and bitched about it, but he didn't.

837
00:57:28,711 --> 00:57:30,542
<i>He came off the bench</i>
<i>for the betterment of the team,</i>

838
00:57:30,647 --> 00:57:32,478
<i>and when I seen that, I realized</i>

839
00:57:32,582 --> 00:57:34,607
<i>that it was something bigger</i>
<i>than individuals,</i>

840
00:57:34,717 --> 00:57:36,651
<i>it was just something bigger than all of us.</i>

841
00:57:37,687 --> 00:57:38,813
Today,

842
00:57:39,055 --> 00:57:43,151
you know, this is one of the biggest,
most pivotal times of our life, right now.

843
00:57:43,259 --> 00:57:46,126
When a link breaks, everything falls apart.

844
00:57:46,696 --> 00:57:49,062
Can't ride a bike with no chain,
you know what I mean?

845
00:57:49,165 --> 00:57:52,601
Think of it as a wing.
You know what I'm saying? A unit.

846
00:57:53,536 --> 00:57:57,404
I wanted to be a part of something
besides basketball.

847
00:57:58,141 --> 00:58:00,541
You know, those guys were friends
outside of basketball.

848
00:58:00,643 --> 00:58:02,668
<i>Hung out all the time, you know?</i>

849
00:58:02,779 --> 00:58:05,509
<i>No matter how you think about it,</i>
<i>you want to be a part.</i>

850
00:58:05,615 --> 00:58:07,173
<i>That catalyst, that leader,</i>

851
00:58:07,283 --> 00:58:10,650
that person that you can lean on,
confide in and talk to.

852
00:58:10,753 --> 00:58:13,551
<i>But I think once you felt the love</i>
<i>that we all have for each other,</i>

853
00:58:13,656 --> 00:58:18,218
<i>I think that was bigger than being selfish.</i>
<i>So out of the Fab 4, we got together</i>

854
00:58:18,328 --> 00:58:21,388
<i>and decided</i>
<i>that we wanted to make it the Fab 5.</i>

855
00:58:21,898 --> 00:58:25,231
<i>Senior year, it was all five of us,</i>
<i>hands on each other's shoulders.</i>

856
00:58:25,335 --> 00:58:28,930
<i>Nothing can stand in our way,</i>
<i>nothing's gonna separate us.</i>

857
00:58:33,042 --> 00:58:37,001
<i>A high-school game has attracted a crowd</i>
<i>of 10,000 here tonight,</i>

858
00:58:37,113 --> 00:58:40,514
<i>but it's not just any high-school game.</i>
<i>It's phenom LeBron James</i>

859
00:58:40,617 --> 00:58:44,053
<i>against the number-one ranked team</i>
<i>in the country, Oak Hill.</i>

860
00:58:44,153 --> 00:58:45,984
<i>Oak Hill is this basketball factory.</i>

861
00:58:46,089 --> 00:58:49,684
<i>It's where kids go</i>
<i>to become major college stars and pros,</i>

862
00:58:49,792 --> 00:58:53,990
so, to have the opportunity to beat them
is like to beat a national all-star team.

863
00:58:54,831 --> 00:58:56,696
<i>The stakes of that game were massive.</i>

864
00:58:56,799 --> 00:58:59,700
<i>Dick Vitale and Bill Walton came in</i>
<i>to do the game.</i>

865
00:58:59,802 --> 00:59:02,703
<i>I mean, it was treated like</i>
<i>it was a Duke-North Carolina game.</i>

866
00:59:02,805 --> 00:59:06,502
<i>There was so much pressure</i>
<i>to see what this kid and this team had.</i>

867
00:59:06,609 --> 00:59:09,009
<i>- How good is LeBron James?</i>
- Well, simply put, Dan,

868
00:59:09,112 --> 00:59:11,603
LeBron James is
the best high-school basketball player

869
00:59:11,714 --> 00:59:14,205
I have ever seen,
and I think, as a 17-year-old,

870
00:59:14,317 --> 00:59:17,252
<i>he's better than Kobe Bryant was</i>
<i>at the same age.</i>

871
00:59:17,353 --> 00:59:20,288
<i>We felt like, in order to win</i>
<i>a national championship,</i>

872
00:59:20,390 --> 00:59:22,324
<i>we had to beat Oak Hill.</i>

873
00:59:22,625 --> 00:59:24,092
For LeBron James, as great as he is,

874
00:59:24,193 --> 00:59:26,093
this is the best high-school team
in the country,

875
00:59:26,195 --> 00:59:28,129
some of the best competition
he's ever faced.

876
00:59:28,865 --> 00:59:33,097
<i>When you see a team like an Oak Hill,</i>
<i>great players from all over the country,</i>

877
00:59:33,202 --> 00:59:37,138
well, I got a group of kids from,
pretty much, the neighborhood.

878
00:59:49,385 --> 00:59:52,877
That was our chant before the games,
before we came out.

879
00:59:53,389 --> 00:59:57,450
It was letting people know that this is not
the same team that came out last year.

880
01:00:02,665 --> 01:00:05,498
"We're the Soul Squad,"
because it's, like, all of us together.

881
01:00:06,803 --> 01:00:11,069
We weren't here for no fun and games.
It was serious, it was business-like,

882
01:00:11,174 --> 01:00:13,699
and it was exactly what the song said,
"We ready."

883
01:00:23,252 --> 01:00:25,720
I think that was the first pillar of our season

884
01:00:25,822 --> 01:00:28,791
that let us know that we could make a run
at this whole thing.

885
01:00:30,927 --> 01:00:34,055
<i>They only played, like,</i>
<i>maybe three or four Ohio teams.</i>

886
01:00:34,430 --> 01:00:36,227
<i>Forget about the yellow school buses.</i>

887
01:00:36,332 --> 01:00:38,391
<i>They're going up</i>
<i>to the Akron-Canton Airport,</i>

888
01:00:38,501 --> 01:00:41,436
<i>and flying to their games.</i>

889
01:00:59,822 --> 01:01:04,691
<i>Are you serious? Are you serious?</i>
<i>Are you serious?</i>

890
01:01:08,064 --> 01:01:10,692
We weren't just beating teams.
We were dismantling them.

891
01:01:18,574 --> 01:01:21,702
Playing the best basketball of our lives,
by far.

892
01:01:27,483 --> 01:01:28,814
<i>There was no complacency with us.</i>

893
01:01:28,918 --> 01:01:32,445
I mean, we would win the one game
and it was time to move on to the next.

894
01:01:57,480 --> 01:01:59,175
<i>We went to Philly</i>
<i>to play Strawberry Mansion,</i>

895
01:01:59,282 --> 01:02:02,376
<i>which was the best team that Philly had,</i>
<i>the best scoring high-school basketball</i>

896
01:02:02,485 --> 01:02:04,316
<i>in Philadelphia.</i>
<i>More than Wilt Chamberlain.</i>

897
01:02:05,388 --> 01:02:07,788
<i>And we dominated them.</i>

898
01:02:15,164 --> 01:02:19,066
<i>Played the best team in North Carolina.</i>
<i>Blew them out.</i>

899
01:02:21,070 --> 01:02:23,129
We were winning the way
we were supposed to win.

900
01:02:23,239 --> 01:02:24,331
We were winning by defense.

901
01:02:40,323 --> 01:02:42,621
You know,
my teammates is like my brothers.

902
01:02:42,725 --> 01:02:47,424
And, you know, coach is like my brother.
You know, we all a big family.

903
01:02:49,532 --> 01:02:52,433
Let's take it to them
off-white velours you got on.

904
01:02:52,535 --> 01:02:55,197
- These are white as day.
- No. Yesterday.

905
01:02:59,776 --> 01:03:02,142
It seems like more guys
are getting into the mix.

906
01:03:02,245 --> 01:03:06,011
Well, yeah, there's a chemistry here that,
honestly, last year we didn't have,

907
01:03:06,115 --> 01:03:09,016
and then there's a commitment here
to defend.

