Inside LeBron's first game in Philly -- more than two decades ago - ESPN

THE FAX LAID out a grandiose plan.

Jeremy Treatman, a former high school assistant coach in the Philadelphia suburbs who was running a burgeoning company that staged big-time basketball events between the game's future stars, had just sent a message to Dru Joyce II, the new coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio, the school famously led by one of the most highly touted prep prospects in the history of the sport.

It was the summer of 2002.

Six months after a then-17-year-old LeBron James had appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated accompanied by the headline, «The Chosen One,» Treatman was pitching Joyce on choosing him to build James' hype even more.

How would you like to play at the Palestra in Philly? How would you like to play Madison Square Garden against Sebastian Telfair? How would you like to play at Ohio State? How would you like to play at University of Dayton? How would you like to play in the Dean Dome in North Carolina?

In Philly parlance, Treatman had him at, «Yo.»

«He calls me the next day and he says, 'You can get us to play at the Palestra?!'» Treatman told ESPN. «I go, 'Absolutely! Of course.' He goes, 'I've always dreamed of playing in the Palestra. I've heard about this place my whole life.

»We're in.'"

There was only one problem.

«I was completely bluffing about the Palestra,» Treatman said. «I hadn't talked to anybody.»

NAMED BY UNIVERSITY of Pennsylvania professor William N. Bates, evoking the Greek term «palæstra» that describes an athletic competition surrounded by an audience, the Palestra was the home for Penn's basketball, volleyball and wrestling teams.

But its reputation as a hoops haven spread far beyond the corner of S. 33rd St. and Walnut St. on the Quakers' campus.