New LeBron James book tells of a 'shooting star' always willing to learn lessons

[Smooth]

Bill Livingston: New LeBron James book tells of a 'shooting star' always willing to learn lessons
by Bill Livingston/Plain Dealer Columnist
Wednesday July 22, 2009, 6:31 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- LeBron James smoked marijuana during his junior year in high school. Three other members of the Akron St. Vincent St. Mary starting five smoked with him. Another drank alcohol.

All this took place in a hotel room in Akron the players "had gotten access to," in the guarded words of "Shooting Stars," a book to be released in September. It amounts to James' life story through his tumultuous high school years.

Before getting judgmental about this, it is wise to remember the players were teenagers. Those who were saints as young men and women can cast the first stone. In his NBA career, James has never been in serious trouble with the law.

Co-author Buzz Bissinger, whose "Friday Night Lights" is considered one of the best books on high school football ever, writes "Shooting Stars" in James' voice. The title comes from the name of James' first AAU team in Akron, but it has other meanings. A shooting star in astronomy is actually the blazing path a meteoroid traces as it enters the Earth's atmosphere and burns out. It is really a falling star.

James' junior season ended in the only state championship game he lost, a result, he feels, of the arrogance he and the rest of the team developed after he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on Feb. 18, 2002. He calls it "karma," a key concept of various Indian religions. Here, it means bad habits that developed during the season led to an unsatisfactory end to it.

It seems to be an honest book. James says most of the players reformed after coach Dru Joyce II found out about their use of the hotel room, but Sian Cotton defied the coach and still played.

James is brutal in his view of former Ohio High School Athletic Association head Clair Muscaro, who pursued him for various transgressions his senior season with the zeal of Lieutenant Philip Gerard on the tail of Richard Kimble. From my dealings with Muscaro, including his blanket denial of a column I wrote about state administrators rooting against Catholic schools in the press box, I believe James.

The book details the many people who wanted SVSM to fail, from the Akron black community, who made the players outcasts after they spurned the mostly black public school Buchtel for mostly white, Catholic SVSM; to other schools, alarmed by the coast-to-coast flesh-peddling of the players by SVSM officials, an extravaganza James now deplores; to basketball purists, who sniffed that no mere high school kid could be that good.

The aftermath of the state finals loss has relevance today. James shook every Roger Bacon player's hand that day, but coach Joyce had to bring his son, Dru III, back from the locker room to do the right thing. It contrasts to the deposit James made in the karmic bank last season when he snubbed victorious Orlando players and then dodged his post-game news conference.

An only child who kept his life together despite a troubled upbringing, James craved companionship with others and turned his teammates into the family he never had. No wonder he is so willing to pass the ball.

As a boy, he was always disappointed when Akron's name was almost never on maps of the USA in his geography book. He set out to make the city proud. He did just that, and also changed the landscape of possibility here.

http://www.cleveland.com/livingston/..._tells_of.html

[TheBigLeBronski]

If it turns out he puffed some crappy mexican herb in a blunt, I would be dissapointed. But if someone hooked him up with the dank and a nice pipe, then sweet.

[MYoung23]

This revelation isnt new. He admitted this before he was drafted.

http://espn.go.com/magazine/vol5no26next.html

December 10, 2002

..."People ask me if it's a hard decision going to the NBA, but I've made harder decisions," he says. "Decisions about smoking or going to school, or stealing from a store or not stealing. Those are harder decisions. Yeah, I smoked weed. When it's around family, around friends, of course you want to try it. I tried it a couple of times. But when you get on the court and your wind ain't there, that's when you've got to just stop doing it. So the NBA decision ain't a hard decision compared to that."...

[The Shoulder]

Everybodys done a lil puff puff pass

ive also wrote before at parties he use to bring a box of condoms and say "whos fuckin me tonight?"

[Prophet Named X]

Please, no one is going to convince me he still doesn't toke up.

[Chris]

I'd be surprised, with the shape he's in and the endurance he has. But a lot of athletes still do it...maybe he's just that gifted.

[Juice22]

I still Smoke it up and look at me, I'm still kick ass

[MYoung23]

He'd be retarded to keep doing it. You have to really be committed to getting high to keep doing it in the NBA. Once youre in the program you get tested more and you can get suspended just for not following the program. It's not worth the hassle or the PR hit.

[blank964]

Everybodys done a lil puff puff pass

ive also wrote before at parties he use to bring a box of condoms and say "whos fuckin me tonight?"

False. Condoms were not included.

Signed,

LeBron James Jr.

Arguably the funniest rebuttal I've ever read on RCF!

[Mdog1]

Wow if he still does it that is amazing that he is in as good of shape as he is. I mean I have done it and I feel winded a lot recently so I had to quit.

[Prophet Named X]

He'd be retarded to keep doing it. You have to really be committed to getting high to keep doing it in the NBA. Once youre in the program you get tested more and you can get suspended just for not following the program. It's not worth the hassle or the PR hit.

It's 4 tests a year. Considering they are accomplished athletes with a very low body fat percentage, they could be clean for maybe a week or 2 and pass a piss test.

[GaryBriggs]

Who is sexing motumbo?

[KIisKing]

What high schooler would pass up weed when all there friends are smoking it and your the coolest kid in school?

[Cavatt]

Gotta eat brownies, but only in the offseason.

[KIisKing]

Skip will go crazy about this