908
01:03:09,852 --> 01:03:11,843
<i>We won because we were together.</i>

909
01:03:11,954 --> 01:03:16,482
<i>We won because we respected Coach Dru</i>
<i>as a coach, as a mentor, as a leader,</i>

910
01:03:16,993 --> 01:03:20,793
and we had one goal, and that was
to win the national championship,

911
01:03:20,897 --> 01:03:22,831
and we wouldn't let nothing
stand in our way.

912
01:03:38,481 --> 01:03:41,109
<i>LeBron James brings his act</i>
<i>to the west coast,</i>

913
01:03:41,217 --> 01:03:44,152
<i>as St. Vincent-St. Mary of Akron, Ohio,</i>

914
01:03:44,253 --> 01:03:49,020
<i>takes on a powerhouse from Santa Ana,</i>
<i>California, number four, Mater Dei,</i>

915
01:03:49,125 --> 01:03:51,787
<i>here in Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.</i>

916
01:03:51,894 --> 01:03:53,885
<i>You know,</i>
<i>there's a lot at stake in this game.</i>

917
01:03:53,996 --> 01:03:58,399
<i>The winning team will be taking over</i>
<i>the number-one ranking in the country.</i>

918
01:03:58,501 --> 01:04:01,265
<i>Now, Dan, the Irish are gonna have</i>
<i>to find a way to do it today</i>

919
01:04:01,370 --> 01:04:04,806
<i>without Sian Cotton,</i>
<i>one of their strong inside forces.</i>

920
01:04:05,575 --> 01:04:09,511
<i>Undefeated on the season.</i>
<i>Without him, they're a different team.</i>

921
01:04:11,480 --> 01:04:14,449
<i>When I was about 10 years old</i>
<i>my dad told me,</i>

922
01:04:14,650 --> 01:04:18,586
<i>"'lf you don't get a scholarship,</i>
<i>you're not going to college. "'</i>

923
01:04:18,821 --> 01:04:22,279
Growing up being Lee Cotton Junior's son,
we couldn't go anywhere

924
01:04:22,391 --> 01:04:24,484
without somebody recognizing our dad,

925
01:04:24,594 --> 01:04:28,394
and somebody telling us, "Your dad
was a bad boy at South High School.

926
01:04:28,598 --> 01:04:30,259
<i>"And listen to what he has to tell you."</i>

927
01:04:30,366 --> 01:04:33,164
<i>So we always wanted</i>
<i>to make our dad proud,</i>

928
01:04:33,269 --> 01:04:36,761
<i>especially since he's the one</i>
<i>who taught us how to play.</i>

929
01:04:37,306 --> 01:04:41,299
<i>Sian really looked up to him a lot</i>
<i>and copied a lot of things that LC did.</i>

930
01:04:41,410 --> 01:04:43,674
You know, wanted to be like LC.

931
01:04:44,780 --> 01:04:49,114
We started taking dance when I was four,
probably. I mean, I liked it.

932
01:04:49,685 --> 01:04:51,380
He was a ballerina.

933
01:04:52,288 --> 01:04:55,689
<i>And then when LC started to grow</i>
<i>a mustache, Sian went in the bathroom,</i>

934
01:04:55,825 --> 01:04:58,350
got some eyeliner
and painted a mustache on himself

935
01:04:58,461 --> 01:05:01,362
so he could have a mustache
like his brother.

936
01:05:03,366 --> 01:05:06,802
<i>Growing up, he was more than a brother.</i>
<i>He was my teacher, too.</i>

937
01:05:06,903 --> 01:05:10,031
<i>A lot of the beliefs that I have now</i>
<i>he installed in me.</i>

938
01:05:10,139 --> 01:05:12,334
<i>You know,</i>
<i>sports was more than just a game.</i>

939
01:05:12,441 --> 01:05:15,569
<i>It was something that taught you</i>
<i>how to be a man.</i>

940
01:05:16,078 --> 01:05:20,879
I was hard on him because, at an early age,
I realized he was better than I was.

941
01:05:21,784 --> 01:05:27,347
LC, as more of a leader,
was able to give Sian some direction.

942
01:05:28,391 --> 01:05:32,828
<i>Once he started seeing how his basketball</i>
<i>skills tied into his football skills,</i>

943
01:05:32,929 --> 01:05:35,363
he looked at me and said,
"This football thing is me."

944
01:05:35,464 --> 01:05:37,796
And I said, "I know, so we're gonna do it."

945
01:05:38,267 --> 01:05:42,465
Hello, everybody. A big day for a big name
in local high-school football.

946
01:05:42,571 --> 01:05:45,472
<i>Sian Cotton was named</i>
<i>the U.S. Army All-American Player.</i>

947
01:05:45,574 --> 01:05:49,874
<i>He's one of just 78 high-school players</i>
<i>across the country to be selected.</i>

948
01:05:49,979 --> 01:05:54,382
<i>With that honor comes an invite to play in</i>
<i>the All-American Bowl and the defensive...</i>

949
01:05:54,483 --> 01:05:58,943
<i>The football game was the same weekend</i>
<i>we were set to play Mater Dei.</i>

950
01:05:59,588 --> 01:06:02,386
<i>I felt like I didn't want</i>
<i>to let my teammates down,</i>

951
01:06:02,491 --> 01:06:06,086
<i>but at the same time</i>
<i>I didn't want to let my family down.</i>

952
01:06:06,429 --> 01:06:09,865
<i>We needed Sian out there.</i>
<i>We couldn't lose. We couldn't afford to lose.</i>

953
01:06:09,966 --> 01:06:12,901
We lost, it's over.
Our dream is down the toilet.

954
01:06:14,003 --> 01:06:19,407
<i>I told him, "This right here is all about you,</i>
<i>me, and my mom and my dad. "

955
01:06:20,910 --> 01:06:25,210
L helped me realize it was more
than just me playing football, you know?

956
01:06:25,314 --> 01:06:27,942
It was my ticket to go to college.

957
01:06:28,751 --> 01:06:30,981
<i>So now we're missing one of our key guys.</i>

958
01:06:31,087 --> 01:06:34,750
<i>Willie is put into a position</i>
<i>where he has to play and start.</i>

959
01:06:34,890 --> 01:06:38,587
Mater Dei is basically the same team
that we had lost to in eighth grade.

960
01:06:38,694 --> 01:06:41,891
<i>Remember these Mater Dei players played</i>
<i>against James at an AAU tournament</i>

961
01:06:41,998 --> 01:06:43,727
<i>a few years ago,</i>
<i>when they were eighth-graders...</i>

962
01:06:43,833 --> 01:06:48,293
<i>And they beat LeBron back in Orlando</i>
<i>in the 14-and-under AAU championship.</i>

963
01:06:48,571 --> 01:06:51,665
<i>I don't know if they remember,</i>
<i>but I know everybody on my team</i>

964
01:06:51,774 --> 01:06:54,971
<i>definitely did, like,</i>
<i>"We ain't forgetting not one of those faces."</i>

965
01:06:55,077 --> 01:06:58,808
<i>It was basically like you had a "Won it" ad</i>
<i>on our locker-room door.</i>

966
01:06:58,914 --> 01:07:01,576
<i>We wanted this game more than anything.</i>

967
01:07:05,454 --> 01:07:09,515
<i>Joyce gonna settle things down a little bit.</i>
<i>His coach, his dad.</i>

968
01:07:11,093 --> 01:07:15,223
<i>Joyce misses the three,</i>
<i>now a run-out for Mater Dei.</i>

969
01:07:15,331 --> 01:07:19,791
<i>And is slammed by Marcel Jones,</i>
<i>a 6'11"...6'7", rather, junior.</i>

970
01:07:19,902 --> 01:07:22,166
<i>That's where Mater Dei</i>
<i>can score a lot of points.</i>

971
01:07:22,271 --> 01:07:24,739
<i>Here is Strawberry, has it blocked!</i>

972
01:07:29,211 --> 01:07:31,475
<i>Here's James. Look at the pass!</i>

973
01:07:33,916 --> 01:07:36,248
<i>Showtime early for LeBron James.</i>

974
01:07:45,861 --> 01:07:47,158
<i>Upper... Yes.</i>

975
01:07:52,334 --> 01:07:56,031
<i>... to Jones. Same spot, same result!</i>

976
01:07:58,307 --> 01:08:01,435
<i>He gets the ball inside, triple-team.</i>
<i>What a pass!</i>

977
01:08:03,913 --> 01:08:05,107
<i>James.</i>

978
01:08:06,649 --> 01:08:08,378
<i>McGee with a put-back.</i>

979
01:08:09,318 --> 01:08:11,411
<i>Time's winding down on Mater Dei,</i>

980
01:08:11,520 --> 01:08:16,150
<i>as LeBron James and St. Vincent-St. Mary</i>
<i>of Akron, Ohio, remain undefeated.</i>

981
01:08:16,258 --> 01:08:21,389
<i>They pick up their third win</i>
<i>over a top-10 team already this season.</i>

982
01:08:22,364 --> 01:08:25,527
<i>When we won that game,</i>
<i>it felt like I had some revenge.</i>

983
01:08:25,634 --> 01:08:28,762
It felt like I could close the book
on that deal.

