He became a pro head coach with the Colonels, then in Kentucky, and part of the ABA.
Nine years in high school…assistant jobs at William & Mary and Duke (with fellow assistant Chuck Daly)…and on to the NBA as an assistant to Kareem’s championship Bucks. But a chat with Hubie makes me look up a name (Bailey Howell) I should know much more about.īrown’s basketball journey mirrors the game’s growth: a playing career with Niagara University and the Rochester Colonels of the old EPBL, then a coaching job at St. He admires what Ja, Giannis and Steph can do, like everyone else watching today. (“I’ve never seen anyone like Elgin Baylor,” he says.) He avoids the greatest-ever debates, because it’s unfair to compare eras, and he’s not stuck in the past. He coached against the stars and forgotten stars, Bird and Magic, Jordan and LeBron, and don’t get Hubie started on Elgin Baylor, whom he first saw play in college. “But the calendar tells me I am.”īrown’s been around basketball for so long, he didn’t have to Google any members of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary team-“I probably saw most of them,” he says. He doesn’t say being around basketball keeps him young.
