Celtics give longshot short look

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Celtics give longshot short look

by Steve Bulpett
Friday, July 11, 2003







Two years ago at this time, Lenny Cooke was the goods in amateur basketball.
LeBron James just wanted what Lenny had when the two played against each other
at the ABCD camp in New Jersey.




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Cooke was the reigning MVP of the camp, headed toward his senior year in high
school and stardom. James was 16 years old with largely untapped promise.
Reports of what happened when the two played are mixed, but James got the
better of it - and continued to do so.

Today, Cooke is in the Celtics' minicamp for summer league - an event at which
LeBron James will be the attraction. Since that day in Jersey, Cooke bounced
to more high schools and didn't even play his senior season. He declared for
the NBA draft but didn't get picked. He was later cut by the Sonics and was
similarly dropped by the NBDL, a circuit seemingly designed to deal with
players of his circumstance.

After months of workout and reflection, he was the USBL's Rookie of the Year.
There was still some of his New York swagger after the first of two practice
sessions yesterday, but clearly Cooke has been humbled by the last two years.

``Nobody ever questioned my ability to play ball,'' said the 6-foot-6 wingman,
now 21. ``It was just that they'd seen me hang around with the wrong people
and they were like, `Oh, this is the kind of person Lenny Cooke is.' But to me
a lot of people didn't know me. I mean, yes, I had bad people behind me, but
that's in the past. I stick to myself as of right now. I have no bad people
around me, and I don't follow no crowd. I don't do anything no more. I just
stick to myself and work on my game and be with my son (Anahijae, now 3, is
tattooed on Lenny's right shoulder).''

Cooke would now like to be with the Celtics ``for the simple fact they're
giving me the opportunity to come and showcase my talent with them,'' but he
knows he has a difficult task to stick here. The better opportunity will be in
the Reebok Summer League starting Monday at UMass-Boston.

``I tell you, our roster is pretty tight,'' said C's coach Jim O'Brien.
``Certainly we'd like to see anybody come and impress us so much that he could
get a roster spot, but we have a tight roster and I think it's going to be
very difficult when you have two rookies that are guaranteed and you're only
going to have 12 or 13 people. To get another player that's virtually a high
school player, that is such a longshot.''

Looking at Cooke's game, O'Brien said, ``He's got all the offensive talent in
the world. I'm not sure about where he is defensively, and I saw some
development in him today from a standpoint of picking up our concepts. The
first two days were slow.''

Things will certainly pick up when the Celtic entry meets the Cavaliers and
James Monday night. The contrasts will be stark - much more so than back at
the ABCD camp.

``I had a lot of hype like LeBron did, but on the other hand I had the wrong
people behind me at the same time,'' said Cooke, who was surrounded by
hangers-on telling him in 2002 he was a sure NBA first-round pick. ``He's got
a great shot. He had the hype. But he had the right people behind him from the
start. I didn't have that when I said I was going to enter the draft last
year.

``I was hoping that (his story would read like James' does now). I had the
hype. I was the No. 1 senior in high school when I came out. It just so
happened things went the wrong way for me. But I didn't let that get me down
and I didn't say I'm going to give up.''

Cooke says he won't give up if he doesn't get a job out of Summer League.
After playing mostly inside in the USBL, he has some things to show and is
prepared for the climb back to prominence. This time he knows his head won't
get in the way.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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