Lenny Cooke Documentary

[Suminod]

Great documentary on Lenny Cooke if you have Showtime. Didn't realize he was ranked above Melo, Amare and Lebron (even though James was a yr behind) going into his final year of hs.

Great footage of Melo and Lebron going at it vs Cooke in the various HS basketball camps back in 2001. I could only imagine what was going through his head when they had footage of him celebrating his 30th bday in a small VA town watching Lebron vs Amare in the NBA playoffs.

Didnt really get into why he didn't make it along with his peers....I think it was due to him having contact with an agent deeming him ineligible to go to SJU perhaps?

 

[aceboon]

watched it earlier today, great doc. b/w his academics and the agent who set him up in Michigan after he left that family in NJ yea he really had no chance of ever going to school. I know at the end he said if he could do it all over again he would've went to SJU but he was a walking red flag. There was also a JC sighting in the stands watching the battle b/w Cooke and Bron.

 

[boog204]

Saw a sad interview w/ him recently where he talked about going to a Knicks-Heat game and he went up to Melo and Amare to say hi. B/c Cooke had gained so much weight and been out of the public eye for so long, neither Amare or Melo knew who he was and were shocked when Lenny reintroduced himself. When they were all seniors, Cooke was the top dog. When Lebron took Cooke to school at that summer camp, Lebron's legend was secured. Cooke's story might be the saddest of all the high school to the pro's guys yet for years you never heard anything about him.

 

[ZackB05]

I agree. Feel terrible for the guy. Documentary was tremendous. How sick was it when the agent was telling him 10-12 teams were interested in him and that he just got off the phone with one on the way over. Scum.

 

[Clockshop]

I remember Corsley Edwards getting drafted out of Central, it was big in the state at the time along with Caron going 10th. Juan Dixon dropped a lot if I recall correctly, Dajuan Wagner was a story. Don't remember Lenny Cooke at all. Great doc.

 

[Fishy]

I actually wasn't all that impressed with the documentary.

Anywho, anyone who went to ABCD back in the day...Cooke owned it for a couple of years.

He was the guy right up until LeBron dismantled him at FDU. But, even after that, he was a hell of a player - he played with a certain violence that would have been a heck of a fit in college. He could have been a pro if he'd just gone off to a JUCO and then to school. He needed a couple of years in college to grow up because he was plain crazy. (And, I suspect, somewhat 'challenged' intellectually.)

The biggest contrast is Joahkim Noah and Lenny Cooke. (Noah produced the doc.)

Noah was a hanger-on at ABCD for years - he was the little kid in the press room, sidelines, lockerroom, lobbies. He was everywhere, but the court. He was a shrimp and a (pleasant) pest.

Every year, there was Noah all over the gym - an inch taller, but not invited to play. Lenny Cooke, on the other hand, is tearing the place apart.

Cooke's career goes to hell in a hand basket. Noah grows about eight inches, is finally invited as a senior and he's off and running towards NCAA titles and the NBA.

You could have gotten million-to-one odds from anyone at ABCD that the skinny little Noah kid would be the NBA star and not Lenny Cooke.

 

[stick]

Wow, didn't know that about Noah. Did UConn recruit Noah at all?

 

[boog204]

Wow, didn't know that about Noah. Did UConn recruit Noah at all?

I believe we recruited him hard his senior year...

 

[bmo22]

Unfortunately there are way too many stories out there like this one (maybe not as publicized). I remember reading a story not too long ago on Korleone Young. I watched Cooke play in person back when the Celtics hosted one of the NBA summer leagues in Boston. I think it was the summer Lebron was drafted, so Cooke would have been a year removed from high school. He was entirely underwhelming. He didn't play hard and wasn't even close to NBA ready physically. I remember watching an interview around the same time wherein Cooke swore he was better than Lebron. I guess the people in his ear really got to him. Never heard another word about him after that summer league until I heard they were making this documentary.

 

[boog204]

I feel like Cooke never gets mentioned. Korleone Young, Taj McDavid (who wasn't even a big time recruit), and others are almost always the first names listed in the dangers of going pro debate. But Cooke is always overlooked which is interesting considering how highly regarded he once was.

 

[aceboon]

I feel like Cooke never gets mentioned. Korleone Young, Taj McDavid (who wasn't even a big time recruit), and others are almost always the first names listed in the dangers of going pro debate. But Cooke is always overlooked which is interesting considering how highly regarded he once was.

Nobody mentions McDavid before Cooke, Cooke had the NYC hype machine behind him, when you're considered the next big thing outta NYC, it's impossible to go overlooked.

 

[boog204]

Two days ago I heard Jody Mac on WFAN (in NYC) discussing the issue w/ one and dones etc. and the two names brought by himself and about 7 callers were McDavid and Korleone Young. Didn't hear Lenny Cooke mentioned once. There was a Robert Swift, Leon Smith, Jackie Butler mentions; but no Cooke.

 

[aceboon]

*shrugs*, don't know what to say. This documentary has been talked about for years, he's had NY Times articles written on his rise and downfall, when Lance Stephenson was coming up the hope was that he wouldn't be another Lenny Cooke, and there were the same concerns because of his attitude and that he had cameras following him around. I honestly haven't even heard McDavid's name mentioned in over a decade until you just brought him up. I guess I'll chalk it up to different circles/generations.

 

[James]

After reading that nyt article a while ago , this doc seems extremely redundant.

