Lebron's son wins basketball championship – THV11.com
ASHLAND – There’s a pretty good chance at least 23.9 million people have noticed that Grayson Steury is a national champion basketball player.
LeBron James posted a picture of 11-year-old Grayson and his teammates — including LeBron Jr. — on Instagram for his millions of followers after the fifth-grade North Coast Blue Chips won a championship at the USBA national tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina, in late July.
To Grayson, who is entering the sixth grade at Ashland Middle School, LeBron is more than the greatest basketball player on the planet. He’s dad to his buddy “Bronny.”
“I get excited because it’s LeBron,” Grayson said about James showing up at a Blue Chips practice or tournament game, “but he’s like a regular dad.”
The Blue Chips have a lot of eyeballs on them, primarily because LeBron’s son is an 11-year-old prodigy who reportedly already has standing offers from Kentucky and Duke.
So how did Grayson, who started out in a Y league as a first-grader and still plays in a Friendly House league, end up on such a high-profile outfit?
Watch him shoot the ball for a few minutes and you’ll probably have your answer.
“He’s the kid … my poor neighbors … who is shooting baskets before school,” Jill Steury, his mom, said. “When he gets home from school, he throws down his backpack in the garage and picks up a ball.
“He’s always been into it and Rich (her husband, who played for coach Walt Harrop at Ashland High School) really makes him learn the fundamentals, not just go out and shoot around. He’s really worked with him a lot, and I think that’s helped him skill-wise.”
Grayson was attending a skills clinic last November in Cleveland, where Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert was a guest speaker, when he caught the eye of camp organizer David Lane.
Lane, who works in player development and has clients in the NBA all the way down to 8 years old, invited Grayson to meet with him for a private session. It turned out to be a tryout for Lane’s Blue Chips traveling squad.
“I see a lot of kids that age and I might tell them ‘Go make three 3-pointers,'” Lane said. “It might take a minute or 30 minutes. He made three in a row and ended up going 18 of 25 (from beyond the arc).
“He didn’t really play AAU basketball. He was playing on local teams. I thought my team would be a good situation for him to grow into because he shot the ball so well.”
Grayson joined the team in January, coming off the bench at guard and helping the team win four tournaments, including the Buckeye Prep Invitational in Columbus. They reached the semifinals in the mammoth King James tournament, which was played in numerous venues in the Akron-Canton area.
“He got tougher,” said Lane, who used to be on the boys coaching staff at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, LeBron’s alma mater. “Ashland basketball and all-over-the-country basketball is different. He was in an environment where he wasn’t 100 percent comfortable. As a player, it made him grow because we play some of the best teams in the country at his age.
“It was definitely new for him, but a great experience for him.”
The plan is to keep the team together as it moves up to sixth-grade competition next season. Several states are represented on the team, including Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The Blue Chips would try to get together to practice at least once a month at SVSM and on Fridays before tournaments.
Their schedule included a couple of tournaments each month, taking them from Ohio to Alabama to Washington, D.C. The Steurys were there for all of them.
Of course, there was always the chance LeBron would show up.
“He cheers the boys on in the stands like any of the dads would,” Jill Steury said. “He’ll come to practice and goof around with the kids. The kids are just so impressed to have him there, but after a while they just start looking at him like ‘Oh, there’s Bronny’s dad.’ For other people (not associated with the team) I’m sure it’s, oh my goodness, LeBron was at our game!”
She’s as impressed with Junior as Senior.
“He’s amazing,” she said. “He’s got moves. He’s so athletic, obviously, with LeBron as his dad. And a great kid, just so down to earth and a good friend with all of his teammates.”
Jill Steury said that a backup role on the Blue Chips is probably the best thing for her son right now.
“It’s great because it’s really pushed him to work harder,” she said. “When he went to a camp last summer in Cleveland, that’s what really opened his eyes to all the talent out there and really pushed him to work harder and practice a lot.”
Grayson doesn’t just shoot hoops at home. He works on his shooting stroke behind a 3-point line put down on the driveway by his dad. He goes up to Akron once or twice a week to work with coach Lane and also trains with former Ashland High star Isaac White, now playing for UMass Lowell, and with Kari (Daugherty) Pickens, the 2013 National Player of the Year for the NCAA Division II national champion Ashland University Eagles, for whom she is now an assistant coach.
Grayson has even managed to fit in some CrossFit training sessions with his sister Alyssa, who started as a freshman point guard last season for Ashland High.
“I like the competitiveness,” he said of basketball. “It’s a whole different level of competition (with the Blue Chips). It’s really, really tough.”
As you can imagine, Grayson was glued to the TV as the Cavs rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven NBA finals to stun the defending champion Golden State Warriors and give the city of Cleveland its first major sports title in 52 years.
His favorite player — surprise, surprise — is LeBron. But he’s quick to add that was the case before he began hanging with Bronny. They are standing side-by-side in the team picture posted on social media by LeBron.
“I remember thinking ‘If Grayson only gets to practice with (the Blue Chips) once, this is great,'” Jill Steury said. “But it kind of went from there. Sometimes, since he’s just 11, I wonder if it has really clicked in with him. He’s thankful for the opportunity, to get this awesome experience.”
Mom needn’t worry about the traveling and success going to Grayson’s head. Instead of attending the Cavs championship parade in Cleveland, you can probably guess what he was doing.
He was playing basketball.