984
01:08:31,574 --> 01:08:35,840
Seeing what we had accomplished
from a few months ago, being ranked 23rd,

985
01:08:36,579 --> 01:08:39,480
or years ago, when we weren't ranked at all,

986
01:08:39,748 --> 01:08:43,343
or even more years ago,
when we weren't mentioned.

987
01:08:44,820 --> 01:08:48,221
The day it came out,
and we've seen that St. Vincent-St. Mary

988
01:08:48,324 --> 01:08:53,284
was number one in the country, it was
probably one of the best days of our lives.

989
01:09:43,445 --> 01:09:44,810
<i>But there isn't a person</i>

990
01:09:44,914 --> 01:09:47,576
<i>or an organization</i>
<i>that put Akron on the map</i>

991
01:09:47,683 --> 01:09:51,380
<i>like this St. Vincent-St. Mary</i>
<i>basketball team players.</i>

992
01:10:02,932 --> 01:10:04,627
Do you feel like the bull's-eye
is on your back

993
01:10:04,733 --> 01:10:06,098
'cause you guys are number one
in the nation,

994
01:10:06,202 --> 01:10:08,534
or is that something
you don't even think about for games?

995
01:10:08,637 --> 01:10:10,434
We've been the bull's-eye
since the sixth grade,

996
01:10:10,539 --> 01:10:13,997
and every time we go out there,
we're the number-one team in the country.

997
01:10:14,109 --> 01:10:15,576
Everyone wants to knock us off.

998
01:10:17,613 --> 01:10:20,673
<i>It was a very critical eye</i>
<i>being turned towards LeBron at that time.</i>

999
01:10:20,783 --> 01:10:22,774
<i>He had gone past the awe stage,</i>

1000
01:10:22,885 --> 01:10:24,910
<i>and he'd gone</i>
<i>to the full-blown celebrity stage,</i>

1001
01:10:25,020 --> 01:10:28,114
<i>which is where fans and media</i>
<i>are looking for flaws.</i>

1002
01:10:29,158 --> 01:10:32,889
<i>Phenom LeBron James and his team</i>
<i>take to the court tonight,</i>

1003
01:10:32,995 --> 01:10:35,725
<i>but there's a lot of attention being paid</i>
<i>to what's, maybe, in the parking lot.</i>

1004
01:10:36,465 --> 01:10:37,932
<i>Ohio State high-school officials</i>

1005
01:10:38,033 --> 01:10:40,934
are determining whether James
has forfeited his amateur status

1006
01:10:41,036 --> 01:10:43,561
by accepting a $50,000 vehicle.

1007
01:10:44,573 --> 01:10:46,871
<i>Here's a kid who grew up</i>
<i>in subsidized housing,</i>

1008
01:10:46,976 --> 01:10:51,572
so how did they come up with the money
to pay for a $55,000 vehicle?

1009
01:10:52,081 --> 01:10:55,710
Check out this baby, huh? It kind of
looks like LeBron's vehicle, does it?

1010
01:10:55,818 --> 01:10:59,117
There are some people that say, "Hey,
what about some of these affluent kids

1011
01:10:59,221 --> 01:11:02,850
"whose parents buy them Mercedes?"
And, you know, it can go both ways.

1012
01:11:02,958 --> 01:11:05,722
But his mom was granted a loan
understanding that

1013
01:11:05,828 --> 01:11:08,922
that money would be paid back,
which they weren't worried about.

1014
01:11:09,398 --> 01:11:12,265
<i>It was a legitimate purchase,</i>
<i>but it was just an opportunity</i>

1015
01:11:12,368 --> 01:11:15,166
<i>for the people who were looking</i>
<i>for something to criticize LeBron</i>

1016
01:11:15,271 --> 01:11:17,239
<i>to have something to latch onto.</i>

1017
01:11:17,406 --> 01:11:21,740
<i>We love to build people up,</i>
<i>and then when the story gets too stale,</i>

1018
01:11:21,844 --> 01:11:24,210
<i>we kind of dig a little bit deeper</i>
<i>so that we can get stories</i>

1019
01:11:24,313 --> 01:11:25,712
<i>that people would be interested again.</i>

1020
01:11:26,248 --> 01:11:28,512
<i>How does he have two cell phones</i>

1021
01:11:28,617 --> 01:11:30,778
when his mom doesn't have a job,
he doesn't have a job?

1022
01:11:30,886 --> 01:11:33,514
Are you even concerned
about the eligibility issue?

1023
01:11:33,622 --> 01:11:36,921
This pro lifestyle,
how does that affect your teammates?

1024
01:11:37,026 --> 01:11:40,757
Even people in Akron want you to lose.
How does that make you feel?

1025
01:11:40,863 --> 01:11:45,926
<i>Whenever you're on a pedestal, the people</i>
<i>who are surrounding you are cheering...</i>

1026
01:11:46,335 --> 01:11:49,133
Hey, LeBron,
you gonna ride in that Hummer?

1027
01:11:49,471 --> 01:11:52,440
<i>... but there's a whole lot</i>
<i>who want to see you fall, too.</i>

1028
01:12:04,520 --> 01:12:08,422
<i>I said to LeBron one thing, I said,</i>
<i>"Are you ready for the negative press?"</i>

1029
01:12:08,524 --> 01:12:12,483
And he said, "Yeah, Coach Dru, I'm ready."
And I left it at that.

1030
01:12:13,195 --> 01:12:15,857
<i>We'll debate the pros and cons</i>
<i>of making a prep star</i>

1031
01:12:15,964 --> 01:12:17,488
<i>into a national icon.</i>

1032
01:12:17,599 --> 01:12:20,227
James is prematurely capitalizing
on his fame.

1033
01:12:20,336 --> 01:12:24,568
When did this madness begin? Just how
did it become too much too soon?

1034
01:12:24,973 --> 01:12:26,804
<i>It had gotten too big.</i>

1035
01:12:27,009 --> 01:12:31,309
<i>Too many people were now scrutinizing him</i>
<i>that he could barely breathe</i>

1036
01:12:31,413 --> 01:12:36,715
<i>without having someone check to see,</i>
<i>"Is this guy breaking the rules, is he legit?"</i>

1037
01:12:37,586 --> 01:12:40,987
<i>It's something that the system</i>
<i>in high school</i>

1038
01:12:41,090 --> 01:12:43,456
<i>wasn't really designed to handle.</i>

1039
01:12:48,464 --> 01:12:50,659
<i>This is</i> SportsCenter.

1040
01:12:52,034 --> 01:12:56,164
LeBron James is ineligible to play
for the rest of his high-school season.

1041
01:12:56,271 --> 01:12:59,263
Declared such, Friday afternoon,
by the Ohio governing body

1042
01:12:59,375 --> 01:13:02,503
over two retro jerseys he accepted
from a Cleveland store.

