The name LeBron James is known throughout the basketball community. His rise to stardom starting with being drafted to the NBA straight out of high school at eighteen years old has been well documented. Recently with the release of his new movie “Shooting Stars,” we’ve been itching for a dive into his childhood teammates who made up the “Fab Five.”
Standing at just 5 feet 2 inches, Dru Joyce III, better known as ‘Lil Dru’ was the son of the coach of St. Vincent-St. Mary high school, Dru Joyce II. ‘Lil Dru’ had to earn his way onto the team and received no preferential treatment from his father. Dru eventually became the starting point guard of the ‘Fab Five’ and was well known for his ability to maneuver through traffic in the lane and for being a knock-down shooter from three-point land.
Dru Joyce III has been a basketball coach for the past four years
It seems to be a trend most of James’ old teammates are following. Similar to William McGee, Dru has also taken to the coaching side of basketball following the end of his playing career.
Dru averaged 11 points and eight assists per game with St. Vincent-St. Mary. He chose to stay in his hometown so that he could play four seasons with the Akron Zips. In 123 games, from 2003 to 2007, he averaged 8.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 4.1 assists, in about 30 minutes per game. As mentioned before, Dru was an excellent three-point shooter and was able to shoot with almost 40% accuracy.
After his high school career, Dru decided to take his talents overseas to Germany, first playing in the German basketball league Bundesliga.
He first joined the Ratiopharm Ulm in 2007 and played there for 2 years averaging about 10 points, 2 rebounds, and 4.5 assists. He then transitioned to the Polish league and played for the clubs Czarni Slupsk and Anwil Wloclawek. Dru’s stats significantly decreased only putting up 6.5 points, 2 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. After those two stints, Dru spent another nine seasons bouncing around European clubs notably playing for the German giant FC Bayern in the 2016 – 2017 season.
He retired from the Bundesliga as its all-time assist leader, although that record has now been broken unfortunately. Finally, in 2019, Dru took up his first coaching opportunity with the Cleveland State Vikings men’s team. After spending a few years coaching them, Dru took up his current job, an associate head coach position for the Duquesne Dukes.