LeBron James reacts to high school coach Keith Dambrot, Duquesne upsetting BYU
LeBron James is all aboard the Duquesne bandwagon and was thrilled to see them take care of BYU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
James normally supports Ohio State, and obviously has a son at USC, but neither program made the Big Dance this season. So LeBron is supporting a man who is near and dear to him in Dukes head coach Keith Dambrot, a legend of the sport, especially when it comes to mid-major college hoops.
Dambrot actually once coached James when he was younger, along with James’ good friend and the current Duquesne associate head coach, Dru Joyce III. So you can imagine it was an exciting afternoon for LeBron getting to see those two score an NCAA Tournament victory over BYU, Duquesne’s first tourney win since the Beatles broke up.
Here was LeBron’s tweet giving flowers to Dambrot and Joyce for the win:
LeBron sent a similar message towards Dambrot, Boyce and the Duquesne program after they had won the A-10 title as well. In the lead-up to the BYU game this week, Dambrot addressed the support from the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
“It just shows how much he cares about us,” Dambrot expressed. “When a superstar like him calls you after a game, that means something, right? I’m sure he probably knows. He knows me well enough to kind of have an inkling that this was going to be it for me.”
He continued, noting that James has always been wonderful to him and the Akron community they both know so well.
“But I’m just thankful to have the relationship with him. He’s a better — this is a hard statement — he’s a better human being than he is a basketball player, which tells you a lot. He did a lot for our community.”