1043
01:13:03,245 --> 01:13:06,305
<i>He had taken a jersey</i>
<i>from someone he knew as a gift.</i>

1044
01:13:06,415 --> 01:13:08,383
<i>The Ohio High School Athletic Association</i>

1045
01:13:08,484 --> 01:13:10,918
<i>was facing</i>
<i>an unprecedented set of circumstances.</i>

1046
01:13:11,019 --> 01:13:13,613
<i>They had this incredible player</i>
<i>they didn't really know how to handle</i>

1047
01:13:13,722 --> 01:13:16,418
<i>who looked like he was obviously</i>
<i>benefiting from his fame.</i>

1048
01:13:16,525 --> 01:13:19,460
<i>And I think they just got sort of sick</i>
<i>of all the complaints</i>

1049
01:13:19,561 --> 01:13:22,689
<i>from the member schools</i>
<i>and felt like they had to do something.</i>

1050
01:13:22,798 --> 01:13:25,198
<i>So they just decided to take swift action.</i>

1051
01:13:25,300 --> 01:13:29,862
My ruling is immediate.
This is an unusual situation.

1052
01:13:29,972 --> 01:13:34,841
And because we've had to address
so many issues surrounding it,

1053
01:13:34,943 --> 01:13:37,741
I think, as leaders,
we need to take a look at it.

1054
01:13:38,814 --> 01:13:40,441
<i>There was no chartered territory for this.</i>

1055
01:13:40,549 --> 01:13:44,383
<i>There was boxes of shoes</i>
<i>arriving at his house daily,</i>

1056
01:13:44,720 --> 01:13:48,622
<i>and for him to be in trouble</i>
<i>over two jerseys that he got from a store</i>

1057
01:13:48,724 --> 01:13:50,191
<i>was comical.</i>

1058
01:13:50,292 --> 01:13:53,625
He's no exception,
whether it's LeBron James or Mary Jones

1059
01:13:53,729 --> 01:13:55,162
or Pete Smith.

1060
01:13:55,330 --> 01:13:57,662
<i>St. Vincent-St. Mary right now</i>
<i>is ranked number one in the nation,</i>

1061
01:13:57,766 --> 01:13:59,734
<i>and without LeBron James playing,</i>

1062
01:13:59,835 --> 01:14:01,530
obviously they'll drop
from that number-one ranking.

1063
01:14:01,637 --> 01:14:03,628
They have five games left this season.

1064
01:14:03,739 --> 01:14:05,764
<i>This is a team that has been very good</i>
<i>the past few years.</i>

1065
01:14:05,874 --> 01:14:08,672
<i>They've gone to</i>
<i>the state championship games...</i>

1066
01:14:13,816 --> 01:14:17,582
When I heard that I was ineligible
for the rest of the season

1067
01:14:19,688 --> 01:14:25,649
I couldn't think, I couldn't believe it.
I felt that I had let my teammates down.

1068
01:14:30,766 --> 01:14:35,260
<i>LeBron was still in diapers,</i>
<i>going on two years old.</i>

1069
01:14:35,504 --> 01:14:37,734
<i>So I bought him</i>
<i>a Little Tikes basketball hoop.</i>

1070
01:14:37,840 --> 01:14:41,241
From then on,
he had to have it at the highest height.

1071
01:14:41,343 --> 01:14:43,903
And he was dunking on it, then.

1072
01:14:49,017 --> 01:14:51,076
<i>She was 16 when she had me.</i>

1073
01:14:51,286 --> 01:14:55,985
<i>The father figure that I was looking for,</i>
<i>you know, wasn't ever there. Ever.</i>

1074
01:14:57,526 --> 01:15:00,689
Your mom raised you
pretty much by herself,

1075
01:15:00,796 --> 01:15:02,957
<i>was a teenage mother, unmarried.</i>

1076
01:15:03,065 --> 01:15:05,863
First of all, do you know
your biological father's whereabouts?

1077
01:15:05,968 --> 01:15:10,905
No, not really. But I'm not really
even concentrating on that,

1078
01:15:11,273 --> 01:15:15,471
because I really have my father
and my mother all tied up in one,

1079
01:15:16,178 --> 01:15:20,478
and that's Gloria James. At this point
I don't really need nobody else.

1080
01:15:23,519 --> 01:15:27,853
The only thing that didn't help,
'cause me kept growing every so often.

1081
01:15:27,956 --> 01:15:31,119
You know, and she had to keep throwing
clothes away and go buy new ones.

1082
01:15:31,226 --> 01:15:32,488
That didn't help.

1083
01:15:32,594 --> 01:15:35,791
So I just bought clothes bigger
to begin with

1084
01:15:35,898 --> 01:15:39,163
and just rolled them up
and put a few cuffs in them.

1085
01:15:39,835 --> 01:15:42,133
Gave him time to grow into them.

1086
01:15:45,407 --> 01:15:49,537
<i>It was constantly on the move for us.</i>
<i>From five years old till eight,</i>

1087
01:15:49,811 --> 01:15:54,544
<i>we probably moved 10, 12 times</i>
<i>in three years, four or five schools.</i>

1088
01:15:56,618 --> 01:16:00,952
We didn't have any definite place
to reside at.

1089
01:16:01,790 --> 01:16:05,988
<i>We didn't know if we was gonna have</i>
<i>somewhere to sleep the following night.</i>

1090
01:16:06,094 --> 01:16:07,994
The hardest thing for me
was to meet new friends,

1091
01:16:08,096 --> 01:16:10,121
going to new schools all the time,

1092
01:16:10,232 --> 01:16:12,826
<i>and, you know, finally get comfortable</i>
<i>with a group of friends at one school</i>

1093
01:16:12,935 --> 01:16:14,800
<i>and then having to leave.</i>

1094
01:16:15,170 --> 01:16:17,263
<i>He didn't have a normal childhood.</i>

1095
01:16:17,372 --> 01:16:21,399
<i>I mean, hell, he even lived</i>
<i>in some of the worst projects in town.</i>

1096
01:16:21,710 --> 01:16:23,974
I mean, you definitely see things,
at a young age,

1097
01:16:24,079 --> 01:16:26,377
that you don't never want your kids to see,

1098
01:16:26,481 --> 01:16:30,645
<i>you know, violence and drug abuse</i>
<i>and police sirens.</i>

1099
01:16:31,019 --> 01:16:35,615
<i>It didn't matter where we were. Being with</i>
<i>my mother, only thing that mattered.</i>

1100
01:16:35,724 --> 01:16:41,754
<i>I believe we became even closer</i>
<i>than the normal parent-child relationship</i>

1101
01:16:41,863 --> 01:16:45,629
due to our circumstances
and enduring them together,

1102
01:16:45,734 --> 01:16:47,167
going through them together.

1103
01:16:49,137 --> 01:16:51,128
<i>I never complained, never.</i>

1104
01:16:51,340 --> 01:16:52,932
<i>We were already going through tough times.</i>

1105
01:16:53,041 --> 01:16:55,566
<i>It doesn't make it any better</i>
<i>if I'm complaining.</i>

1106
01:16:56,078 --> 01:17:00,913
My mother said it was time to go, packed
my little book bag and it was time to roll.

1107
01:17:02,551 --> 01:17:06,317
<i>I remember my mother sitting me down</i>
<i>and basically telling me,</i>

1108
01:17:06,421 --> 01:17:10,221
<i>because of certain situations,</i>
<i>that she may be gone for a little while,</i>

1109
01:17:10,325 --> 01:17:14,785
<i>that I was gonna be living</i>
<i>with one of my coaches. It was a challenge.</i>

1110
01:17:15,797 --> 01:17:18,766
That's all I cared about
when I was growing up,

1111
01:17:18,867 --> 01:17:23,861
if I was gonna be able to wake up and
my mother was still alive or still by my side.

1112
01:17:24,606 --> 01:17:28,508
That was...
Because I was already without a father,

1113
01:17:28,810 --> 01:17:32,940
you know, and I didn't want
to be without both of my parents.

1114
01:17:33,248 --> 01:17:37,150
You know, so,
it was definitely scary and tough.

