Early witness

The Orlando summer league had always been in a gym with no fans. For the first game LeBron played, they played it in the old arena that has since been torn down. They got like 13,000 fans, and charged something like 5 bucks a ticket. So Boston knew what was coming.

It started in the Pitino Era. Rick wanted his players to play in the summer, but didn’t want to spend the money to travel and put them up some place. That was the impetus.

The Celtics’ director of basketball operations at the time, Stu Layne, had a conversation with the mayor [Thomas Menino] and the mayor suggested that he come and see us. He did, and we developed a really good relationship. It was a situation that worked for everybody involved.

It was really quite an operation. We got to work at 6 in the morning. Nobody left here before 11 or 12 at night for the seven days it was here.

The ambiance of the Boston summer league kind of reminded me of an extension of what we all grew up with. The hot-box gyms, fans up close. It was just basketball at its most purest, organic state.

It was like a big high school environment. All the scouts and management right there on top of you. You go for a loose ball, you’re liable to end up in their laps.

That summer league was tight. It was classic.

I remember the crowd being totally packed in there. That, and a hockey rink next door that didn’t have any ice in it.

Man, that was a long time ago. What do I remember? I remember the gym, the atmosphere. It was old-school and hot, and the fans, mostly Celtics fans, were right on top of you. It was a great environment, energetic, what you envision summer basketball being.

Didn’t he show up in a limo? I heard he showed up in a limo. That was the rumor.

He was always on the bus with the team as far as I knew. I remember after one game the bus was pulling off and everybody was ready to go except for LeBron. He stood outside the bus and signed every autograph until every kid had one.

At that time, the Internet wasn’t like how it is today, where there’s so much accessibility to those guys. Then, he was sort of like an urban legend. He had been on ESPN a couple of times. The Sports Illustrated cover. But nationally we hadn’t gotten a feel for how good this kid really was until they actually got a chance to see him.

I had seen LeBron play when he was in high school, so I knew he was sure to be special before I saw him in summer league. There was no doubt in my mind that he was going to be one of the best players that ever played when I saw him as a 17-year-old. So to see him in the summer was really just a reminder of that.

His basketball IQ was incredible, his passing was one of the best characteristics of the game, and his athleticism was already better than 99 percent of NBA players at the point. He had all the tools to be that guy. But I would be lying to saying with certainty that he would be the best ever to play. I’m sure people were saying that, but I wasn’t one of those guys.

I’m from Ohio, so I was aware of him pretty early. I saw him when he was a sophomore. His athleticism just then was amazing but his basketball IQ was even better. Then I saw him again after that year and he was at a different level, after his sophomore year. He never plateaued. Still hasn’t.

I was kind of tired of hearing about all the high school kids getting hype. First time I saw him in person, I said, ‘OK, the hype is real with this kid.’

There have only been a few players where you can tell when they’re still a teenager that [they’ll be a superstar].

When I saw LeBron, he was one. When I saw Kobe [Bryant] at a draft workout while I was coaching the Suns and he was age 18, I knew. And when I saw Amar’e Stoudemire in a draft workout at 18 or 19, I knew then.

Not necessarily the best of all-time, but you can tell there’s something special there. You can tell they were going to be multiple-time All-Stars.

But you can’t always tell. I remember seeing Dwyane Wade in summer league [in Orlando] and thinking he’s not all that great. All of a sudden, he was unbelievable.

Oh yeah, I went over. I wanted to see what all the hype was about and wanted to check our draft picks to see what we had coming.

When I played in my first All-Star Game in Philly [during the 2001-02 season] there was a lot of people saying, ‘This kid LeBron is so good, he could be in this All-Star Game right now.’ I was like, ‘What?’

Man, Antoine [Walker] was always talking about him, telling me could be better than all of us right then.

Perk was always real quiet, but he had that mean mug on his face. Nice guy. But he was different from some of those high school kids in that he was a banger. He’s still banging, just from the bench with his lips instead of on the court with his body. [Laughs]

Perk is the real Big Baby. [Laughs] You can quote me saying that.

I was calling Perk “Big Baby,’’ then because this is the thing: Perk was 18 years old and he wasn’t used to that NBA life. He didn’t go to college. All he knew was going out on the court and playing. And that was a big thing.

Perk used to cry every single game. Every single one. People would say, ‘Hey, man, what’s wrong?’ and he was crying because he wasn’t playing.

Perk was such a sincere kid. I don’t remember him crying on the bench, but he did love to play.

