Before the Hummer, before the $90 million shoe contract, before he was the No.1 pick in the NBA draft and a national sensation, LeBron James was just a promising 16-year-old from Ohio, looking to make a name for himself in one of the country's most prominent summer basketball camps.

Back in July 2001, the top dog at the annual ABCD Camp in Teaneck, N.J., was Lenny Cooke, the camp MVP in 2000. Cooke was a cocky Brooklyn kid with strong basketball skills but an atrocious academic record, a star on the court and a scrub in the classroom, floating from high school to high school, convinced by street agents and neighborhood riff-raff that he would soon star in the NBA alongside previous camp standouts Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady.

A big crowd converged around Court 2 at Fairleigh Dickinson's Rothman Center when Cooke and James finally squared off at the end of that week, eager to see how the rising Midwest hotshot stacked up against the Beast from the East. "It was like an Old West duel," remembers recruiting guru Tom Konchalski. "It was a young gunslinger coming into town, trying to make his reputation."

When the dust settled, James had scored 24, including a running three-pointer at the buzzer that gave his team an 85-83 victory. He held Cooke to nine points. "It's the game that catapulted LeBron into the national spotlight," Konchalski says.

Cooke, meanwhile, walked out the gym doors and basically faded away. He passed on college and declared himself eligible for the 2002 NBA draft. He wasn't selected. Scouts said he was skilled but unpolished, too arrogant and immature, too risky. If he was a 7-footer, maybe - but 6-6 shooting guards and small forwards are a dime a dozen.