Sports

LeBron James and the ’50 million USD’ high school game


Basketball experts call Victor Wembanyama “the best prospect since .” LeBron James“even before dominating show in two games against G League Ignite last week.

But now that the hype train for Wembanyama has fully rolled, it’s important to remember that LeBron Mania wasn’t able to compete until about a year and a half before he took the No. 1 spot in the 2003 Draft. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst explained on an episode of “The Hoop Collective,” there was a game, in December 2002, where LeBron James really exploded on the scene.

“We don’t have the perception of young stars as we do now. Wembanyama has been in our sights for 18 months and is now in the sights of more people,” Windhorst explains. “I argued that he made $50 million that night.

The game pitted LeBron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary’s team played against the #1 high school team in the country, Oak Hill Academy. ESPN aired it, a rarity in 2002, because it was theirs “first regular season prep game since 1989.” It was a big event, with Bill Walton and Dick Vitale flying in to announce the game. LeBron has endured narrow losses to Oak Hill in the previous two seasons, failed 79-78 against them in my second year. In 2001, Oak Hill beat St. Vincent-St. Mary stood behind Carmelo Anthony, the top high school senior in the country, during a game held in Trenton, New Jersey.

James picked up 36 points, eight rebounds, five assists and six steals in the game, while Carmelo scored 34 points in a 72-66 win. And while there was plenty of media coverage of the game, plus NBA celebrities like Danny Ainge in attendance, the game wasn’t on TV. So while the basketball world knows about James, and he appeared on his first Sports Illustrated cover in February 2002, the general public still hasn’t. watched James dominates yet. YouTube is still three years away and the only way to watch James paid per view.

That changed in a rematch against Oak Hill in the fall of 2002. It was national television and ESPN didn’t shy away from the hype. The opening of the TV show features a montage of NBA stars who are uniquely named: Kareem. Magic. Larry. Michael. Shaq. Kobe. Does LeBron join them in the star population?

The answer is yes. James scored 31 points in a 65-45 game, and his team went through with a 26-1 scoreline in his senior year. And the only “loss” was due to the sanctions against LeBron accept shirt copy by Gayle Sayers and Wes Unseld, leading to a game being cancelled. In 4 years, he lost only 5 matches on the field. James took 1st in the fall draft that year – Carmelo placed 3rd – and signed a $90 million contract with Nike before playing a professional game.

It’s not simply a big money game for LeBron. Windhorst reported that, “The day after Nike announced it had acquired LeBron, and Reebok, who was supposed to acquire him, didn’t, Reebok’s stock fell. They had to issue a statement. with their shareholders to try to keep the stock from going down.” He concluded, “That was the bet at the time, and the gas was poured on it by LeBron’s performance in that game.”

How much money did Wembanyama make for himself against G League Ignite? He played as well as LeBron did in his big game, against better competitors. Sonny Vaccaro estimates The Wembanyama deal will be north of $100 million, and if there is a bidding war, it could turn out that last week was even a $50 million+ game for the French giants.

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