I don’t remember Lenny standing out. But I don’t remember how far behind he was. The guys who played with him would probably remember better.

Lenny didn’t have the basketball IQ, the strength or the body control that was necessary, let alone what LeBron had. But in practice the talent came out.

I saw Lenny practice every day. He had great talent, but he just couldn’t get the plays. He was streetball. He was a great creator with the ball. He was either going to put it in the basket or get someone else the opportunity.

We played the Cavs in the opener. Lenny didn’t get a minute that game against LeBron, even when the crowd started chanting his name. I didn’t know what was up, what was the extent of going on with him at the time, but I watched the documentary and now I feel kind of bad. I would have liked to have seen him get a minute.

DaJuan scored over 100 points in a high school basketball game. [Deadpan pause.] That’s hard to do. Darius could jump out of the gym. [Carlos] Boozer was just at the beginning of the star he would become. Kapono was an exceptional shooter. It was a fun team to be around. Practices were up-tempo. Alley-oops were flying all over the place.

My agent called me [before the draft] and said the Cavaliers are interested in bringing you in. I said, ‘Really. For what?’ He said, ‘For multiple reasons. But there is a guy who is probably going to be the first pick in the draft and Cleveland is going to have an opportunity to take him and he’s really good.’

At this time I was out of the country and I hadn’t been following high school hoops. I wasn’t up on who LeBron James really was or what he was all about. So I started doing some research and I was like, ‘There is no way this kid is 18 years old. That’s the body of a grown man.’

A lot of times I found myself being paired with LeBron. Tried to mentor him any way I could. Me being a former national player of the year, I kind of understood some of the stresses that he was going through. But he didn’t need a lot of guidance. He was mature beyond his years.

Thing about LeBron was, every time he’d go to a bigger stage, he’d exceed expectations. That’s why he became so big. Every time he got to a moment where it would be like, ‘He can never handle this,’ not only did he handle it, he blew it out of the water.

He was the MVP of the state tournament as a 15-year-old freshman. Then to ABCD camp as a 16-year-old when most of the people there were 17-year-olds, including Lenny Cooke. The perception was, Lenny Cooke is the best player, and not only will he beat LeBron, he will destroy him. LeBron destroyed Lenny Cooke. And then to the ESPN national TV game, where it was like, ‘OK, now we’ll see this kid fail.’ He put up a bunch of highlights.

J.R. had a great game. But what I remember is that LeBron really got him once. J.R. was guarding him on the right wing, our bench was right in front of him. LeBron caught the ball, spun off of J.R, went baseline and left him behind, and I thought, ‘Yeah, this is no kid. This is a grown man out there.’

It must have been a switch or something. [Laughs] I really think it was a switch. Somehow I ended up guarding him. It ended up being a dunk. He caught me leaning, spun on me baseline, and dunked one-handed. You could say I got postered there. I was his first pro poster victim.

I’m guessing he was probably the first summer league guy ever to do that.

We didn’t have the social media then, but all of those [high school] guys were glorified to the nth degree. And not all of them were going to make it. It’s like when a $100 million movie comes out and it could be a hit or it could be a flop.

You never really know until you see it. When I was at UConn, Felipe Lopez was one of those guys, coming into the Big East at St. John’s. Everyone talked about him. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And then you go at him, and you have the mindset of, you haven’t done anything at this level.

I sympathized more with the knowledge that if it didn’t work out there were people waiting to tear LeBron down. But you could tell it was going to work out immediately, that he was going to redefine things with his size and ability to handle the ball. [Laughs] There were not going to be many more 6-foot-6 forwards like me unless we learned how to play the point. That was clear.

Man, I loved to play in that league. Some guys, I think they looked at it like a punishment or some kind of bad thing. I never looked at it that way. Are you kidding me? I could never replicate that back home [in pickup games]. I was really into summer league.

I played great, too. I was like, ‘I’ll never be able to do this in the NBA.’ I’ll never be a 30-minute a game guy in the NBA. It was my chance to still do what I did in college. It was the greatest thing.

I was already 29 years old [actually, he turned 31 while the league was underway] so I just remember feeling like the elder statesman. So I was that guy in the summer league with all the veteran tricks. I remember rather than trying to dunk on a guy, I’d take the contact, get the foul and 1. Or I’d try to take the charge rather than block the shot. The young guys would want to go a million miles an hour, and I’d just remember what [NBA journeyman] Sedale Threatt would say when we’d play in my hometown of Seattle in the summer: Be a straight-line guy. Don’t play around. When you try to look cute, bad things happen. [Laughs I already had the rec league mindset.

