🆕Lebron James Vs Carmelo Anthony 2001 Highschool Battle - St. Vincent-St Mary Upset Over Oak Hill

What's up, FYI, I'm Sportsman, it's Lamont. We back with another podcast video. Today we got a very special video for you guys. I came across this video, definitely wanted to just give it a replay, give it a breakdown because again, we tend to forget how good this man was coming out of high school. I hear a lot of people, just in our previous debate, in one of our previous debates, we had somebody talking about how going into the NBA as rookies, they said that they felt like Carmelo Anthony was a better player than LeBron James, but let's not forget that these two matched up in high school and when LeBron James, the number 23 ranked, I think 23 or 24 ranked, St. Vincent, St. Mary matched up against Carmelo Anthony's number one seed at Oak Hill Academy, I mean, the outcome surprised a lot. Now Oak Hill Academy, if you guys aren't familiar with that particular school, has been a powerhouse in high school basketball. We're going to touch on all of that information here in a few seconds. Before we get started, make sure you guys like, comment, and subscribe. Hit the notification bell to the video if you haven't done so already. Again, we got a lot of videos coming this week. We got a lot of lives dropping, a lot of controversy going on, a lot of things got to get touched on, and again, that's what we do here at FYF Sports. We hit on all controversial topics, regardless of your feelings, and that's just how it has to be. But again, today, man, we just wanted to do a quick flashback, a flashback of this game right here, and again, this is just really to show how great a lot of these guys were. This Oak Hill team is a roster filled with future NBA stars at that particular time, starting with Carmelo Anthony. That St. Vincent, St. Mary team had a lot of talent as well. A lot of those guys went on to play D1 basketball and be great, including LeBron James, who actually, he skipped college basketball and went straight into the NBA, while Carmelo Anthony decided to go to Syracuse for one year, where he led Syracuse to the national championship. But you know what we're going to do? We're not going to waste any time, man. You know how we do, man. We love to commentate as this game goes through. We're going to break this game down. The highlights, I mean, this game was, and this is what made this game even more legendary. You got Dick Vitale and Bill Walton commentating this game. I mean, you can't really get any better than that. I wish we still had those two announcers around, I mean, with college basketball kind of being out of the mix right now, and a lot of those conferences up in the air. This is why we have to bring you guys this. So I can't wait to start to touch on college basketball. But until college basketball is back, we have to flashbacks to games like this, just to remind us how great some of these young guys can be. But I'm going to go ahead and get started with this game. I want you guys to let me know, man. If you guys were in Ohio at the time, man, did you guys follow this high school team? Did you follow St. Vincent, St. Mary? I know as a high school student, the only powerhouse school that I really knew about at that particular time was Oak Hill. St. Vincent was just a little-known school. We really didn't talk about schools being powerhouses nationally when I was in high school. On a state level, yeah, but nationally, we didn't really pay too much attention to that national ranking. Come on, we're going to listen in to this game a little bit. I really want to hear what these guys have to say. In the last two years, James has scored a ton of points, 33 and 36, but Oak Hill has won both games. So we'll see if we have more of the same. In the early going, LeBron is standing there waiting for the ball to come to him. For Oak Hill, and it's Harris again. Nice pass. Harris with the score. LeBron James to get it going. Oak Hill, no trouble getting going up and down the floor, leading by seven. Down in the projects, in those hard times, you see everything from crackheads, you know, to drug dealers, to gunshots every night, to police sirens, and I think it just made me stronger. You know, it made me stronger in a way not to do those things and to know what's right from wrong down there. You can get an in-depth look at LeBron James following our game as ESPN the magazine's Next features a select group of young athletes who may change the nature of the sports they play. Although missing an outside shot there is Swann, so the lead is still seven. This is the shooter, Corey Jones, and there's James with a follow. He got up and down the court there, and he saw that great passing ability. We looking at a LeBron James who was, I mean, at this point in time in his career, you're talking about ultra-athletic, and really, at this time, he was just a raw talent. He really relied on pure athleticism and not a lot of skill to impose his will on these high school players, similar to the way we saw Zion Williamson dominate. We can see how O'Kill jumped out to a decent lead to start the game. It looked like LeBron started out slow, and this O'Kill team, if you guys aren't familiar with this team, these guys played extremely fast. They had a lot of scoring, but there we have LeBron James right there to kind of break into that run, and again, if you guys didn't watch this game, I suggest you actually go pull it