Question and Answer: Hubie Brown on Basketball, Coaching and Preparing for His Last Post -Outspart

Hubie Brown is a one-of-a-kind figure in basketball-Lore.

A two-time NBA coach for the winner of the year, Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer’s time With basketball spans over six decades.

His enthusiasm for the game (which he shared with millions as a color commentator and analyst since the 1981-82 season) has always been clear.

As his last broadcast approaches – he calls Sunday’s 76ers vs. Bucks play (14:00 ET, ESPN) Brown talked to NBA.com about his life, career and focus on preparation and communication that drives him to today.

Editor’s Note: This interview is easily condensed and edited for clarity.

---

NBA.com: Where does your passion for basketball come from? Where did it start for you?

Brown: It goes back to high school (at St. Mary from the assumption High School in Elizabeth, NJ). We had one of the best teams in the state and my senior year we went undefeated. We won the city, the county and the state, and then I went to college on a basketball scholarship. I played at Niagara University for four years – basketball and baseball. Basketball, we were one of the better teams.

And then I played in the service – I was lucky to play at Presidio in San Francisco, and We won the sixth army tournament Two consecutive years. We lost the all-army final the first year, overtime to Fort Dix.

I was lucky to play at all levels and even in the grammar school we went undefeated. We went 26-0.

NBA.com: How did you develop your style as a teacher and communicator?

I taught for nine years in high school and was one Coach in three sportsAnd I taught business law and consumer economy for seniors. I think much of it helped me with communication.

There was a basketball camp called the Five-star basketball campwhere Howard Garfinkel and Will klein were the two owners. It became one of the largest basketball camps in the country, to the point that it had 400 big playersAnd it was in Poconos and then Robert Morris College.

This is where notoriousness that a teacher came to because you had all these great high school’s all-Americans (including Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin). The camp continued for more than 40 years and I was always one of the most important clinicians.

This is how I got into college coaching: The coach of William & Mary had an opening and he saw me lecturing at Five Star’s camp. If you were any kind of a college team, you were there and watching these players, because it was how good the quality of the players was.

NBA.com: Why did you do so many clinics? You are one of the great teachers in the game.

It became a business for me because I was then invited to all summer camps – up and down in the eastern sea board, right into the south – where you would get a fee for lecturers and be your prominent lecturer from the day.

From high school to the five -star basketball camp that gave you exposure to a lot of coaches. Two hundred coaches who applied for (Howard Garfinkel’s collapse of players). Of course, you want to be one of the best speakers there, and then it became a fantastic summer business.

It also developed your philosophy because the game was not played the same in the northeast as it was played in the Midwest or Southwest. It was an education – where you could take it or leave it – if you believed in that type of philosophy.

At night, the camp closed and the college trainers would stay out until two in the morning and talk about different philosophies.

NBA.com: Are there players you trained who you think would thrive today, in this more open, shooting -based game?

The game has changed so much from when I played in high school in the 1950s to today. (There is) the expansion of the track, no hand control, no harsh violations, two judges vs. Three judges.

I will name you nine guys – they are all in the Hall of Fame – which I was lucky enough to train.

In Milwaukee, as I went into the league as an assistant, there was Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bobby Dandridge. When I got my first main coach job in ABA, my center was Artis Gilmore, my Power Forward was Dan Issel and our top guard was Louis Dampier.

When I coached Knicks, we had Bernard King, and then Patrick Ewing became a hall-of-family. And when I got back to Coach Memphis, we had this young man from Spain who was a teenager: Pau Gasol.

These guys could play at any level at any time, period because they were done and they were able to dominate in their time periods. I wanted to tell you about the nine guys because you learn not only what they are talented in, but their attitude, their work habits, and about coming up as total team players.

NBA.com: What do you hope fans take away from listening to you over the years? Why did the broadcast appeal to you?

When I was first contacted, the US network had double head on Thursday night: an East Coast match and a West Coast game. They gave me an opportunity and I worked with Al Albert (the younger brother of Albert, Marrum and Steve) for a year. When the year ended, CBS came to us and offered Kevin Loughery, who coached in New York and myself, to make a first name, the break and postgame show.