I remember playing against him, and I don’t want to say in awe, but you’re thinking in the moment, ‘He’s 18 years old and he’s this good already, what’s he going to be like when he’s really good?’

I’ve got a story. I got a steal and I went and scored my layup. LeBron was behind me but my guy was chasing me down. Their team called time out after I made the shot.

Stephen Silas, who coached us, he ran over to me and was like, ‘Man, throw the ball off the backboard.’ I’m like, what are you talking about, throwing it off the backboard?’ I’m coming from a winning program. I want to win. I’m not worried about highlights and all this stuff.

So we’re walking back to the sideline, and LeBron heard the whole thing, and he’s like, ‘Man, [expletive] that. Score the ball.’ Which let me know he was all about winning. He had my back on that one.

T.J. put on a show in Boston. He was small, but he was fast as a lightning bolt, and he put on a show before the game, throwing down all these crazy dunks. He won ‘em over pretty early. He was definitely the fan favorite during that summer league. They were chanting “T.J.’s better!” at LeBron.

Everyone has their own agenda in terms of getting recognized in a league like this. It’s hard to get a real team to go out there and play together. I thought we were able to play with some unity. We had cohesion with that group. You always want to be with a winner. People will notice winning for all the right reasons.

I don’t know anything about LeBron James being in that summer league. I really don’t. I don’t remember! I can’t believe I missed it! I’m pissed!

The convention people booked all of the hotels before the summer league people got a chance to book. So it was very difficult to get hotels and get a date that worked. One of the agents saw an opening and decided to do something in Las Vegas. It caught on and I guess the players and coaches really liked going out there. That’s how we lost it.

The league has taken a little more control of the summer leagues since then.

I thought it was a really special time for basketball in the city of Boston.

It was great. It really was. It had great support of the fans, great location, and I miss it.

I was always someone uncelebrated as a player, I guess you could say. So that’s the kind of place I grew up, refining my game. I loved the feel there.

I do have an appreciation for what the game has evolved to, the Las Vegas Summer League. Fans and tourists from around the world can appreciate the great NBA game.

That [Boston] atmosphere had its season. During its time, it was great. But the NBA is such a global phenomenon now, I don’t think you could ever revert back to that.

I've been knowing Bron since we was like 12, so I always knew what type of guy he [was]. Most important thing I've learned since I've been around him in his later years is I'm just more [impressed] by his professionalism and his sacrifice, his dedication that he puts to the game every day that a lot of people don't see. The outside world don't see, but he's constantly punching in the clock to be great.

What surprised me? Well, his game was already jaw-dropping, but his dedication and knowledge of the game even then was just as impressive. His basketball mind was fully developed.

Anything that we threw at him as a coaching staff, he did, or did it better. His ability to take something that you say and apply it --- I mean, this will be my 18th season in the league [he’s Rick Carlisle’s lead assistant with the Mavericks], and he’s probably the best I’ve ever been around at taking what you say in the huddle and applying it.

Some guys need to see it on film, some guys need to go through it on the floor, some guys need to walk through it or practice it. LeBron was the kind of guy, you could just tell him and he’d have it. Even then.

I had three or four really good conversations with LeBron, about basketball, about life, about the importance of being a role model to younger kids. I was so impressed with his level of maturity. I kept saying to myself, ‘This is a high school kid. This is a high school kid.’ He was so mature, so focused.

Two guys that I remember who were going to be very, very good were John Salmons, who was so versatile. And the kid everyone was calling Ashton Kutcher, Kyle Korver. But neither had any savvy yet.

Wait, I was the high scorer when we played the Cavs? [He was, with 13 points.] Could you send me the box score of that? I’m going to need proof when I tell my son. [Laughs]

It’s crazy that you asked what I remember, because recently I was looking at the stat sheet somewhere in some old little folder, a little scrapbook. Seeing how he played, seeing that I had 14 points or something like that [he had 10], it was fun to look back. Because does it matter who won or lost? Being in on that experience and not even realizing that it was the beginning of history in the making.

We didn’t win as much as I wanted to. I remember that.

At the end, he was exhausted. I remember we took the same flight back — back then he flew commercial — from Boston.

I sat in the row either behind him or across from him. And I remember talking to him on the plane. And he was just saying how tired he was. Playing double leagues, going to LA, flying back, he was like, ‘I’ve got to take a few days off.’

I remember he got off at the farthest gate in the terminal. He had just one guy with him. And he walked through the airport. He just wanted to get out of there. Some people did recognize him.