Shooting Stars

by Lebron James

  We still had a grand dream to catch. But during the week of the final four, it was hard to shut out our emotions. Although we had started at different times, we still felt like Shooting Stars, still felt the same exhilaration of playing basketball together when luck and fortune and the grace of God had brought a bunch of kids from the former Rubber Capital of the World together under Coach Dru. It was as if that ride in the minivan had continued for eight years.

  If we felt the bittersweet sweet, so did Coach Dru. His hand had guided us from the beginning; it was he who had driven that minivan all the way to this moment. As he had prepared us for the state semifinals against Canton South, he knew his primary task was to not let sentiment take hold. Even he couldn’t help but think that, win or lose in Columbus, this would be the last time he would coach his son, with whom his relationship had flowered senior year. It was a combination of two stubborn personalities finally moving toward the same common point. Little Dru had matured and become less defensive. He still blew up from time to time when he didn’t like the way practice was going, but it wasn’t aimed in the direction of his father anymore. Coach Dru no longer felt he had to justify his son’s presence on the court. He finally realized that Little Dru was a great player, with no need to single him out over and over. He was always going to be a little harder on his son than on the rest of the team—old habits never quite die—but he also allowed him to grow through his mistakes without tearing him up. Because of how he had treated Little Dru in the past, Little Dru inherited the same role for himself. He was merciless on himself, which meant Coach Dru no longer had to be merciless.

  When they were in the car together, the discussions now centered on loftier issues than getting beat off the dribble or not taking a charge. Coach Dru knew that his son, to achieve his goal of playing Division I basketball, had to rise to the next level of team leadership. It was an intangible quality, difficult to address directly, so he just posed a seemingly simple question: “There’s a whole bunch of little guys who shoot well, but can they lead a team? Can they be decision makers?”

  He let Little Dru ponder that in silence.

  Coach Dru realized that in a matter of days, once he relinquished his role as coach of his son, it would be harder to have these conversations. Little Dru might not play Division I, but he was going to play somewhere, and it would be up to another coach to take Little Dru in his hands and craft and shape him. Just as Coach Dru realized it would be the last time he would coach Sian and Willie and Romeo and me. It was easy to get lost in the ending of it all. So Coach Dru did what he knew best—he coached. He made sure we followed the same routines we always followed, that we didn’t treat the state championship differently than any other game.

  Our opponent was Archbishop Alter from Kettering. We had played them during the regular season, that game a 33-point blowout. Coach Dru, with the memory of Roger Bacon seared into his mind forever, did everything to prevent us from becoming overconfident. He meticulously prepared us for what they might try to change this time, what kind of game plan they might use to better match up against us. He knew, as we knew, there was a national championship at stake; it was a foregone conclusion that USA Today would keep us at number one if we won or drop us from the top spot if we lost. He knew, as we knew, it should have been all the incentive we needed.

  The night before, I looked for karma. Lying in bed, I wondered about my back. Would it suddenly cramp up like it had the year before? Would there be pain and stiffness? I woke up the day of the game feeling fresh and healthy. Did that mean we should beat Kettering Alter? Of course we should, given our history with them.

  We also should have beaten Roger Bacon.

  Coach Dru gathered the team in the locker room before the game. He told us to look around and talked about how this would be the last time many of us would ever play together. He talked about the different paths our lives would take because that was the inevitability of life. He talked about what a long ride it had been for some of us, and what a good ride it had been as well. He talked about how you never want things to end, but there’s a time and a place where all things must come to an end. Then he said:

  “The best way to end this thing is by winning.”

  He turned to the grease board to go over strategy one more time, but then he stopped.

  “Forget all of this stuff. Forget about it. This is all about what’s inside here. It’s all about heart.”

  Then he finished.

  “Fellas, you just have to go out there and leave everything out on the court.”

  II.

