Leonard Cooke (born April 29, 1982) is an American former professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
player.
Born in
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497. ,
he is known primarily for having been ranked higher than
LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...
and
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Kyam Anthony (born May 29, 1984) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been named an NBA All-Star ten times and an All-NBA Team me ...
in 2001. He had averaged 25 points, 10 rebounds, two steals, and two blocks per game in his junior year of high school. Following his junior year in high school, he averaged 31.5 points for the first eight games of his senior year. When he turned 19 in 2001, he was academically ineligible to play according to high school athletics' rules in his home county in New Jersey.
Cooke is the subject of the 2013
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
selected documentary film ''
Lenny Cooke'' by the
Safdie Brothers.
Early life
Cooke was born to Vernon and Alfreda Hendrix (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Cooke): his mother gave birth to him before marrying, so he carried her maiden last name.
Cooke has three younger siblings, brothers Vernon and Darius and sister Tierra.
Cooke's mother worked as a dealer at the
Trump Taj Mahal
The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City (formerly Trump Taj Mahal) is a casino and hotel on the List of boardwalks in the United States#Atlantic City, Boardwalk, owned by Hard Rock Cafe, Hard Rock International, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. ...
casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and he attended
middle school
A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...
there; the family later moved to
Bushwick, a neighborhood of the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
borough of
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, where they lived in a poverty-stricken block.
Cooke's parents struggled to find employment, and the family lived in poor conditions: they could not afford to pay for heating, so that they had to use boiled water and an open oven to warm their house during winter.
High school career
Cooke, who was already in 8th grade,
enrolled at
Franklin K. Lane High School
Franklin K. Lane High School (FKLHS) was a public high school in New York City, New York (state), New York, United States. It began as a combined junior-senior high school in 1923 and moved into its current building in 1937. In 2012, it was shut d ...
, in Brooklyn: he struggled academically, and failed grade 9.
He moved to
La Salle Academy
}
La Salle Academy is an American private, Catholic all-boys' high school in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.
The school is run by the Eastern North American District of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. ...
in the Lower East Side of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
from 1999 to 2000 where he repeated grade 9 and attended the fall and spring terms of grade 10.
At La Salle, Cooke was an all-city selection,
averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds per game despite having started playing organized basketball only at the age of 16, when he was noticed by a friend while he was playing at a playground in Brooklyn
and was invited by him to try out for the Long Island Panthers AAU team.
When the building he and his family lived in was condemned, and in an attempt to improve his academics, Cooke moved in with a friend, Debbie Bortner, who was his summer league coach and the mother of one of his teammates at La Salle,
and went to live in an affluent suburb in
Old Tappan,
Bergen County
Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.[Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...]
.
He initially enrolled at
Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a r ...
and later at
Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan
Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan is a comprehensive four-year public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades from the suburban communities of Harrington Park, Northvale, Norwood and Old Tappan in Berge ...
, and played under coach Kevin Brentnall.
In the summer of 2000, Cooke earned Underclassmen
MVP
In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...
honors at the Adidas
ABCD Camp. That summer he also played in the Rucker League, played at the
Rucker Park
Greg Marius Court at Holcombe Rucker Park is a basketball court in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, just east of the former Polo Grounds site. It is geographically at the base of a large cliff ...
in New York City, and was the second leading scorer, averaging 23 points along with 12 rebounds per game; during the competition he faced professional players like
Stephon Marbury
Stephon Xavier Marbury (born February 20, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player and current head coach in the Chinese Basketball Association. After his freshman year with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, he was selected as th ...
,
Ray Allen
Walter Ray Allen Jr. (born July 20, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. He played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in ...
,
Zach Randolph
Zachary McKenley Randolph (born July 16, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Z-Bo", the 2-time NBA All-Star played college basketball for the Michigan State Spartans before being drafted in the 2001 NBA draft by ...
and
Omar Cook
Omar-Sharif Cook ( sr, Omar-Šarif Kuk / Омар-Шариф Кук; born January 28, 1982) is an American-Montenegrin professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Cleveland Charge of the NBA G League. He rep ...
.
Around this time, Cooke was diagnosed with a
learning disability
Learning disability, learning disorder, or learning difficulty (British English) is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficult ...
in the language area, and tested in high levels in matrix reasoning, meaning that he had advanced capabilities in activities like puzzle solving.
Cooke was a highly regarded young basketball player in high school, in the various basketball camps, and the AAU and tournaments. At one point he was considered one of the top recruits in the country, along with rival contemporaries like
LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...
