The Name is Brown, Hubie Brown
This weekend marks the start of the NBA playoffs and with it comes anticipation. Players like DeShawn Stevenson and LeBron James prepare to back up their trash talk, while coaches like Phil Jackson work furiously on their master game plans to get their teams ready for the grueling task of coming out of the their respective conferences.
But there is an element of the NBA playoffs that frequently gets overlooked during this second season, and that is the decisions TNT, NBATV and ESPN make in terms of which announcers will call each series.
Often times the calls made by announcers and commentators are every bit as memorable as the games themselves. Who can forget the memorable call by Marv Albert when Michael Jordan switched hands in mid-air when his Bulls played the Lakers? Or the hyperbole of Bill Walton during any of the playoff games he works? What about the dry humour of the Czar of the Telestrator, Mike Fratello? Or, the boundless enthusiasm of Kevin Harlan.
Regardless of whether viewers agree with what is being said and observed, the announcers have a way of invoking some kind of emotion or reaction from the viewers, and this can serve as an entertaining subplot during these games.
One of the best at this skill is Hubie Brown.
Since 1982, Hubie Brown has provided television audiences with his vast basketball knowledge, which comes from having both playing and/or coaching experience on every level. Brown played college basketball at Niagara University until he graduated in 1955, and when he left Niagara to join the Army, he played on that basketball team, too. For a brief period of time he played professional basketball in the Eastern Professional Basketball League (later known as the CBA, the oldest professional basketball league to this day).
After his brief professional career concluded, Brown coached at the high school level for nine years, and then briefly served as an assistant coach at both the College of William & Mary and Duke University. His first taste of the NBA as an assistant came in 1972, when he joined a team featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson and helped lead them to the NBA finals in 1974. In 1975, he earned his first head coaching job in the ABA, where he coached the Kentucky Colonels and the great Artis Gilmore to an ABA title.
Once the ABA folded, Brown returned to the NBA for a 28-year span (including a 16-year hiatus between 1986 and 2002), which saw him coach the Atlanta Hawks, the New York Knicks and the Memphis Grizzlies. He has never reached the NBA Finals, but he coached each of the three teams from losing records to playoff berths. This experience on the court more than qualifies him to speak and analyze the game from off the court.
So, besides his vast experience, what are the factors that make Hubie Brown a great announcer?
Ideally coaches like their point guards to be an extension of themselves on the floor. Similarly, when networks hire former coaches to work in an NBA booth, they’re expected to take that coach-like approach when breaking down the game to the viewers. Not only is Brown a coach in the booth, but he’s a teacher who has taught players and even other coaches the game of basketball. Because of this, even when he is working a game and making observations, he speaks to the audience in a teacher’s cadence. It is very measured and deliberate, but in a non-condescending way. He doesn’t just talk to hear his voice or to fill space, but he has made it his mission to teach the viewers, the listeners and maybe even the play-by-play announcers. He will start off by telling the audience what should happen at any given moment, and then once the play happens, he will tell why it was successful. Conversely, if a play breaks down at any given moment, he’ll give a step-by-step tutorial as to why it happened, all of which with same teacher-like approach.
Today’s NBA announcers have a tendency to be overly comedic or witty, rather than keeping their focus on the actual game. When ABC/ESPN’s Mike Breen called last year’s NBA Finals, he would often be faced with the task of promoting a show on ABC. After this promotion, he would often engage with Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, and there would often be a minute or two of jokes and conversation not related to the NBA, but rather the upcoming show. When Mike Tirico and Hubie Brown were in this same situation, things would play out differently. Tirico would promote a show for ESPN or ABC, and then, after returning to Brown, there would be a brief awkward silence. After the brief silence, Brown would jump right back into NBA mode and prepare to point out yet another nuance that the viewing public should be observing. That type of focus and tunnel vision is rare in sports broadcasts.
Brown’s health cut short his coaching career back in 2004, otherwise he may still be coaching for the Memphis Grizzlies. But while coaching the Grizz, he helped develop Pau Gasol, Bonzi Wells and Shane Battier— all three of whom will be playing in the upcoming playoffs. Conversely, Brown has also coached Hall of Fame players such as Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Oscar Robertson and newly inducted Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing, as well as players who should be in the Hall of Fame like Bernard King and Artis Gilmore. Brown himself was nominated into the Hall of Fame in 2005. He has seen four decades worth of players, player styles, coaching styles and any other nuances there are to be seen in the game of basketball. As a result, when Brown heaps praise on a player, or makes an astute observation, the viewer can be assured that the comment is coming from someone credible, as opposed to someone spewing hyperbole in an attempt to get a memorable sound bite.
When the playoff schedules and pairings are announced in a few short days, it may not be a bad idea to investigate a little more to see which announcers are doing which games. And then it may be worth searching a little closer to see which games Hubie Brown is calling.
It could be just as gratifying as the game itself.
This article was written by:
Rashad Mobley - who has written 69 posts on Hoops Addict.
Rashad Mobley graduated with a B.S. in English Education, from Hampton University in Hampton, VA in 1996. He is a government consultant for the Department of Justice in Washington D.C., where he currently resides. Rashad is will be covering the Washington Wizards for HoopsAddict.com during the upcoming NBA season.