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Keith Dambrot coached LeBron James during his first two years at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary. Here's is Dambrot and behind trophy at right is LeBron James.

(PD photo)

THEY KNEW HIM WHEN ... Akron native LeBron James is in his 13th NBA season -- ninth with the Cavaliers. I talked to some basketball people who knew James at different stages of his career. The stories will appear over the next few weeks. It begins with Keith Dambrot.

AKRON, Ohio -- I met Keith Dambrot in his office at the University of Akron, where he has been the head basketball coach for the last 12 years.

He'll quickly tell anyone that having coached LeBron James for two seasons at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary (1999-2001) led to Dambrot being hired as an assistant at Akron. He later became the head coach.

In 12 seasons at Akron, Dambrot has a 278-130 (.631) record. He has won four regular season titles, been to three NCAA tournaments and made four trips to the NIT.

"I first met LeBron when he was 13," said Dambrot. "He was about 5-foot-11. I was coaching him in skill development (at the Akron Jewish Community Center). You could tell he would be very good. Already, he was a sponge, he wanted to learn the game. Right away, you could tell he was just so smart."

Dambrot was friends with Dru Joyce II, a youth coach and mentor to James. Joyce II would bring members of his youth team to the Jewish Center to be taught by Dambrot. That group was Sian Cotton, Willie McGee, Dru Joyce III and James.

It was Dru Joyce III who decided he wanted to play for Dambrot at St. Vincent-St. Mary. The other players followed, and Joyce II became an assistant coach to Dambrot.

"I really don't think there is a huge difference between LeBron now and when I first coached him," said Dambrot. "He's matured and grown up, but he's not changed a great deal. He always had that inner greatness. He was a great teammate with tremendous instincts for the game and was great at sharing the ball.

"What you see now is just an older version of the player I coached."

DRIVE TO BE GREAT

How about James as a Future Hall of Famer?

"People have asked me if I thought LeBron would be this good," said Dambrot. "You can never tell. By his sophomore year, I knew he was going to skip college and turn pro. He already was that good. But you never know what money and fame will do to people."

James has won four MVP awards. He is hoping to take the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals this season. If that happens, it will be the seventh time in his 13-year career that James has played in The Finals.

"What impresses me the most is LeBron's drive to be great," said Dambrot. "He understands that all the money in the world means nothing unless you win at the highest level. Every pro is rich. Remember that, they're all rich. But only those who win at the highest level are fulfilled.

"Physically, LeBron is in the top percentile. But he's playing against a lot of guys who are great physically. What separates him is LeBron being in the top percentile mentally. He has the ability to rally people, to help people who had problems on other teams play well with him. That's special."

COACHING LEBRON

Dru Joyce II was James' first coach dating back to when LeBron was 10.

Dambrot was his first high school coach, and it was the unique pairing of a once-in-a-generation teenage talent with an experienced college coach.

Dambrot had been the head coach at Tiffin University, Ashland University and Central Michigan. Dambrot was demanding, and he coached his players as if they were a college team.

He said it wasn't only James who knew the game, so did Joyce III, McGee and Cotton. After their freshman year at SVSM, Romeo Travis joined the team.

"I got these guys young and I was a college coach," said Dambrot. "So they didn't know as much (about basketball) when I had them compared to later."

So James wasn't changing plays in the huddle.

Dambrot laughed. Anyone who saw the demanding Dambrot coaching those players knew that was not about to happen.

"LeBron always had the ability to think on his own," said Dambrot. "I respected his opinion. He didn't say anything openly, but we talked about things behind closed doors.

"He and the others are actually out there, playing the game. Little Dru (Joyce III), LeBron and those guys had good ideas sometimes. They had a good basketball grounding."

Dambrot was thinking about how James had such great instincts for the game. The basics did come from playing for Dru Joyce II, and that was important.

"But I just think he's a (basketball) genius, a basketball savant," said Dambrot. "He's like Mozart was in music. One day we were talking about how he knew so much about the game. He said he watched a lot of basketball."

GOING TO MIAMI

Dambrot said James leaving the Cavs in 2010 to play for the Miami Heat was a very important step in his career.

"He was comfortable with the Cavaliers," said Dambrot. "When he went to Miami and failed to win the title (in 2011), it was like he got hit in the mouth. He also was no longer the Golden Child, not everyone liked him because of the way he left (the Cavs). He could have gone into the toilet at that point."

After Miami was upset by Dallas in the 2011 Finals, the Heat won championships in 2012 and 2013.

"He rallied himself," said Dambrot. "He showed the ability to fight through adversity. He began to understand he couldn't please everybody. He does care what people think, he really does.

"When he began to be true to himself and stopped worrying about pleasing everyone, he took the next step."

Dambrot said Miami was still Dwyane Wade's team when James joined the Heat. It wasn't until they lost in the 2011 Finals that James stopped deferring to Wade on the court and began to really take control on the floor.

"He got popped with all the stuff with the Decision and then that first year in Miami," said Dambrot. "The one thing I told him back then, 'Get things right in your own head, you can't solve everyone's problems.' I kept stressing that he had to be true to himself."

Dambrot believes the initial criticism James took after leaving Cleveland followed by the Heat's struggles led to "the tougher, stronger LeBron we see today."

COMING BACK TO CLEVELAND

Dambrot doubts the Cavs ever would have won a title with James during his first tour of duty.

"They just didn't have the players," he said. "Then it would have been so frustrating, people taking shots at him because he's 'never won a championship.' Now he's back. He has two (championship rings)."

Dambrot paused.

"He made the right decision to go too Miami," he said. "Then he made the right decision to come home."

Dambrot talked how the Cavs team that reached The Finals last season was one of the worst to do so in basketball history.

"I read an article about that," he said.

The analytics website FiveThirtyEight has ranked the 2007 Cavs and the 2015 Cavs -- the only Cleveland teams to reach The Finals -- among the 10 worst teams to do so since 1985.

"Look at what he did last year to get that team to The Finals," said Dambrot. "You could see how he matured and grew after being away. I don't think even Michael Jordan could have carried that team (after the injuries to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving) to The Finals.

"I'm not saying he's better than Jordan. But I am saying because of LeBron's all-around skills, it's so unique ... I was watching those games and wondering how they even stayed close to Golden State (in the Finals)."

REAL TITLE HOPES

Dambrot believes the current Cavs team "is the best one that LeBron's ever played on, even better than some of those Miami teams."

Dambrot stressed how James learned "he needed help to win big," and the coach continually praised this version of the Cavs for having the talent to win a title.

"And you can see LeBron leading and teaching these guys," he added.

Why did James come back?

"First, he believed he could win here," said Dambrot. "I believe he knew he could get Kevin Love. Irving was staying. He knew (owner) Dan Gilbert would spend. He forgave Gilbert (for a hostile email) and then they went to work on building a winner here."



James is 31 and he remains an elite player.

"He never wanted to leave the Cavs, but he had to leave," said Dambrot. "Then when the chance came (via free agency) to come back, he knew he had to come home. Winning a title in Cleveland would finish his legacy."

Coming Friday: Mike Brown talks about coaching LeBron during his first tenure with the Cavs.