LeBron James has paid his dues to get where he is right now. Even though he has endured a tremendous amount of pressure from the very beginning of his career, at one point in time LeBron was a scared teenager. On the recent episode of the Mind the Game Pod with JJ Redick, LBJ talked about the things he has learned from his high school coach. He also revealed why he was terrified of him as well.
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LeBron told Redick that he went to coach Keith Dambrot in his ninth-grade year and at the time, he had a lot of worries regarding how his basketball journey was going to play out. Soon it was established that it was not going to be easy as coach Dam was a taskmaster and always believed in putting more effort into practice sessions than actual games. LeBron recalled, “I heard stories of like 5 AM wakeups to go run a mile…You hear the stories of one mistake and everyone’s going to run until the coach gets tired [which would be a long time since the Coach wasn’t running alongside the players].”
The four-time NBA Champion added that his coach was a perfectionist, and he demanded the same commitment from his players as well. LeBron told JJ, “The one thing that I learned from Coach D is that ‘We are going to practice perfection every single day. Every single day.’ He always used to tell us, ‘The practices are going to be way freaking harder than the games.'”
LeBron further stated that being around coach Dambrot could make anyone a tough player as he didn’t hesitate in calling names to a bunch of ninth graders even in front of their parents. The veteran coach’s rigorous training regimen prepared LeBron for the hardships in the NBA.
LeBron James was kicked out of practice by his coach
Even though LeBron was the best player in the country at the time, coach Dambrot couldn’t care less about his achievements. LeBron revealed, “My freshman year, we went to state championship. We go 27-0. I was MVP of the tournament. … My sophomore year, the first practice, I came in as the projected No. 1 player in the state of Ohio…I absolutely did nothing…he kicked me out of practice”
While he was on the brink of making history for Ohio as a projected All-American as a sophomore and Mr. Basketball, LeBron ended up becoming an example for the whole team.
LeBron said that he was kicked out of the team practice by his coach to set the tone for the season. And as LeBron was leaving, his coach had said, “Best sophomore in the country, my a**.”
