A Star-To-Be: Who Never Was Part 2

Cooke’s weight ballooned because he was inactive, deflated and took full advantage of the culinary skills he had honed when he was in the Philippines and China, and would call his mother for tips on home cooking. When he would Google himself online, the only easy-to-locate video of him in action was of his first game at Old Tappan. Most online references to Cooke identify him as the inverse of James, which he has come to accept as his legacy with a mix of resignation and resolve.

“As long as every time I go on the Internet and somebody is talking about Lenny and LeBron, I guess my name’s still being mentioned with this guy – you know what I’m saying?” Cooke said. “Give my kids something to read, some way to know without me telling them that I was there with LeBron, a guy with a $100 million contract. It used to bother me when they said, ‘Lenny Cooke was supposed to be something and he isn’t.’ Not anymore. I’m living my life.”

 Cooke could yet attach a more lasting meaning to his aborted basketball life, said Noah, who has expressed conditional interest about participating in Shopkorn’s film.

“I mean, there’s so many kids out there getting – I’m not going to say raped by the system – but really getting taken advantage of,” he said. “That’s the question people don’t ask enough when they talk about Lenny Cooke. I mean, this isn’t the story of a kid shooting hoops in his backyard in the Midwest. There was so much thrown at him when he was so young.

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