  Something isn’t right from the very beginning, and it’s not because we’re tight. Kettering Alter is a completely different team from the one we destroyed five weeks ago. Their coach, Joe Petrocelli, has put in a game plan that feels like an ambush. He has won the state championship three times with Kettering Alter, most recently two years ago. He has been a state semifinalist five times. With his rounded face and puffy chin and disappearing neck, he looks more like a weary traveling salesman than a basketball coach. His eyes seem almost sad, but in reality they are the eyes of a fox. He has won 691 games and lost only 215 during his thirty-nine-year career. He knows. He just knows.

  It’s a slowdown strategy that makes the game of basketball painful to watch. It is also making the game painful for us to play, taking away the up-tempo rhythm that is our badge and birthright. Can you believe this? We have a game on our hands before yet another record crowd for a state tournament game, 18,454.

  It starts out well enough. I score on a slam dunk off a feed from Little Dru. It’s a nice opening statement. St. V 2-0.

  Kettering Alter starts slowing things down as soon as they get the ball. They run a minute-plus off the clock until they are called for traveling. We get the ball back. Turnovers are traded, and Kettering Alter plays the same slowdown routine. With 3 minutes gone in the first period, there has still been only one basket. With 4 minutes left, there has still been only one basket. We could fall into deep frustration at the snaillike pace. But we are staying cool. We are staying calm. We are maintaining our composure. The game will come to us. It will eventually come to us. We know that, and we are patient.

  With 3:30 left in the quarter, six-five sharpshooting guard Doug Penno, on his way to Miami University of Ohio, hits for a 3-pointer. Kettering Alter 3-2. Romeo comes back with a nice left-hander. St. V 4-3. But Kettering Alter is still in slowdown mode. What’s the rush? With a little over 3 minutes left to play, they’ve had four possessions and made thirty-six passes.

  Penno hits a jumper from the left side with 2:53 left. Kettering Alter 5-4.

  I come back with a layup off a long feed from Little Dru. St. V 6-5.

  Kettering Alter’s Jack Hilgeman makes a foul shot. Tied 6-6 with 2:24 left.

  I go to the hoop with 1:40 left. St. V 8-6.

  I score again but get called for an offensive foul. Still 8-6, with 70 seconds left in the quarter.

  Kettering Alter continues their slowdown. Seventy seconds. Sixty seconds. Fifty seconds. Forty seconds. For God’s sake, just be a man. Just shoot the thing. They aren’t listening to me. They are listening to their coach with that little cherub face of his and his 691 career wins. Thirty seconds. Twenty seconds. Let’s play some basketball. Enough of this cowardice.

  With 17 seconds left, they lose control of the ball. We finally get it back, and Corey Jones goes for a 3 and misses. For the first time all period, Kettering Alter rushes urgently to get off a shot, as if they have something to do. Hilgeman shoots a jumper . . .

  And just narrowly misses as the buzzer sounds to end the first period, 8-6 St. V.

  Eight lousy points for a team known for its take-no-prisoners style of play. This can’t be happening. It must not be happening. But we are still gathered. There is no bitch-and-moan about the referees in the huddle during time-outs like there was against Roger Bacon. We know what we need to do. We know we need to redirect the flow of the game to our style.

  I OP
EN THE SECOND PERIOD with a steal and a dunk. St. V 10-6.

  Maybe this is the turnaround we are looking for. But Kettering Alter is still trying to kill us softly. Penno misses a short jumper, still shaving more than 2 minutes off the clock.

  Kettering Alter’s Andy Stichweh goes inside to the hoop. St. V 10-8.

  I answer back with a 3-point play on a drive inside through the paint. St. V 13-8.

  In a game as slow and low scoring as this one, a 5-point lead might as well be a 15-point one. We feel like there’s finally an opening now. We can sense turnaround, and it’s about time.

  Penno drives baseline for Kettering Alter. St. V 13-10.

  Eric Laumann makes a steal for Kettering Alter and hits a bank shot. St. V 13-12.

  I am fouled on a jumper and make a foul shot. St. V 14-12.

  Kettering Alter’s Adam Gill is fouled going backdoor and makes a foul shot. St. V 14-13.

  They get the ball back on a turnover. Hilgeman hits off the glass. Kettering Alter 15-14. Which means they are winning, with less than 3 minutes left in the first half. They are now winning.

