Nostalgic

Flight

"I'll throw it down your throat like Barkley..."

Chuck D - Rebel Without a Pause

Three weeks ago I had an opportunity to interview a former NBA player that with one dunk carved out a place in history.

Attrition

When my editor at Sneaker Freaker emailed me and asked if I would be interested in interviewing Dee Brown about his famed Reebok Pump sneakers, and the 1991 NBA Dunk Contest, I not only replied yes...I emphatically reveled in the opportunity. I love basketball, and history was one of my best subjects as a child, so to combine the two is like having cake and eating it too!

I wouldn't be within my rights to post the story I wrote, however I thought it would be fitting to show the quotes that didn't make the final edit. I found it extremely interesting that Brown had a scholarship off from my beloved Temple University...had he gone to school in North Philadelphia, instead of Jacksonville University...I would have been a fan long before he set foot on the court, that one night in February, 1991.

Below is the final score on our court side conversation:

So Temple University and the legend John Chaney was looking at you?

“Yeah Temple was…I had like 10 schools looking at me after the Sunshine State Games, its like the Empire State Games in New York. Its like a junior Olympics type of event and I broke the scoring record, and I was playing against all the top players…Mr. Basketball, and other top players in the state, and I was grinding them up, and then all of a sudden I had like 10 scholarship offers the next day. But I said no because I wanted to stay home. Everything with me has been like the underdog, because it made me work hard, and made me more humble. My whole life, you can look at the whole story…its funny, I’ve always been the underdog, got overlooked, and had to wait to get it done.”

I was inspired back in the day by the play and flair of Dee Brown, and after interviewing him recently...I was sincerely inspired by his words, and story.

"There is no substitute for hard work..." - Coach John Wooden