up and watch the whole game in full because it was a back and forth show between some of the greatest players of our generation. We got LeBron James with that signature dunk with the cock back, and I think early on, one of the things that we saw with LeBron James was his ability to get his teammates involved early on, and that's what they look for at that particular level, you guys. At this particular level, what scouts are looking at right here is just your abilities. Whether the pass is successful or not, that really doesn't matter at the high school level. They just need to know if you can make and take certain shots. There's the sheer will and the sheer strength being imposed by LeBron James. Yeah, that O'Kill team has always been lethal. Going into today, they always find a way to collect a lot of top talent. Kind of surprised we didn't see LeBron James at O'Kill. Wow, and I'm telling you guys right now, man, some of these plays that we're seeing at the high school level, these are just not your normal, natural high school plays, man. This wasn't a normal high school player, LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony. It just looks like on this night, LeBron James just had a little bit more to give, but St. Vincent, St. Mary down early, wow, LeBron James, high level, elite pass, and we hear Dick Vitale going crazy. We hear Dick Vitale going crazy off the pass, man. Great pass. Man, I hope we see that replay, man. I mean, as a high schooler, man, as a high schooler, look at this vision right here. All right? I told you, a lot of people, you got to understand, LeBron is a playmaker first, man. Court vision, basketball IQ is elite, and it's something you got to give him credit for it. Yeet. Oh, man. Man, that could have been ugly. Hey, this St. Vincent, St. Mary team is scrappy. I mean, to be the 23-ranked team in the country, and going up against O'Kill, and they not backing down, you got to think in high school, man, just the intimidation factor of playing the number one team in the country can play a lot into your confidence, man. You know, but having a guy like LeBron James can do a lot to boost your confidence as well. Sure will, sheer strength, man, just stronger than all of these high schoolers. This looked like it was a great game, man. Packed high school game, man, this is how it was. If you play basketball in the Midwest, on the East Coast, man, this is how high school games got, man. People love this sport, especially at the high school level. Bigger, stronger, just bigger and stronger than everybody. We see LeBron James piling the stats on, going into the third, rounding out this third quarter. Already has a double-double with 20 points. Vision, vision, vision, elevating that team, elevating the team, man. This is how you get a 23rd ranked team to play with a number one team. You got to elevate everybody. Hard to do as a high schooler, you guys. Now he's just, this is just all confidence right now. He don't have the three in his bag just yet. This is just all confidence right now. Mm-hmm. A lot of guys that went high school. A lot of guys. Man, this man is on fire now. Going into the fourth quarter, look like LeBron James, St. Vincent, St. Mary, they rolling. Looks like they rolling, man. Bad shot. Giving another possession to St. Vincent, St. Mary and LeBron James. Another bad shot. That's a bad shot by LeBron, but way to stick with it. Tough shot by LeBron. They still got a comfortable lead going into the end of the fourth. 31 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists. Against the number one team in the country, man. I mean, at the high school level, that's big. You know, whenever you can have a game like that against Oak Hill Academy, I don't care what year we're talking about, and that's a great game. LeBron James, 31 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists. Let's hear what he has to say. Did you feel a lot of pressure coming into this? Well, you know, it's a different game, a different atmosphere today. And today, you know, we're playing the number one team in the country, and I don't think it was no pressure for our team. I think it was more pressure for the fans, you know, to come here. You know, we lost the last two years, and we just wanted to come here and get a victory. You know, the cover of USA Today, the cover of VSPN Magazine last year on Sports Illustrated's cover, what do you think? Is this too much, or is it too much pressure for you? Well, I think it's no pressure for me. I think if I come out and play my game and get my team involved in the game, you know, it's a lot of notoriety for me and my teammates, but I just go out, play my game every night, and give it our all. And if we give it 110%, like we did tonight, no, it's no pressure for us. Your performance, you came out, it looked like you started slowly, relied a little bit too much on the jump shot. How did you calm yourself down? Well, you know, at halftime, our team was telling me I needed to go inside a little bit more because the player that was guarding me had three fouls at halftime. So I said, you know, anything it takes to win for our teammates. They told me to get inside, and I did that for our team, and we came out with a victory. What's next for you? What do you have to improve upon when you want to take your game to the next level? Well, you know, it's all about just getting better every day. You know, of course, you know, defensive-wise and