  I miss a one-and-one. Gill comes back with a basket inside. Kettering Alter 17-14.

  With 26 seconds left, a bad pass from Little Dru is stolen. Penno gets the ball and drives off the dribble. He scores. Kettering Alter 19-14.

  THAT’S HOW THE FIRST HALF ENDS, with us down by 5. We have scored only 6 points the second period. We have made only two field goals. We have been outrebounded and outshot. We are trying to keep calm in the locker room, just shut out negative thoughts. But it isn’t easy. Willie has a vision of seeing those double zeros on the scoreboard to indicate that time has run out, with St. V on the losing end. He is afraid of getting again that empty feeling in his chest when we lost to Roger Bacon, the worst he had ever felt in his life. He is shocked, surprised, even scared that history will repeat itself. Sian, on the other hand, isn’t nervous at all. He knows they are stalling, but he thinks it is a transparent strategy that can’t sustain itself. In his mind there is no doubt St. V will win.

  Coach Dru is hardly surprised by the game plan. He figured that Petrocelli would in effect try to shorten the game by holding on to the ball for as long as possible, taking away our aggressiveness. What he didn’t think is that Kettering Alter would be as good at it as they have been. The refereeing has been bad, in his mind. He cautions us, “Don’t let the officials get to you. You can’t let them get to your head.” He huddles with his coaching staff and realizes that some changes have to be made. Penno, who had 9 points in the first half, needs to be neutralized. I have been guarding him, and I need to score. I can’t be chasing Penno all over the court, getting frustrated. Coach Dru makes a defensive switch, decides to put Little Dru on Penno with instructions to go wherever he goes so he doesn’t get an open shot, blanket him, act like a second jersey on him. “I don’t care if you score a point,” he says to his son. “I don’t want Penno scoring another point.” Romeo has been on the bench for most of the first half after he picked up his second foul. He’ll be back on the court now, which should help our press on defense and give us added force on offense.

  Then Coach Dru tells the team to stop counting on me to win the game for them. He felt that happened against Roger Bacon, and he feels it may be happening now. What he’s really trying to say is that our success has been as a team, not as individual pieces. “There are a whole lot of things going on here, and you have to do your job. Do your job and don’t look around in frustration because they’re holding the ball and thinking LeBron is going to bail you out. Because right now LeBron can’t bail us out because they’re holding the ball. We’re not getting a chance to shoot it. You have to play defense throughout the whole possession.”

  I sit and I listen to Coach Dru, and I know he makes sense. I see him in his gray jacket and white turtleneck looking so poised, light-years removed from the tentative man who had taken over with such uncertainty when Dambrot left. He speaks with authority. He speaks with truth. He speaks with sharpness. One player alone cannot win this game.

  But I feel a sense of obligation that goes beyond just our senior season. It goes back to when the first members of the Fab Five came out of nowhere to finish ninth in the national AAU tournament. It goes back to eighth grade, when I missed the shot against the SoCal All-Stars. It goes back to the first game against Oak Hill sophomore year, when I missed the shot again. And it goes back to the responsibility I feel toward my brothers to fulfill our dream. Silently, I make a promise in that locker room at the Value City Arena at Ohio State: I will not let us lose.

  Just as I know that promises, like dreams, are made to be broken.

  III.

  Romeo opens the third period by scoring from underneath. Kettering Alter 19-16.

  Laumann answers with a wide-open fifteen-footer. Kettering Alter 21-16.

  St. V gets the ball back on a steal by Corey Jones. Over to Romeo, who, just as Coach Dru predicted, has come alive. He goes inside. Kettering Alter 21-18.

  Kettering Alter takes it back up. There’s a steal by Little Dru, who is playing defense just like his father asked him, guarding Penno so tightly Penno can barely breathe. He dishes to me, and I am fouled with three defenders trailing. It’s a shooting foul, but I miss both. Kettering Alter 21-18.

  They get the ball back and throw it away. It’s their third turnover of the quarter, meaning our pressure defense is rattling them.

  I go to the hole inside and get the roll off the rim. Kettering Alter 21-20.

  There is a change of possession off a block by Romeo. I get the ball and go to the hoop through the paint. St. V 22-21.