 

[Fishy]

A lot of the kids who tried to jump straight to the NBA from high school did so to avoid having to go to junior college. Some did it for reasons that no one can imagine - Taj McDavid wasn't good enough to get a scholarship in DI.

Guys like Korleone Young were very good high school player - with Young, however, you could kind of see that he was benefitting from being so much more physically advanced then the rest...he looked like a 28-year old on the court.

College likely would have exposed him eventually - I can't remember the kid's name, but he reminds me of the huge guard that UConn had recruited who eventually landed at Michigan State. He was a one and done type prospect, but as other players caught up physically, he was less and less effective.

Then there were others who were very talented, but who had issues that just prevented them from making any sort of rational decision about their lives - that's Lenny Cooke and Leon Smith. Smith had serious psychological issues and Cooke was only slightly better off.

But it wasn't hype - Cooke was really, really good.

 

[Chin Diesel]

A lot of the kids who tried to jump straight to the NBA from high school did so to avoid having to go to junior college. Some did it for reasons that no one can imagine - Taj McDavid wasn't good enough to get a scholarship in DI.

Guys like Korleone Young were very good high school player - with Young, however, you could kind of see that he was benefitting from being so much more physically advanced then the rest...he looked like a 28-year old on the court.

College likely would have exposed him eventually - I can't remember the kid's name, but he reminds me of the huge guard that UConn had recruited who eventually landed at Michigan State. He was a one and done type prospect, but as other players caught up physically, he was less and less effective.

Then there were others who were very talented, but who had issues that just prevented them from making any sort of rational decision about their lives - that's Lenny Cooke and Leon Smith. Smith had serious psychological issues and Cooke was only slightly better off.

But it wasn't hype - Cooke was really, really good.

Kelvin Torbert.

And I agree with you. Every time I see high schoolers whose scouting report talks about physically dominating my brain goes back to Torbert.

http://www.msuspartans.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/kelvin_torbert_33506.html

 

[Fishy]

That's him.

I loved that kid in high school. He was a productive college player and had a nice overseas career that, I think, recently ended - just a nice kid back in the day, too.

Other player I loved was Jonathan Hargett - he was another player who could have been great had he come from a better situation. He was insane on the court - off the wall. But freakishly talented.

He was already knee-deep in drugs in high school and he was paid to attend West Virginia - he washed out of there and got nabbed trying to sell drugs. I think he was in prison for most of the last decade.

 

[boog204]

*shrugs*, don't know what to say. This documentary has been talked about for years, he's had NY Times articles written on his rise and downfall, when Lance Stephenson was coming up the hope was that he wouldn't be another Lenny Cooke, and there were the same concerns because of his attitude and that he had cameras following him around. I honestly haven't even heard McDavid's name mentioned in over a decade until you just brought him up. I guess I'll chalk it up to different circles/generations.

I just feel like Cooke's name hasn't been mentioned nearly as often as a cautionary tale of the one and done/straight to pro guy. You always hear Korleone Young mentioned. I would have thought, and maybe I just missed it, that Cooke would have been the poster child considering he was at one point the top guy in that class that included some huge names and his connection to Lebron.

 

[boog204]

That's him.

I loved that kid in high school. He was a productive college player and had a nice overseas career that, I think, recently ended - just a nice kid back in the day, too.

Other player I loved was Jonathan Hargett - he was another player who could have been great had he come from a better situation. He was insane on the court - off the wall. But freakishly talented.

He was already knee-deep in drugs in high school and he was paid to attend West Virginia - he washed out of there and got nabbed trying to sell drugs. I think he was in prison for most of the last decade.

Really wanted Torbert and when I saw him in the McD game I wanted him even more. Then he got to college and while he was good, he was never great. I do remember him looking like a linebacker playing 2 guard. Paul Harris was a similar type. Huge rep but just didn't have the all around game that went along with his physicality.

 

[Fishy]

Harris was a different kind of case - he just went to the wrong school. He needed a place where the head coach was going to be up in his case, where the team played to his strengths, etc. Instead, he went to Syracuse where it takes three years for JB to learn a player's last name and where everyone but his designated shooters is supposed to sit in a zone and pass the ball off.

Torbert was done in by his DNA - he just kept getting bigger.

As a high schooler, his muscles had muscles. In college, he kept getting bigger which in turn made him slower and kinda put the brakes on his potential. He looks like Ray Lewis now.

 

[caw]

Always thought Cooke would have a career like Lance Stephenson is having. Then scared of the inverse.

 

[selles]

This is a great thread. I've always wondered about Felipe Lopez. Had a good college career but nowhere near what was expected. Anyone see him in high school? Just overhyped?

 

[boog204]

This is a great thread. I've always wondered about Felipe Lopez. Had a good college career but nowhere near what was expected. Anyone see him in high school? Just overhyped?

I remember seeing him in the McD game and thinking he could be the next Jordan. His frosh year was really good too. He had a cup of coffee in the NBA and then played all over the place.

 

[noeynox]

Felipe Lopez, the next Michael Jordan they said. In the Big East he wasn't even as good as Ray Allen, Kerry Kittles, Allen Iverson etc. Decent player but over hyped.

 

[Fishy]

I always thought Lopez got a bad rap - he was overhyped coming into college, but we're not talking about a flop. He was a very good scorer, but not a particularly good shooter. Still - if his college career is one or two games longer, he's a 2,000 point scorer.

He graduated from St. John's, played five years in the NBA and still works for the league's charity arm. He fared well post-phenom status.