LeBron Gladden remembered as fantastic basketball player, fun-loving guy

LORAIN — "King" James wasn't the first LeBron. He wasn't even the first LeBron to star on a Northeast Ohio basketball court. For fans, teammates and coaches, LeBron Gladden introduced the now-famous name. "He's our LeBron," said Jamie Gladden, LeBron's brother. "He's the original LeBron." "He was LeBron before LeBron," former coach Roger Lyons told Ashland University upon hearing of Gladden's death in February. "He was a tremendous talent. He could shoot, he could dribble, get to the basket, the whole package. You couldn't guard him and that's why he's one of the greatest players our university has ever seen." Gladden was 52. Bring up the Gladden name to any basketball fan in Lorain, and you're bound to get a smile. The Gladdens — LeBron Jr., Jamie and Byron — were key parts of Admiral King's fantastic run under Mitch Gillam. All three were All-Ohio and all three have been inducted into the Lorain Sports Hall of Fame. Imagine the intensity when the three would get together for pickup games in their driveway or at the local playground. "They never ended," Jamie said. "We played and played and played. We competed. There were lots of lessons learned. My dad wasn't always a part of the game, but he was always out there watching and giving pointers. He made sure we all had a really solid jump shot. It really paid off with (LeBron). He had the best one." Not only did the Gladden brothers learn to shoot, they learned to defend. They fit right in with Admiral King legend Mitch Gillam's defensive concepts. "The competitiveness led us to being defenders," Jamie said. "We refused to lose. I refused to let him beat me and he refused to be beaten by me. We went at it really, really hard." The youngest of the three, Byron, had to wait his turn. "For me, I was a lot younger than him," Byron said. "I was eight years younger and they beat up on me pretty good for a long time. (LeBron) was like my superhero. He was everything to me. He put the ball in my hand, he showed me how to play. When I was playing he'd always call me and check on me — tell me what I was doing wrong, what I was doing right. The backyard, when everyone would come home, we'd have some fierce backyard games. It made us a lot tougher for any opponent we'd have to face." LeBron was the oldest of the three brothers. Jamie was three years younger and Byron eight years younger. Byron wound up as Admiral King's all-time leading scorer with 1,692 points, while Jamie's 1,202 rank fourth. "You look at his two younger brothers and LeBron did a phenomenal job of showing them the way," said Mitch Gillam Jr., his Admiral King teammate "The way (basketball) was played then was a little bit different (no 3-point shot). His career at Ashland speaks for itself. He was definitely a Division I player." "He was the oldest, he was the first one through. He created the whole thing," Byron said. "If it wasn't for him playing, none of us would have played." "From an athletic standpoint, from a charisma standpoint, he really meant everything to me," Jamie said. "I wanted to be him. As a basketball player, I just wanted to be half as good as him." Gladden remains Ashland's all-time scoring champion with 2,102 points. He led the Eagles in scoring in three of his four years, and his 81 3-pointers were the season record until Keystone grad Brett Bartlett broke it with 91 in 2006-07. Pretty amazing when you consider the 3-point shot wasn't even in vogue when Gladden played at Admiral King. The 3-point arc was established in 1986 for colleges and a year later for high schools. Gladden has three of the top six season scoring marks for the Eagles, and his 649 points in 1989-90 remain the best season in school history. He averaged over 20 points a game in his last three years and shot over 80 percent from the foul line. He was a three-time Division II All-American. At Admiral King, although Byron holds most of the school records, his contributions were not overlooked. He was inducted into Lorain's Sports Hall of Fame twice — in 2017 as a member of Admiral King's 1986 state tournament team and again in 2018 for his individual contributions. "I was obviously very saddened when I heard about Lebron's passing," said Lorain athletic director Bryan Koury. "The entire Gladden family is synonymous with Lorain basketball. LeBron was one of the most talented players to ever play at Admiral King, but he was also arguably the greatest player to ever play at Ashland University." Mitch Gillam Sr., his coach at Admiral King, praised him upon his induction into the Lorain Sports Hall of Fame. "From a basketball standpoint, LeBron Gladden is one of the finest athletes we've ever had," he said. "He is what I call a basketball talent. He does everything well." "He had a unique way of being a competitor," Gillam Jr. said. "There's some guys that are really severe and intense competitors, there's no messing around, no joking around. But he had the unique ability to merge those two as a phenomenal competitor, yet he was such a charismatic guy and he was a little bit of a joker. He just kept things light." At King during his senior year, Gladden, who stood 6-foot-3, averaged 17 points and seven rebounds in helping the Admirals to their second of four state tournament appearances in school history. He shot 56 percent from the field. In 1986, led by Gladden's 13 points, Admiral King eliminated state-ranked Cleveland St. Joseph (22-3) at the regional in Kent, 51-44. The lineup for second-ranked St. Joe's included 6-7 Treg Lee, who was bound for Ohio State, and 6-10 Eric Riley, who would star at Michigan. The Vikings had beaten the Admirals 52-38 in January on the King floor, fondly known as the "Shot Palace." It was one of only four losses for the Admirals that year, and they edged Toledo Scott 54-51 in the regional semifinal to set up the rematch. Both wins at Kent were defensive clinics. The Admirals lost to Columbus South 55-46 at Dayton in the state semifinals the following week. It was the same year Oberlin claimed the D-II state title. "We all grew up together," said current Lorain junior varsity coach Dax McCall, a close friend of the Gladden family. "We grew up in the same neighborhood over on the west side of Lorain. We called him 'Oink' and he was such a goofball. Of course, he was a fierce competitor, but he was fun. Always laughed, always made people around him laugh. Sometimes we didn't know if he was taking the game serious — he was that good. "His talent was just above everyone's and he was always fun-loving. You can't meet someone to this day that didn't like LeBron Gladden." His parents, LeBron Sr. and Nadine, live in Louisville, Ky., but will soon join Byron in Charlotte, N.C. Jamie, a Xavier graduate, lives in Atlanta, and LeBron's wife, Tina, and sons Brent, Josh and Jeremy live in Otisco, Ind. Another son, Alante, and a daughter, Alexis, live in Parkland, Md., while another daughter, Skye, lives in Louisville, Ky. Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135 or at timothygeb@msn.com.