candid interviews, and rare news
footage (spanning a nine year
period), the remarkable coming
of age story of true friendship and
unprecedented fame, of five young
talented athletes (dubbed the
”FAB 5”) their dedicated coach Dru
Joyce II and a tenacious young
film student— Kris Belman. According
to Belman, “Basketball was simply
the vehicle used to display friend-
ship, family, surrogate fathers and
all other kinds of things off the
court. The growth of their relation-
ship off the court contributed to
their unbelievable chemistry and
performance on the court,
consequently putting the team
and their hometown of Akron,
Ohio on the map”. But beyond its
entertaining and enlightening
value the film's true richness lies
in its ability to effortlessly manage
the LeBron phenomenon, while
seamlessly merging the compelling
back stories of Sian Cotton, Dru
Joyce III, Romeo Travis, Willie
McGee and LeBron James a skinny
kid in search of stability—who
would later go on to become an
NBA superstar.
In a recent interview contributor
Andrew Belletty caught up with
coach Dru Joyce II (the man
behind the dream) to talk about
the secret of his success. The
lessons learned along the way,
but more importantly the source
of his inspiration!
Coach Dru Joyce
Lebron James and Director
Kristopher Belman
A. Belletty: This movie would not have been possible if not for your decision
to keep director Kris Belman close to
the team. Did you have any inkling
in the beginning of what this
could become?
Coach Dru: No! (Laughing) Honestly,
When Kris came to me, he was a young college student working on a class project.
A 10-minute documentary—that's all it
was suppose to be.
A. Belletty: How did you keep
yourself and team centered under
such heighten success?
Coach Dru: You know, we talked about
it. And we really spent some time trying
to understand what this was all about. In
our locker room there are seven principles hung on the wall. One of them is humility, being thankful for where you are, and understanding that you've have been
blessed with God given talents and abilities that others might not have, and that
didn't originate in you. So we definitely
talked about being humble, but also about
controlling only what we can control—
the basketball.Everything else outside of
that, we have no control over, so it was important for us to remain focused. Let's
be real, all the media attention was great,
but as quick as you were taken up, you
could be taken down.
A. Belletty: What were some
valuable lessons you hoped to impart
to the 'Fab Five' well beyond high
school graduation?
Coach Dru: For starters, that if you
worked hard at something you dreams
could come true. It's O.K. to dream, to confess your dreams, to proclaim them—
and share them with people. When people look at you as crazy that’s OK too, you
need to verbalize your thoughts and work
at them, because whatever your striving
for it’s not just going to happen on its own. One of the things that I would share with them is a saying that I got from a Pastor— actually, that my wife got from a Pastor,
“It's discipline not desire that determines your destiny.” In other words, you need
to be discipline about whatever you are
trying to do in order to achieve whatever
you are trying to achieve.
A. Belletty: In retrospect what were
the three key factors that contributed
to your success as a coach?
Coach Dru: Wow! That's a great question. I've never had anything like that posed
to me. To begin with, I'm not full of myself. I've always believed even when I started
with the kids at a young age, that if I
couldn't teach it to them, I was then
responsible to take them to a place where
they could get it. So I never got caught
up in (me) being in control. When they
got ready to go the High School and they
chose St. Vincent, St. Mary's (as their new
school) and were now under the leader-
ship of a former college coach, I was right
in there learning with the them (as
his assistant).
I also attribute it to my faith. For me it
was very important that I remained
faithful with this God given opportunity. I didn't create it, but I knew that I needed
to respect what was given to me and do something that was going to glorify Him— not me. And the third thing as far as my success is that, it is on going. I may not
have really understood that back then,
but what I understand today is that to succeed you really have to stay fully in
the present. In life, you're going to win,
you're going to lose— you don't have
control over tomorrow and yesterday is
gone. You only have this moment, and
you should strive to make it the best
it can be. And remember that if you
work hard (at the moment by moment
that you do have) some good thing can
happen in the future.
A. Belletty: What do you tell parents
who still try to push their kids into
sports, but neglect the importance
of stressing character and education
to become the next LeBron James?
Coach Dru:I run into that so much. Honestly, what I tell them is that there
aren't anymore LeBron James's so let's
be real about it! And then I ask them to
allow their sons become the best players
that they can possibly be. I explain to
them, that it's very important that they under-stand, that while chasing this
dream, there needs to be a plan B. Sports
is a great thing to have for today, but because of injury it could all be gone tomorrow and at some point when that
ball stop bouncing or that football field is
no longer forgiving to you, you should be prepared for life and that comes through education. With an education these youngsters have the ability to think and process information, and can developed
skills to help them become productive
members in society. Sports are a great
way to teach life, but as I say in the film
'basketball' is just a vehicle—use basket-
ball don't let it use you.
A. Belletty: What wisdom have you
gained from helping these under-
privileged boys become successful
young men?
Coach Dru:As a coach, you have a great God-given opportunity to poor your life
into someone else's, and to do it in such
a positive way, that helps them realize
that they're part of something bigger than
themselves. There are certain life skills that
can be taught through a sport to help a kid
understand and work their way through
life. How to handle defeat, Or success?
How do I become a good teammate? This
has all become a lost art; because every-
one is all about me, me, and me. Basket-
ball is a team sport, and as a team they
must understand that to win, you have
to be willing to sacrifice of yourself for
the success of the team.
A. Belletty: How has running the 'The
King James Shooting Stars Classic'
tournament impacted you life?
Coach Dru:When I left Corporate America, my family and I were on a faith journey. I
had some savings, (and was thankful that
we understood what saving were all about)
and also receive some severance pay, be-
cause I had been with my company for 26
years. As we were trying to figure out how
to build a life around basketball, God gave
me this idea for a tournament, to be used
as a means of exposure for college kids.
Today, the tournament has grown into
what is called “The King James Shooting
Stars Classic”. When Lebron and I talked about it and he allowed me to use his
name, it helped to bring a team together
and we just chose to do what I have
always believed, and that is...“Whatever
you do you're going to do it of quality”,
Every year we strive to make it the best
tournament ever. We've had over five
hundred teams participate over the last
two years and every year we bring into
the Akron community over 3 million dollars
(over that weekend). We're excited about
it and the opportunity it creates. A lot of
kids are playing college basketball because
a coach might have seen them at this
tournament. We just want to keep doing
that because we understand that those
types of things are needed. We want to
do it in a way that is respectful of the kids,
their families and their schoolwork and
still do it at a high level.
