Have you ever heard of Lenny Cooke?

Well if you followed basketball in the early 2000's then there is a chance you have.

Lenny Cooke was the most hyped basketball player in the early 2000's, even more so than LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony.

Cooke was rated better than all those guys at one point and was figured to be a sure bet at the NBA level.

Since you haven't heard of him since, you can probably guess how that went.

LeBron and Melo would go on to be drafted in the top three of the 2003 NBA Draft and Lenny Cooke wasn't selected by any of the 29 teams in either round of the 2002 draft.

He would eventually get a chance in the NBDL and overseas but two achilles injuries later, his basketball career was over.

He know is a high school basketball coach at Atlantic High in Atlantic City.

We never know what could have been if injuries didn't shorten his career and if he could of made a comeback to relevancy but after you watch this video about his career in high school, you can see why the hype was real at the time.


 

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