Over the course of 12 months I learned quickly and you become a person with a style that connects with the audience. You will always be able to see all 10 players: Can you break down what just happened? This is not football or baseball where when you come in you have 20 seconds. In the NBA we have five to eight seconds to tell you what just happened to learn what happened, what you may have missed as a fan.

You need a really good work technique with your advertiser. He can either take up your time or he can give it to you quickly. You will be a teacher. You want the tab to listen hard and understand why things happen and then you want to be a team player so you and the advertiser are on the same page as the manufacturer and the director.

What I see, I have to explain. I will be able to explain it at a level that all ages that see can relate to. You want to stay within the vocabulary of the sport, and you will also be able to reach any fan, from a young person in grammar school to the old pro to those who have seen for years. I talked to the tab, as if I was talking to an assistant coach next to me or one of the players on the bench. For me, I thought the tab deserved that type of pace, the type of knowledge.

Like when teaching a classroom … If the class is 55 minutes you try to give them 55 minutes of material so it’s not over their heads it breaks down to their level so they retain what you ‘re talking about .

We popularized statistics in the US and then at CBS. Early some people said ‘your style is for statistics-and-terminology-based.’ How else does the tab learn? How else does the tab learn unless you talk about it? You have to be able to educate and get that fan to expand his vision.

I never underestimate the audience IQ. It forces you to prepare you. Now it is a lot of pressure if you are constantly thinking about it: Never underestimate IQ for the person who looks at. It was the same in class when I had 35, 38 students watching. This is how you feel when a company puts you on the air, especially when you are not talking to people in the US.

You don’t just have the responsibility of communicating right in this country. You communicate to the world that has accepted the NBA.

NBA.com: What does it mean to you to be part of the basketball story, your way?

I have to say it’s far from 126 Burnet St. In Elizabeth, NJ, where I grew up.

You can’t be at this level and do it for 35 years without appreciating the people who opened the doors. In life you go on, you do the best. As you move up, from coaching on the different levels, to TV, you are constantly moving, but you are constantly moving financially, for your family.

So you never lose sight of the fact that you do a reputation and b, buzzing in a position, in a job that you thoroughly enjoy. You enjoy the camera, preparation and then the delivery-and you also love paycheck that goes hand in hand with notoriousness.

I was never happy to be a high school coach and coached three sports. From William & Mary to Duke, to ABA and back to the NBA, then someone and opened the door and you stepped through. When you agree to step through it is the delivery.

Wanna put the preparation? Wanna put the camera? And then you can produce and can you communicate to the audience?

NBA.com: What does it mean for you to be ready for this last game? Is there something specially planned?

I will prepare for this game that I was preparing for all these years with TV. I still want to see both teams, two full games and make my notes. I will return to my pamphlet, my file, on each team. It allows you to see starters, SUBS, what the teams are running, including at the end of games.

Then you are in advance of it, you don’t see it for the first time. Then you go back over the story of all these teams and you bring it into the telecast (if it allows because you never know about the game’s speed, timeout, the damage, gives you room to fill it with knowledge to the fan) .

Looking at this game, both Bucks and 76ers have been injured by injuries. At the beginning of the season you would have thought that Milwaukee and Philadelphia would have been right there with Boston, maybe first, second and third. But due to injuries, especially to Philadelphia, they are in the middle of the package right now.

I hope they get healthy and everyone will play in this game so we can give the fans a little – what can they do if they stay healthy in the second half of the season? Can they then reach their potential at the playoffs? But they have to play end games.

That’s what you want to come over to FAN: Specific pluses and minuses in the game itself. Where would advertisers be if there were no fans? You will always educate the fans and raise their IQs.

You want the tab to be able to be on top of it, so when they turn off the game, the education is great but it was really good because it happened in a nail bitter, right up to the end and you So both teams, offensively and defensively, and the coaching staff at their best. That’s what you want to do.