  Then I block a shot. I race down the court and I can take the shot, and maybe I will. But out of the corner of my eye I see Corey Jones open for a 3. I pass it to him. He hits. St. V 25-21.

  We have gone on a 9-0 run. Kettering Alter has turned the ball over five out of their last nine possessions. They are broken now. Little Dru has submerged Penno into silence. Romeo has come alive. Sian is acting like a duty guard on defense. I am finding the open man.

  Then Laumann pulls up for a line-drive ten-footer. It goes with 55 seconds left in the quarter. St. V 25-23.

  Laumann hits again on a backpedaling five-footer after missing a layup. Tied 25-25.

  Little Dru holds the ball for a final shot. He goes to the hoop, then passes off to Romeo with 2 seconds left. It’s good. St. V 27-25.

  We have played our game in the third quarter. We have outscored Kettering Alter 13-6. We have pressured them into turnovers on defense. Penno hasn’t scored a point. But we’re still only up by 2. With 8 minutes left.

  THE FOURTH PERIOD BEGINS.

  I score on a lob from Little Dru that is perfectly timed, like we have been doing it for much of our lives, which we have. St. V 29-25.

  Penno just misses on a tip-in, so he’s still scoreless in the second half.

  I go up for a shot on the return possession and get fouled. I make both. St. V 31-25.

  I steal the ball after the free throws. I take two dribbles and pull up for a 3-pointer from the left side with 5:14 left. Good. St. V 34-25.

  St. V has scored 7 straight points. Kettering Alter has committed seven turnovers in the second half. St. V hasn’t committed a single one. The momentum has completely shifted our way.

  Laumann hits a 3-pointer for Kettering Alter, wide open. St. V 34-28.

  I take the inbounds pass from Little Dru. Off the glass. St. V 36-28.

  Then Sian scores on a tip-in of his own shot. St. V 38-28.

  There is 3:37 left, and we’re up by 10. It’s finished.

  Penno makes a great pass inside to Stichweh for an easy layup. St. V 38-30.

  Corey Jones answers up the weak side. St. V 40-30.

  Willie has only played 5 or 6 minutes because the early tempo of the game has been so slow. But he acts like a coach on the sidelines, dropping to his knees, warning a player on the floor that he needs to get back because a Kettering Alter player
is behind him, telling other players to box out and close out, trying to be an extra pair of eyes.

  There are 2 minutes left, and now we are slowing it down. But then I see Corey Jones for an uncontested 3 with 1:25 left. I pass it to him and yell “shot,” which is what we do when a man is open. It’s stupid on my part, ill-advised, because they are the ones chasing us. He misses. Coach Dru calls time-out, and I can tell that he wants to choke me.

  “What are you doing?” he asks me.

  “My bad,” is all I can say.

  Kettering Alter gets the ball back. Penno goes for a desperation 3 from way downtown with 1:15 left. He hits it. St. V 40-33.

  There is a flurry of back-and-forth possessions: 1:03 left. Forty-five seconds left. Thirty-seven seconds left. Little Dru misses a one-and-one with thirty seconds left. Still 40-33.

  Kettering Alter takes the ball upcourt. Bo Keyes goes for a 3-pointer. He misses. But Adam Gill gets the rebound and puts the ball in as he is fouled. St. V 40-35.

  He makes the free throw with 22.7 seconds left. St. V 40-36.

  A time-out is called, both teams huddling, both coaches deep in the last gasps of strategy. We maintain possession on the inbounds, but then I throw it away and Kettering Alter retrieves it.

  They are still alive.

  Zach Freshwater goes for a 3 from the left corner to put Kettering Alter within 1. The ball rises off his fingertips with 6.3 seconds left, and there’s a certain breathlessness in the air, the all-too familiar slow-motion feeling. It goes and it goes. It hits the rim . . .

  And then bounces out to a waiting Romeo.

  He is immediately fouled. He goes to the line . . .

  He misses.

  But I pull in the rebound and send it over to Little Dru. He starts his dribble, and he keeps on dribbling until the clock reveals our destiny.