getting your jump shot better to perfection, but it's just getting better every day for our team and for myself. All right, LeBron James with Jay Billis. Hey, man, now we have it right there again. We just did a quick, you know, just a quick recap video. Wanted to, you know, wanted to kind of rewind time a little back and reminisce on some of these great games. This is just warming us up, man. I can't wait till college basketball starts up. I love seeing some of these newer guys coming out of high school play at the next level. Obviously, college is the next level for most. We got a guy like Jalen Green. He decided to forego college. He's a part of the NBA developmental program. We have a couple other players, high-level five-star recruits, who chose to do the same thing as well. I think with this particular climate and an uncertainty with regards to, you know, college basketball and if these seasons will be highly effective, I think it was a good move for some of these guys to forego the season, collect a paycheck, and go get better in the NBA developmental league if you have that as an option. But, hey, as you guys just saw, man, LeBron James, both LeBron and Carmelo, I felt were ready to go pro after high school. I think back in 2003, it was just kind of the more traditional route, regardless of how good you were, to just go straight to college, even if it was for one year. But, you know, as we saw on that list earlier, there were guys who, you know, Shard Lewis had guys like Dwight Howard later on in his career, you know, Moses Malone. All of these guys decided to forego high school and step right into the NBA. So, again, I don't knock LeBron James for doing that. I think that was the best move for him in his career, and I think for Carmelo and the development that he needed and the growth that he needed as a person, it was great for him to go to college that one year. We saw how the one year of NBA experience for LeBron and the one year of college experience for Carmelo, it both helped both of those players grow immensely. So, you know, you really can't take nothing away from these guys. You can't take nothing away from these guys, both great players. But LeBron James, I keep telling you guys, man, we forget. When we look back on games like this, we forget how great these players were, especially a guy like LeBron James who, going into his 17th season, is still playing at a high level. There are a lot of young guys, there are a lot of players coming into this league that don't have the condition, that don't have the fitness, don't have the athleticism that LeBron James has. So, again, we got to focus on where he's at in his career, what he's given to the game, and I think it's just time that we start giving LeBron James his flowers on the way out. Again, I say this all the time, as opposed to harping on the negatives, you know, switching teams and, you know, the things behind the scenes that we don't really know the full story behind. We got to let some of that go. We just got to get him in his place. And the same with Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo Anthony in the NBA, he took another route, leaving Denver, went to New York, hopefully to pave, you know, pave his way on his own team in New York. Things didn't work out the way he wanted to. He bounced around from a few teams, found himself out the league for a year, got a second chance at life with the Blazers, so his career path and trajectory have taken a completely different step from LeBron's. Doesn't take anything away from his greatness as well. But at the end of the day, they're both going to go down as greats in the NBA. LeBron James will probably go down as one of the top two or three players in the NBA, potentially number one if he can do a few more things to pass Jordan. But I want you guys to let me know what you think. Let me know what you think about this video. Let me, you know, are there any more high school games you want me to check out? I got a few more. I got a few more games in the backlog that I got to check out. But this was one of the ones that I really want to touch on. I wanted to get it out there, you guys, because a lot of people didn't even know these two played in high school. This is FYF Sportsman. It's been another great video. Make sure you guys like, comment, and subscribe. We're on the road to 20K. Road to 20K, looking forward to getting to 100K by the end of the year. It's possible. All right. A lot of people didn't think where we're at now was possible. Again, we just got to keep grinding, doing our own thing over here. But it's been FYF Sportsman. It's been another great podcast video. I don't want to go to jail, man. A broke can't get no bail, man. Bro, you funny, you a trip. Talking nonsense out your lips. Neighbors, they complaining. Tell you calm it down a bit. Now you Mr. Tough Guy. Like, **** all that ----. Until them blues come knocking, now you sounding like a bitch. Oh, you gangsta, think you tough. Knowing you ain't about that life. Okay, now we call your bluff. It's time that you pay the price. Oh, you scared, scared, huh? Police about to read the rights. I don't want to go to jail, man. Might not get no bail, man. Oh, you gangsta, think you tough. Until them rulers pull them cuffs. Okay, now we call your bluff. You just be talking all that stuff. Oh, you a big dog, huh? Cut it out, boy, not even close. I don't want to go to jail, man. A broke can't get no bail, man.