1115
01:17:38,186 --> 01:17:41,747
<i>The thing that I had on the court</i>
<i>that I didn't have off the court was security,</i>

1116
01:17:41,857 --> 01:17:44,883
<i>because every day we went to the gym,</i>
<i>I knew I'm gonna get picked,</i>

1117
01:17:44,993 --> 01:17:49,225
<i>or we were gonna win basketball games,</i>
<i>or we're gonna win pickup games.</i>

1118
01:17:49,731 --> 01:17:52,723
I've always said
it's home away from home for me.

1119
01:17:54,169 --> 01:17:59,573
Anybody that's close to LeBron knows that
basketball court becomes his sanctuary.

1120
01:17:59,675 --> 01:18:04,078
He blocks everything out,
every bad situation or whatever.

1121
01:18:04,379 --> 01:18:08,748
<i>When he's on that court, that's when</i>
<i>he's actually at peace and at ease.</i>

1122
01:18:13,088 --> 01:18:15,556
<i>Gradually, my mother found a place.</i>

1123
01:18:15,791 --> 01:18:16,815
Hey.

1124
01:18:17,092 --> 01:18:20,061
<i>I had a place to sleep,</i>
<i>and I knew we weren't going anywhere.</i>

1125
01:18:20,162 --> 01:18:22,460
- Anybody home?
- No, I fooled you.

1126
01:18:23,932 --> 01:18:29,268
So this is where I ended up moving to.
I moved into this room and...

1127
01:18:30,272 --> 01:18:34,072
If you can just imagine
just photos of all the NBA superstars

1128
01:18:34,176 --> 01:18:35,768
was all over these walls.

1129
01:18:35,877 --> 01:18:38,243
This whole wall
was Michael Jordan pictures.

1130
01:18:38,346 --> 01:18:42,112
From, like, right here
was all Allen lverson, was right here.

1131
01:18:42,517 --> 01:18:45,748
This was Kobe Bryant's wall right here,
from, like, right here over,

1132
01:18:45,854 --> 01:18:48,982
and then everybody else
I kind of just filled in.

1133
01:18:49,257 --> 01:18:52,124
It was... It's crazy to see
that they got everything out of here.

1134
01:18:52,227 --> 01:18:56,186
I put staples all in the walls
and tape and duct tape all over the walls,

1135
01:18:56,298 --> 01:18:59,563
so it's kind of funny
to see that it's all gone now.

1136
01:19:00,335 --> 01:19:04,362
It was home. It was funny to see
that everybody wanted to be here.

1137
01:19:04,506 --> 01:19:06,872
You know, everybody wanted to come...
I mean, why here?

1138
01:19:06,975 --> 01:19:09,170
- You wouldn't have thought that.
- I mean, all my friends got houses.

1139
01:19:09,277 --> 01:19:11,142
- Low-income houses. Yeah.
- All my friends got houses.

1140
01:19:11,246 --> 01:19:14,306
All my friends got houses,
but you look outside,

1141
01:19:14,616 --> 01:19:18,052
- their parents are dropping them off here.
- Right here.

1142
01:19:18,754 --> 01:19:20,688
Didn't even have time
to lock the damn door.

1143
01:19:20,789 --> 01:19:22,620
"Just leave it unlocked, come in."

1144
01:19:22,724 --> 01:19:24,783
- "Just leave the door open."
- Yeah.

1145
01:19:24,893 --> 01:19:26,554
And they was coming.

1146
01:19:30,198 --> 01:19:34,100
<i>Due to the circumstances,</i>
<i>he had to grow up being moving.</i>

1147
01:19:34,202 --> 01:19:38,002
No stability with friendships.
His relationship with Sian,

1148
01:19:38,106 --> 01:19:43,339
Dru, Rome, Willie is as important
as his relationship with me.

1149
01:19:44,780 --> 01:19:47,772
<i>There's one thing about Bron,</i>
<i>he loves people around him.</i>

1150
01:19:47,883 --> 01:19:49,714
<i>Never liked being by his self,</i>

1151
01:19:49,818 --> 01:19:53,447
<i>and when he found us, he found homes,</i>
<i>he found father figures,</i>

1152
01:19:53,555 --> 01:19:57,047
<i>he found one of the greatest things</i>
<i>that happened to him, friendships.</i>

1153
01:19:57,159 --> 01:20:00,219
<i>Once I had that security, finally,</i>
<i>with friends,</i>

1154
01:20:00,328 --> 01:20:04,492
you know, I automatically, like...
These are the guys I'm gonna be with.

1155
01:20:07,636 --> 01:20:12,073
<i>No matter what happens, these are the guys</i>
<i>I'm gonna be loyal to more than anybody.</i>

1156
01:20:12,174 --> 01:20:16,304
<i>These are my brothers.</i>
<i>These are my four best friends.</i>

1157
01:20:18,180 --> 01:20:22,514
<i>Our next senior, Mr. LeBron James!</i>

1158
01:20:27,389 --> 01:20:29,880
<i>They grew up in basketball together,</i>

1159
01:20:30,025 --> 01:20:34,689
so the love that they shared for the game
was because of one another.

1160
01:20:44,272 --> 01:20:48,368
Everyone's saying St. Vincent-St. Mary
today beginning life without LeBron.

1161
01:20:56,551 --> 01:21:00,510
I remember to this day going to practice,
and I couldn't practice,

1162
01:21:00,655 --> 01:21:04,421
<i>and I was sitting on the sideline crying,</i>
<i>the whole practice,</i>

1163
01:21:04,759 --> 01:21:08,160
<i>just because I couldn't be out there</i>
<i>for my teammates,</i>

1164
01:21:08,797 --> 01:21:13,131
and I knew that at some point
they were gonna need me,

1165
01:21:14,302 --> 01:21:17,465
and I wanted to be there for them,
and I couldn't.

1166
01:21:22,377 --> 01:21:26,837
Hey, this is what the ruling is so far,
that LeBron can't play this game.

1167
01:21:27,048 --> 01:21:30,449
I know that he wants what you want,

1168
01:21:31,019 --> 01:21:34,785
and he wants you to win
and he wants you guys to win for him,

1169
01:21:35,357 --> 01:21:38,520
and, you know, for yourselves
and to keep the dream alive

1170
01:21:38,627 --> 01:21:41,357
and understand that he loves the game.

1171
01:21:42,998 --> 01:21:44,966
I can tell you one thing,

1172
01:21:46,401 --> 01:21:49,996
he's gonna be the biggest cheerleader
in the crowd.

1173
01:21:50,672 --> 01:21:52,037
- Amen.
- Amen.

1174
01:21:52,641 --> 01:21:53,972
- One, two, three.
- Team.

1175
01:21:54,075 --> 01:21:56,168
- Four, five, six.
- Work hard.

1176
01:21:57,879 --> 01:22:01,906
<i>Live from the James A. Rhodes Arena</i>
<i>on the campus of the University of Akron,</i>

1177
01:22:02,017 --> 01:22:05,976
<i>welcome to Akron's St. Vincent-St. Mary</i>
<i>Fighting Irish basketball.</i>

1178
01:22:06,087 --> 01:22:07,987
<i>My, oh, my, how things have changed.</i>

1179
01:22:08,089 --> 01:22:11,183
<i>Full house as usual</i>
<i>for this Sunday afternoon game.</i>

1180
01:22:11,293 --> 01:22:13,591
<i>But it's electric for the wrong reason.</i>

1181
01:22:13,695 --> 01:22:16,630
<i>Obviously, the LeBron situation</i>
<i>was big news not only here</i>

1182
01:22:16,731 --> 01:22:18,028
<i>but all around the country.</i>

1183
01:22:18,133 --> 01:22:20,499
<i>It was emotionally</i>
<i>and psychologically taxing</i>

1184
01:22:20,602 --> 01:22:22,001
<i>just before you even played the game.</i>

1185
01:22:22,103 --> 01:22:24,367
<i>It was something that was in the papers.</i>
<i>It was on</i> SportsCenter.

