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Ex-Bogie star wants to keep career alive

By PETE YOUNG

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 29, 2001

The caravan to the NBA rarely detours through obscure outposts like South Carolina-Aiken, much less to pick up a 5-foot-11 wisp of a player.

But that isn't deterring Dain Brown.

Brown, a former Boca Ciega star, is holding fast to his dream of playing professional basketball. After completing his eligibility last spring at USC-Aiken, where he led the team in scoring the past two seasons, he's hoping to latch on to the fledgling NBA Developmental League (NBDL) this fall and forge a pro career.

"I know it's a long process. I know you don't just go directly from a small school to the NBA," Brown said. "I want to play basketball. I just want to catch on somewhere and make some decent money."

Brown, a point guard, averaged 14.4 points a game as a junior and 14.2 points this past season in leading Aiken, a Division II school, to a 16-12 record.

Like hundreds of players whose collegiate eligibility has recently expired, Brown faces a wrenching decision.

Keep playing the game he loves as a professional and try to buck the odds or move on by finishing his degree and getting a "real" job. Brown is opting for the former. This summer, he kept his skills sharp at St. Petersburg College in the pro-am league. He led the league in assists while helping his team, Off The Chain, with South Florida players Jimmy Baxter and Will McDonald, to a runner-up finish.

One reason Brown, 24, won't give up is because he hated it the last time. A 1995 Bogie graduate who led the Pirates to the state title in 1993-94, he was a star point guard in 1995-96 and '96-97 at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville.

His sophomore year, he was named a junior college first-team all-state selection.

But he fell behind academically, and the scholarship opportunities at four-year schools dried up. So he headed home, to the house across the street from Childs Park where his mother, Elouise, raised him.

"I worked some odd jobs," said Brown, whose father died when he was 2 and whose three older siblings are in their 30s. "I knew I had to play ball again, and I wanted to get as far away from St. Pete as I could; just get away to somewhere I could focus on school and basketball."

He took classes at then-St. Petersburg Junior College to complete his associate's degree and then followed former SFCC teammate Juan Wiley to Aiken, where a former SFCC assistant, Steve Franklin, had become an assistant coach.

Franklin said he believes Brown had Division I talent.

"I think he definitely could play (in the NBDL)," said Franklin, who added Brown needs to add bulk to his frame. "The kid has the desire. I think a lot of people are missing out on this kid. He can flat-out play.

"He understands the game. I think he can make it."

Brown is a well-rounded point guard, a good shooter, passer, penetrator and defender. But his overall court awareness is his best asset. He knows how to run a team -- when to push the pace, when to ease off the throttle, when to get the ball to the hot man, when to shoot, etc.

Next week, Brown will leave for Raleigh, N.C., to spend a month at NetWorks, a company that provides a training ground for basketball players.

Conveniently, all eight NBDL teams will be nearby, in small cities scattered throughout Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

Brown has been in contact with four of them and is hoping for an opportunity.

But can a 24-year-old, under 6-foot, undrafted, Division II player forge a lucrative career as a professional?

There is precedent.

Orlando Magic starting point guard Darrell Armstrong is from Division II Fayetteville (N.C.) State. He bounced around various alphabet-soup leagues and played overseas before finally sticking with the Magic in 1996-97, at age 28.

Should his basketball career fizzle out, Brown has a backup plan. A business minor (he is 21 credits short of his degree), Brown is gung-ho about owning his own business in St. Petersburg, possibly a clothing store. He wants to make enough money to move his mom into a better home.

Part of his drive to succeed stems from the debt of gratitude he feels toward those who have helped him, such as Boca Ciega principal Barbara Paonessa, who Brown said was instrumental in helping him get back in college after his two-year layoff.

And if things don't work out in basketball, he is ready to enroll in a 10-week course for entrepreneurs in St. Petersburg.

If things don't work out.

"I just want to start somewhere," Brown said. "I know basketball's not going to last forever, but if I can make money playing basketball, doing something I love to do, why not do it?"

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