,
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Kyam Anthony (born May 29, 1984) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been named an NBA All-Star ten times and an All-NBA Team me ...
, and
Amar'e Stoudemire
Amar'e Carsares Stoudemire ( ; he, אמארה יהושפט סטודמאייר; born November 16, 1982) is an American-Israeli professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as a player development assistant for the Bro ...
.
ESPN ranked him as the second best senior in his class behind Anthony and before future NBA players like Stoudemire,
Raymond Felton
Raymond Bernard Felton Jr. (born June 26, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player. Felton played college basketball for the University of North Carolina under head coach Roy Williams.
At North Carolina, Felton led the Tar Hee ...
and
Chris Bosh
Christopher Wesson Bosh (born March 24, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player. A Texas Mr. Basketball in high school, he played one season of college basketball for Georgia Tech before declaring for the 2003 NBA draft. Bos ...
.
Joakim Noah
Joakim Simon Noah ( ; born February 25, 1985) is an American-born French-Swedish former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Florida Gators, winning back-to-back NCAA championships in 2006 and 2007. The Chicago B ...
was one of his close friends.
One of the featured anecdotes of the biographical movie ''
Lenny Cooke'' was the 2001
ABCD Camp matchup between Cooke, the NYC area phenom and defending camp MVP, versus the lesser-known phenom from "nowhere" LeBron James, in which LeBron effectively supplanted Cooke as the most highly regarded prospect in the country. At the 2001 ABCD Camp, Cooke averaged 16.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.9 blocks.
At the end of the 2001–02 school year, Cooke had a year left to graduate, but had exhausted his high school basketball eligibility. In the 8 games he played in his senior season at Northern Valley, Cooke averaged 31.5 points and 15 rebounds per game. Against the advice of Bortner, he chose to transfer to Mott Adult High School in
Flint, Michigan
Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...
, where he worked to get his equivalency diploma and work on his basketball game.
Ineligible for school play, he was confined to pickup games and tournaments.
On March 8, 2002, he scored 21 points to help the Eastern Conference defeat the West 115–103, at the
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...
Roundball Classic The Roundball Classic, originally known as The Dapper Dan Roundball Classic (also known as ''Magic Johnson's Roundball'', ''Sonny Vaccaro's Roundball Classic'', ''EA Sports Roundball Classic'', '' Asics Roundball Classic'') is well known in the spor ...
at the
United Center
United Center is an indoor arena on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is home to the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). It is named ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. At that point, he was rated #4 High School Player in the United States in the Prep Stars Recruiter's Handbook.
Professional career
Brooklyn Kings (2003)
At the end of the 2001–02 school year, Cooke had multiple options for basketball:
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
,
Seton Hall
Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesa ...
,
St. John's,
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
and
Ohio State
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...
.
He professed a preference for St John's in the NYC area, but it was never clear whether he would have been eligible.
[His academic record was spotty, and reportedly he had never bothered to take college entrance exams such as the ]SAT
The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
or ACT.
Amid enticing agent promises that explicitly stated a dozen NBA teams were seriously considering him and at least three guaranteed they would take him in the 1st round if he were available,
Cooke chose to bypass college and declare himself eligible for the
2002 NBA Draft, a decision which ended his eligibility to play college basketball.
Cooke participated in the Chicago Pre-Draft Camp, where he was measured at without shoes, with shoes, with a
wingspan
The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...
; during the camp he injured his big toe and this limited his performance at the camp to only one game.
To his surprise and disappointment, in the 2002 NBA Draft, all 29 NBA teams passed on Cooke in both rounds. Because he was not selected, Cooke became a free agent, eligible to sign with any NBA team that wanted him.
[According to the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, any potential player who wants to play in the NBA must go through the draft selection process once. If unselected, as Cooke was, a player then becomes a ]free agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...
, with the ability to negotiate and sign his first NBA deal with any team at any time.
That summer, after being bypassed in the NBA Draft, he played in the
Rucker Park
Greg Marius Court at Holcombe Rucker Park is a basketball court in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, at 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard, just east of the former Polo Grounds site. It is geographically at the base of a large cliff ...
Summer League in New York for the Terror Squad team. Later in 2002, Cooke was drafted by the
Columbus Riverdragons
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
of the
NBDL
The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA Dev ...
in the 11th round (87th pick) of the
2002 National Basketball Development League draft
The 2002 NBDL Draft was held on October 31, 2002. One hundred twelve picks were made over fourteen rounds.
Draft
References
NBA G League draft
2002–03 NBDL season, Draft
National Basketball Association lists
October ...