1186
01:22:24,472 --> 01:22:30,138
<i>It was something that was a big buildup</i>
<i>just to see how they'd perform without him.</i>

1187
01:22:30,245 --> 01:22:35,376
The clock's about to start, fellas.
Look, it's been a great journey.

1188
01:22:36,952 --> 01:22:41,946
It's not over. I don't believe that
this is the time for us to pack it in.

1189
01:22:42,657 --> 01:22:44,887
I don't think you believe that.

1190
01:22:44,993 --> 01:22:49,589
Today, if we were ever unified,
we need to be even more unified today.

1191
01:22:51,066 --> 01:22:53,034
<i>Does your son seem any different</i>
<i>out there today?</i>

1192
01:22:53,134 --> 01:22:57,127
Of course he's different, because
an integral part of his team is missing.

1193
01:22:57,238 --> 01:22:59,798
My son is heartbroken for LeBron.

1194
01:23:00,275 --> 01:23:03,642
They all are. They're all hurting.
They're heartbroken right now.

1195
01:23:04,312 --> 01:23:06,974
This is the biggest game of the season.

1196
01:23:07,582 --> 01:23:11,882
This is the biggest game of the season
because tomorrow is not promised

1197
01:23:12,220 --> 01:23:15,986
and the past is over.
All we got is right now.

1198
01:23:16,191 --> 01:23:18,352
Let's take care of right now.

1199
01:23:18,526 --> 01:23:22,121
Everyone wants to speak otherwise.
This is a great team,

1200
01:23:22,230 --> 01:23:25,393
with a great, great player,
but this is a great team, all right?

1201
01:23:25,500 --> 01:23:29,994
This is a great team. And don't you ever sell
yourself short of believing that this isn't.

1202
01:23:30,105 --> 01:23:34,132
But, hey, I'm just saying words.
You guys gotta do it on the floor.

1203
01:23:34,642 --> 01:23:37,770
Play hard, play smart, have fun, all right?

1204
01:23:37,879 --> 01:23:39,278
- Amen!
- Amen!

1205
01:23:40,515 --> 01:23:43,348
Everyone had to step up,
and we understood that, you know?

1206
01:23:43,451 --> 01:23:46,579
<i>There's no team in the state of Ohio</i>
<i>that's been to more final fours</i>

1207
01:23:46,688 --> 01:23:48,349
<i>than Canton McKinley.</i>

1208
01:23:48,456 --> 01:23:51,584
<i>Nobody can carry this team,</i>
<i>and the only guy who can carry this team</i>

1209
01:23:51,693 --> 01:23:55,129
<i>is wearing a black shirt</i>
<i>and sitting on the bench right now.</i>

1210
01:23:55,230 --> 01:23:58,222
You know, it was tough
seeing him on the bench,

1211
01:23:58,633 --> 01:24:01,033
<i>and, you know,</i>
<i>we had been playing together for so long.</i>

1212
01:24:01,136 --> 01:24:05,732
You know, it wasn't usual, you know?
We were together, we were the Fab 5,

1213
01:24:05,840 --> 01:24:07,603
so it was just tough.

1214
01:24:12,914 --> 01:24:16,850
<i>Irish is going to have a few problems</i>
<i>getting into sync here offensively.</i>

1215
01:24:16,951 --> 01:24:20,910
<i>Nice play by McKinley</i>
<i>to get it down long and...</i>

1216
01:24:21,022 --> 01:24:23,320
<i>The Bulldogs are not intimidated.</i>

1217
01:24:23,425 --> 01:24:27,452
<i>That's got to be a big concern right now</i>
<i>for Dru Joyce, the coach.</i>

1218
01:24:32,000 --> 01:24:34,560
<i>Irish need to keep that lead on right now.</i>

1219
01:24:34,669 --> 01:24:36,660
<i>Three!</i>

1220
01:24:40,341 --> 01:24:41,501
<i>Somebody's hot!</i>

1221
01:24:43,611 --> 01:24:46,944
<i>They weren't backing off anything,</i>
<i>so we could have lost at any given moment.</i>

1222
01:24:47,048 --> 01:24:48,879
<i>Stan Hall to the hole.</i>

1223
01:24:51,553 --> 01:24:54,147
<i>For as great as they were as a team,</i>
<i>when the going got tough,</i>

1224
01:24:54,255 --> 01:24:56,246
<i>you know, 23 got the ball.</i>

1225
01:24:58,293 --> 01:25:02,559
It was important to us that
we show everybody that we were a team.

1226
01:25:02,964 --> 01:25:05,228
<i>We weren't just a one-man show.</i>

1227
01:25:08,169 --> 01:25:11,468
<i>Dru Joyce gets a big pocket for the Irish.</i>

1228
01:25:12,373 --> 01:25:14,568
<i>That's a big play right there.</i>

1229
01:25:18,613 --> 01:25:20,478
We had some animosity, too.

1230
01:25:21,049 --> 01:25:24,485
<i>When you shot LeBron down,</i>
<i>you took a shot at the team.</i>

1231
01:25:26,354 --> 01:25:28,151
<i>Sian takes the rebound.</i>

1232
01:25:29,624 --> 01:25:31,421
<i>6.6 to go.</i>

1233
01:25:31,659 --> 01:25:35,527
<i>Romeo wants the ball. Got it!</i>
<i>And there's the game.</i>

1234
01:25:35,897 --> 01:25:39,162
<i>It's a 63-62 finale.</i>

1235
01:25:42,537 --> 01:25:44,129
<i>What a ballgame.</i>

1236
01:25:45,740 --> 01:25:49,540
<i>Here are some guys who were</i>
<i>basically thought of, in most circles,</i>

1237
01:25:49,644 --> 01:25:52,272
<i>as LeBron and his sidekicks.</i>

1238
01:25:52,881 --> 01:25:57,215
<i>It said a lot about all of them,</i>
<i>for people around the country to say,</i>

1239
01:25:57,519 --> 01:26:01,148
"You know what? These guys are really
impressive, and not just this guy."

1240
01:26:01,489 --> 01:26:03,980
<i>You have to understand</i>
<i>what this team's been through this week.</i>

1241
01:26:05,193 --> 01:26:09,630
<i>They withstood a whole lot.</i>
<i>You know, there's been a lot of adversity,</i>

1242
01:26:10,632 --> 01:26:14,432
<i>and they stood up</i>
<i>and they met the challenge.</i>

1243
01:26:16,504 --> 01:26:18,665
<i>After watching my guys win that game,</i>

1244
01:26:18,773 --> 01:26:23,301
<i>it made me realize that I had to do</i>
<i>whatever I could to get back on that court.</i>

1245
01:26:23,845 --> 01:26:26,313
<i>So he took it to court,</i>
<i>and after a judge decided</i>

1246
01:26:26,414 --> 01:26:30,248
<i>that the punishment was too severe,</i>
<i>LeBron was reinstated.</i>

1247
01:26:32,420 --> 01:26:36,948
<i>There's no one in the world that</i>
<i>I'd rather play with than those four guys.</i>

1248
01:26:44,899 --> 01:26:47,060
<i>The week of the championship game,</i>

1249
01:26:47,168 --> 01:26:49,329
<i>it was the last time</i>
<i>I'm gonna coach my son,</i>

1250
01:26:49,437 --> 01:26:55,740
<i>it's the last time I'll coach Bron,</i>
<i>Romeo, Dru, Willie, Sian.</i>

1251
01:26:55,843 --> 01:26:58,812
<i>You recognize that, you understand that</i>

1252
01:26:58,913 --> 01:27:03,316
<i>not only is a state championship at risk,</i>
<i>but also a national championship.</i>

1253
01:27:05,320 --> 01:27:07,185
<i>Nine years in the making.</i>

1254
01:27:07,288 --> 01:27:10,086
<i>From fifth grade,</i>
<i>we all dreamed about being able to play</i>

1255
01:27:10,191 --> 01:27:12,421
<i>for the national championship.</i>

1256
01:27:13,428 --> 01:27:15,396
<i>We had an opportunity in the eighth grade</i>
<i>and failed,</i>

