Former NBA head coach and longtime analyst Hubie Brown will call one final game on television this season.
Speaking on the Thursday edition of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast, ESPN president Burke Magnus said the 91-year-old Brown will share his insights with fans later this season. The date has yet to be announced.
“We are going to give Hubie one last shot on a game,” Magnus said. “He deserves that. We think the world of him. I think it is absolutely remarkable the level in which he still calls games at age 90-plus. I don’t mean to be purposely mysterious here but we are going to honor Hubie during the regular season at some point to be determined and send him off in style.”
The honor would temper what has otherwise been a tragic year for Brown after his wife Claire died in June at age 87 and his son Brendan, a former NBA assistant coach and New York Knicks broadcaster, died earlier this month at age 54 from health complications.
Hubie Brown, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame member, began his coaching career in 1972 as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks, then coached the Kentucky Colonels to the ABA championship in 1975. He later was the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks (1976-81), New York Knicks (1982-87) and Memphis Grizzlies (2002-04), and compiled a record of 528-559.
Players on his teams included fellow Hall of Fame members Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dan Issel, Patrick Ewing and Pau Gasol.
Brown got his first broadcasting job after being fired by the Hawks in the 1981-82 season and took time off from broadcasting when he accepted NBA jobs, but always returned.
The two-time NBA Coach of the Year worked games for CBS, TNT, ESPN, USA Network and select Los Angeles Clippers broadcasts through the years.
Last year, at age 90, The Athletic named him Media Person of the Year.
–Field Level Media