. In April 2003, he tried out for the
Brevard Blue Ducks Brevard is the name of some places in the United States of America:
* Brevard, North Carolina
**Brevard College
**Brevard Music Center
*Brevard County, Florida
Brevard County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. s ...
of the
USBL
The United States Basketball League (USBL) was a professional men's spring basketball league. The league was formed in 1985 and ceased operations in 2008. The USBL started in 1985 as one of the first basketball leagues to play a late-spring to ...
, and in May 2003 was signed by the USBL's
Brooklyn Kings. In 15 games, he averaged 28.8 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 2.8 steals per game, winning the USBL Rookie of the Year award, being selected in the All-USBL Second Team and leading the league in points average, offensive rebounds (4.7) and steals per game (2.8).
He scored a season-high 53 points against the
Adirondack Wildcats Adirondack may refer to:
Places
*Adirondack Mountains, New York, US
**Adirondack Park, a protected area in the US, containing a large portion of the Adirondack Mountains
* Adirondack County, New York, a proposed county in New York
* Adirondack, Ne ...
on June 22, 2003.
Purefoods TJ Hotdogs (2003–2004)
Cooke played well enough with the Kings that the
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...
invited him to play on their summer league team for the 2003
Reebok Pro Summer League,
but that was the closest he ever came to playing in the NBA.
[ While he played in several games, to his lasting disappointment he didn't get in the game when his team played the ]Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...
' summer league squad featuring their just-drafted LeBron James.[ Later in the summer of 2003, Cooke returned to play in the Rucker Park Summer League.
In the 2003–04 basketball season, he first played in the ]Philippine Basketball Association
The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of twelve company-branded franchised teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia and is the se ...
for the Purefoods TJ Hotdogs
The Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots, or simply known as the Magnolia Hotshots, are a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association. The team is owned by San Miguel Food and Beverage, Inc., a subsidiary of San Migue ...
: during the 2003 PBA Reinforced Conference, Cooke averaged 37.9 points and 17.1 rebounds per game, leading the league in both statistical categories.
Shanghai Sharks (2003–2004)
Cooke then had a stint with the Shanghai Dongfang Sharks, where he averaged 28.3 points, 11.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game over 13 appearances in the 2003–04 Chinese Basketball Association season.
Return to Purefoods (2004)
In the 2004–05 basketball season, Cooke returned to the PBA's Purefoods team but tore his Achilles' tendon, ending his season.
Rockford Lightning (2005–2006)
In 2005–06, Cooke played for the Rockford Lightning
The Rockford Lightning was a basketball team that played in the Continental Basketball Association. They were based in Rockford, Illinois.
History
The Lightning were the oldest team in the CBA, originally existing as the Lancaster Red Roses fro ...
of the Continental Basketball Association
The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball m ...
(CBA) and averaged 3.9 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.5 assists over 20 games (7.4 minutes per game).
Minot Skyrockets (2006)
In 2006–07, Cooke played 13 games for the Minot Skyrockets
The Minot SkyRockets were a team in the Continental Basketball Association. They played their home games at the Minot Municipal Auditorium. The team began play in 2005 as the San Jose Skyrockets of the American Basketball Association (2000–pre ...
, averaging 10.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists before blowing out his other Achilles' tendon, ending his career.
Legacy
Late in the summer of 2005, the NBA changed its rules to prevent future players from jumping directly from high school to the NBA by requiring all its players to be at least 19 years old and one year removed from their high school graduations. One-time phenoms like Cooke, whose development was stunted by a haste to get to the NBA too quickly, are considered to be the impetus for the change.[
Cooke is the subject of the 2013 documentary '' Lenny Cooke'' which documents his athletic rise, fall, and subsequent life after basketball. The film, made by the Safdie Brothers, was entered in the 2013 ]Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
.
Personal life
Cooke has a son, Anahijae Cook (born March 9, 2000), who also played basketball at the high school level.
Notes
References
External links
Lenny Cooke film
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Lenny
1982 births
Living people
African-American basketball players
American expatriate basketball people in China
American expatriate basketball people in the Philippines
American men's basketball players
Basketball players from New Jersey
Basketball players from New York City
Long Beach Jam players
Magnolia Hotshots players
Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest alumni
Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan alumni
Philippine Basketball Association imports
Rockford Lightning players
Shanghai Sharks players
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from Bergen County, New Jersey
Sportspeople from Brooklyn
United States Basketball League players
21st-century African-American sportspeople
20th-century African-American people