1257
01:27:15,496 --> 01:27:19,432
<i>and now, a few years later,</i>
<i>we have that same opportunity to do it.</i>

1258
01:27:19,534 --> 01:27:21,229
<i>It hit us hard during that time.</i>

1259
01:27:21,336 --> 01:27:22,826
<i>It was, like, more than basketball.</i>

1260
01:27:22,937 --> 01:27:26,498
<i>This is the last time</i>
<i>that we was gonna compete together.</i>

1261
01:27:27,742 --> 01:27:29,607
<i>You have a chance to go down</i>
<i>as the greatest team</i>

1262
01:27:29,711 --> 01:27:31,872
<i>in high-school basketball history.</i>

1263
01:27:31,980 --> 01:27:35,814
<i>That's gonna be around here</i>
<i>long after you guys are gone.</i>

1264
01:27:35,917 --> 01:27:38,477
<i>You've taken it full circle, fellas.</i>

1265
01:27:38,786 --> 01:27:44,122
<i>This all started in a little gym</i>
<i>with a linoleum floor on Maple Street,</i>

1266
01:27:44,692 --> 01:27:46,284
<i>at The Salvation Army.</i>

1267
01:27:46,394 --> 01:27:48,021
<i>All the travel we've done,</i>

1268
01:27:48,129 --> 01:27:51,860
<i>from the time you guys were 11 years old,</i>
<i>all the way across the country,</i>

1269
01:27:51,966 --> 01:27:55,060
<i>through high school,</i>
<i>all the way to culminate,</i>

1270
01:27:55,169 --> 01:27:58,969
<i>when that bus pulls up tomorrow,</i>
<i>where at? On Maple Street.</i>

1271
01:28:01,075 --> 01:28:03,009
And the only question right now is,

1272
01:28:03,111 --> 01:28:05,978
"Do you get off
that bus tomorrow victorious?"

1273
01:28:18,426 --> 01:28:20,155
All right, let's go.

1274
01:28:33,975 --> 01:28:37,775
<i>So, here we go.</i>
<i>The championship game in Division II.</i>

1275
01:28:37,879 --> 01:28:42,111
<i>St. Vincent-St. Mary's</i>
<i>with a national championship on the line.</i>

1276
01:28:49,991 --> 01:28:54,189
<i>Joyce controls,</i>
<i>and the basketball game is underway.</i>

1277
01:28:54,295 --> 01:28:56,320
<i>Eight minutes on the clock</i>

1278
01:28:56,698 --> 01:28:59,531
<i>and the first possession</i>
<i>goes to St. Vincent-St. Mary.</i>

1279
01:28:59,634 --> 01:29:01,534
<i>Not a seat in this house.</i>

1280
01:29:01,636 --> 01:29:05,094
<i>It is elbow-to-elbow</i>
<i>to watch this championship game.</i>

1281
01:29:05,340 --> 01:29:08,605
<i>Inside they go,</i>
<i>and a slam dunk, right away!</i>

1282
01:29:10,578 --> 01:29:15,379
<i>Coach Petrocelli talked about how</i>
<i>he's instructed his team to be patient.</i>

1283
01:29:15,717 --> 01:29:18,345
<i>They will work and work</i>
<i>and work and work.</i>

1284
01:29:18,453 --> 01:29:23,083
<i>They're taking time off the game clock,</i>
<i>and they'll set it back up out on top.</i>

1285
01:29:23,424 --> 01:29:25,824
<i>If they can shorten the game,</i>
<i>they may have a chance.</i>

1286
01:29:26,427 --> 01:29:29,760
<i>We kind of had the feeling</i>
<i>that they would hold the ball.</i>

1287
01:29:29,864 --> 01:29:35,097
<i>I guess early on they were just a little bit</i>
<i>better at it than we thought they would be.</i>

1288
01:29:35,470 --> 01:29:38,598
<i>Double-team.</i>
<i>Somebody's gotta be open, and it is.</i>

1289
01:29:40,942 --> 01:29:43,968
<i>They ran a minute and change off the clock.</i>

1290
01:29:44,712 --> 01:29:47,909
<i>This is clearly the pace</i>
<i>that Coach Petrocelli wants.</i>

1291
01:29:48,015 --> 01:29:50,483
<i>We tried everything we could</i>
<i>to speed them up,</i>

1292
01:29:50,585 --> 01:29:53,019
<i>but they had us chasing them,</i>
<i>and it was hard.</i>

1293
01:29:53,121 --> 01:29:54,850
<i>A lot of slow action,</i>

1294
01:29:55,189 --> 01:29:57,987
<i>- and Doug Penno making shots like that.</i>
<i>- Execution.</i>

1295
01:29:58,092 --> 01:30:01,653
<i>To perfection.</i>
<i>Just like Roger Bacon last year,</i>

1296
01:30:02,029 --> 01:30:04,623
<i>they're frustrating the Akron players.</i>

1297
01:30:05,032 --> 01:30:08,399
<i>James on the rebound. What a shot by Gill!</i>

1298
01:30:08,569 --> 01:30:12,562
<i>Out of bounds. St. Vincent-St. Mary's</i>
<i>will have the basketball.</i>

1299
01:30:14,509 --> 01:30:18,809
<i>Close to the end of the first half</i>
<i>I was questioning, you know, myself.</i>

1300
01:30:20,448 --> 01:30:25,147
<i>Three seconds left, Weems for three.</i>
<i>It does not fall.</i>

1301
01:30:25,853 --> 01:30:29,550
<i>Alter has won the first half</i>
<i>of this basketball game,</i>

1302
01:30:29,824 --> 01:30:31,655
<i>somewhat surprisingly.</i>

1303
01:30:32,059 --> 01:30:36,189
<i>They have an 11-to-1 run</i>
<i>in the last four minutes and 10 seconds.</i>

1304
01:30:36,431 --> 01:30:41,061
Going into halftime losing, I'm thinking,
"Not again. Not two years in a row."

1305
01:30:52,847 --> 01:30:55,975
Fellas, it's not about
the X's and O's right now.

1306
01:30:59,120 --> 01:31:00,348
It's not.

1307
01:31:05,126 --> 01:31:09,825
I want you guys to just, for one minute,
try to grasp this thing.

1308
01:31:11,332 --> 01:31:14,733
You have an opportunity
that you guys have been given.

1309
01:31:16,070 --> 01:31:19,972
Now, look around the room, guys.
Hey, let's be real about this.

1310
01:31:20,575 --> 01:31:23,840
Some of these guys,
Dru, Bron, Sian, Rome, Willie,

1311
01:31:24,278 --> 01:31:27,179
you'll never play
another game of basketball.

1312
01:31:28,182 --> 01:31:30,241
To be where you guys are at

1313
01:31:30,518 --> 01:31:35,854
is just a blessing that you guys
will only understand later in life.

1314
01:31:38,793 --> 01:31:40,954
As this game winds on,

1315
01:31:43,097 --> 01:31:47,625
some of you guys... Hey, this is
my last time coaching you, and...

1316
01:31:53,207 --> 01:31:56,870
There's been a lot of great times,
a lot of great memories,

1317
01:31:58,212 --> 01:32:00,271
and I'm gonna cherish them.

1318
01:32:04,986 --> 01:32:08,979
But let's do this, fellas.

1319
01:32:09,690 --> 01:32:13,820
Just... You know, let's do this.
Let's end this thing the right way.

1320
01:32:13,995 --> 01:32:15,758
- Let's go, man.
- Let's go!

1321
01:32:15,863 --> 01:32:16,921
- One, two, three.
- Team!

1322
01:32:17,031 --> 01:32:19,124
- Four, five, six.
- Work hard!

1323
01:32:21,102 --> 01:32:25,198
<i>And my dad is just as big a piece</i>
<i>of this puzzle as any five of us.</i>

1324
01:32:25,740 --> 01:32:30,439
<i>This is a guy who was a football player</i>
<i>that changed to be a basketball coach.</i>

1325
01:32:30,945 --> 01:32:33,106
<i>When I told him this is what I want to do,</i>

1326
01:32:33,214 --> 01:32:35,614
he was the first person
to put the ball in my hand.

1327
01:32:37,084 --> 01:32:41,646
<i>Joyce will take it in and Travis</i>
<i>scores at the three seconds, clock running.</i>

1328
01:32:42,523 --> 01:32:45,321
<i>He was key for me</i>
<i>being the man I am today.</i>

1329
01:32:45,459 --> 01:32:49,555
<i>If I wasn't at St. V with Coach Dru</i>
<i>pushing me toward the right thing,</i>

1330
01:32:50,498 --> 01:32:52,796
God knows where I'd be right now.

1331
01:32:52,900 --> 01:32:57,337
<i>And he gets a steal,</i>
<i>after two free-throws comes the triple!</i>

1332
01:32:57,872 --> 01:33:01,103
<i>Now he's starting making those...</i>
<i>Alter's in trouble.</i>

1333
01:33:01,542 --> 01:33:05,239
<i>He helped me have that security</i>
<i>that I've always wanted in a father figure,</i>

1334
01:33:05,346 --> 01:33:07,576
<i>and he didn't have to treat me</i>
<i>like I was one of his kids</i>

1335
01:33:07,682 --> 01:33:10,742
or buy things for me.
He didn't have to do it, but he did.

1336
01:33:10,851 --> 01:33:13,115
<i>... out to James, they can take the lead.</i>

1337
01:33:13,220 --> 01:33:16,781
<i>James. Very nice!</i>

1338
01:33:16,991 --> 01:33:19,289
It was always more than basketball
to Coach Dru.

1339
01:33:19,393 --> 01:33:21,361
<i>He always wanted the best for us.</i>

1340
01:33:21,462 --> 01:33:25,330
<i>Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary's</i>
<i>spelling it out with 2:26 to go...</i>

1341
01:33:25,433 --> 01:33:29,665
We all looked at Coach Dru
as a father figure and loved him like that.

1342
01:33:29,870 --> 01:33:31,929
<i>6.3 seconds to go.</i>

1343
01:33:32,239 --> 01:33:37,199
<i>Forty-36. The Irish with the lead.</i>
<i>Pressure is on.</i>

1344
01:33:38,346 --> 01:33:41,713
<i>- Might be the ballgame.</i>
<i>- The ball... James gets the rebound!</i>

1345
01:33:41,816 --> 01:33:45,775
<i>He will dribble it out.</i>
<i>Joyce four seconds down the line.</i>

1346
01:33:45,886 --> 01:33:47,979
<i>And that's the basketball game!</i>

1347
01:33:48,889 --> 01:33:53,383
<i>Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary's</i>
<i>wins their third, in four years,</i>

1348
01:33:53,494 --> 01:33:56,986
<i>Division II state champions</i>
<i>here in Columbus.</i>

1349
01:33:57,331 --> 01:34:01,199
<i>The Irish are your national champions!</i>

1350
01:34:04,138 --> 01:34:08,336
<i>Looking over and seeing my mom</i>
<i>and Coach Dru and Miss Joyce,</i>

1351
01:34:08,442 --> 01:34:11,707
<i>and everybody who had been there</i>
<i>from the beginning was there that day,</i>

1352
01:34:11,812 --> 01:34:13,507
and it was just a dream come true.

1353
01:34:13,981 --> 01:34:18,145
<i>I felt like I did something, like, you know,</i>
<i>my life is now worth something.</i>

1354
01:34:19,053 --> 01:34:24,047
And winning it with my best friends,
one of the best feelings I ever felt in my life.

1355
01:34:24,158 --> 01:34:26,752
I just had to go find my brother
and hug him. You know what I am saying?

1356
01:34:26,861 --> 01:34:30,456
Because I could still be in Chicago
doing the wrong thing.

1357
01:34:30,564 --> 01:34:32,930
<i>I could be in jail, dead,</i>
<i>you know what I am saying?</i>

1358
01:34:33,034 --> 01:34:35,127
<i>He just led me in the right path.</i>

1359
01:34:35,436 --> 01:34:37,529
It just seemed like everything
traced back to him.

1360
01:34:38,205 --> 01:34:41,732
<i>When we won that championship,</i>
<i>I just had to go find him.</i>

1361
01:34:42,476 --> 01:34:47,937
Ran off the court and...
Twenty-thousand people and he found me,

1362
01:34:48,482 --> 01:34:51,508
and we just embraced each other.

1363
01:34:56,023 --> 01:34:59,754
<i>I felt like a proud father.</i>

1364
01:35:01,996 --> 01:35:06,399
<i>I got to share that with my brothers</i>
<i>and also did that with my dad.</i>

1365
01:35:06,867 --> 01:35:10,359
I got a chance to share my dream
with everybody I love.

1366
01:35:12,206 --> 01:35:15,607
<i>We made a lot of sacrifices.</i>
<i>Not just me, other parents.</i>

1367
01:35:15,710 --> 01:35:20,909
<i>Sometimes I wonder if we took some</i>
<i>of the kids' childhood away from them,</i>

1368
01:35:21,782 --> 01:35:26,116
<i>'cause they worked so hard.</i>
<i>They didn't hang out like a lot of kids.</i>

1369
01:35:26,554 --> 01:35:31,856
So sometimes you question,
"Did we do the right thing?"

1370
01:35:49,643 --> 01:35:52,203
<i>I love them all like they're my sons.</i>

1371
01:35:52,546 --> 01:35:56,983
<i>God gave me an opportunity</i>
<i>to be involved with this,</i>

1372
01:35:57,084 --> 01:36:01,612
<i>and it wasn't about basketball.</i>
<i>I needed to help them to become men,</i>

1373
01:36:02,490 --> 01:36:06,517
<i>that they're indebted to something</i>
<i>that's greater than themselves.</i>

1374
01:36:10,965 --> 01:36:14,901
When I hugged him, I whispered in his ear,
"Don't ever give up on your dream.

1375
01:36:15,002 --> 01:36:16,435
"Look at me."

1376
01:36:19,273 --> 01:36:23,505
<i>I had to go a roundabout way</i>
<i>of finding my dream again.</i>

1377
01:36:23,611 --> 01:36:25,704
<i>For a while I had lost mine,</i>

1378
01:36:26,046 --> 01:36:29,948
and through working with that group,
I got it back.

1379
01:36:35,356 --> 01:36:38,587
<i>You just don't know</i>
<i>what life has in store for you.</i>

1380
01:36:39,660 --> 01:36:41,958
<i>And of course everyone wants to know,</i>
<i>"What is next,</i>

1381
01:36:42,062 --> 01:36:44,257
<i>"or when are you going to decide?"</i>

1382
01:36:44,365 --> 01:36:46,890
<i>You know, it's so hard to think</i>
<i>about anything else right now</i>

1383
01:36:47,001 --> 01:36:50,061
<i>besides being with my teammates</i>
<i>while we're still here in Columbus.</i>

1384
01:36:50,171 --> 01:36:52,731
<i>And I'm just gonna try</i>
<i>to keep this in my head</i>

1385
01:36:52,840 --> 01:36:55,968
<i>as long as possible</i>
<i>and live out this last night.</i>

1386
01:38:16,257 --> 01:38:20,159
<i>LeBron James,</i>
<i>with no regard for human life,</i>

1387
01:38:21,662 --> 01:38:24,893
<i>has given the Cavaliers</i>
<i>their biggest lead tonight!</i>

1388
01:38:46,487 --> 01:38:49,752
Move your line out a little bit.
Move your line out.

1389
01:38:49,857 --> 01:38:52,724
It's gotta be full speed. Take the layup,

1390
01:38:52,826 --> 01:38:55,192
and rebound from the front. Go for it.

1391
01:38:56,430 --> 01:38:59,888
Rebound. And go to the next guy in line.
Hurry up, hurry up, let's go.

1392
01:39:08,075 --> 01:39:11,044
<i>Who's gonna be the first one to... All right!</i>