Basketball has been part of Octavius Nunes’ life ever since the Dorchester native picked the game up as an 8-year-old at his neighborhood’s Boys & Girls Club, where he now serves as athletic director.
On Friday, Nunes accomplished a first: He beat an NBA player in knockout. Not just any player, but champion Bruce Brown, a fellow Dorchester native who helped the Denver Nuggets win the Finals in June.
“The kids were really excited, a lot of them asking me how I beat an NBA player,” Nunes told the Herald. “Just to show them that everybody has a chance as long as they try hard they can do it, too.”
Brown, 26, stopped by the Colonel Daniel Marr Clubhouse on Friday, speaking to roughly 100 campers before taking pictures with them and signing his autograph on basketballs to be put in a trophy case at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dorchester.
Then came the fun-filled, spirited round of knockout, where a handful of campers, staffers and President and CEO Bob Scannell tried to outshoot Brown.
All in all, Brown fulfilled a promise he made after the Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat in June that he’d come back to the neighborhood he grew up in to inspire the next generation.
“The best part is coming back to you guys and letting you know that you could do it too,” said Brown, who signed with the Indiana Pacers in free agency this offseason. “I was sitting here listening to people talk to me, so if you have a goal and people say it’s too hard to reach, I’m sure you can do it. Because I’ve done it.”
Brown’s visit Friday came after a club board member saw a tweet from Globe sports writer Gary Washburn shortly after the finals ended that mentioned how Brown wanted to come back to Dorchester to inspire kids. That led to a social media campaign that caught the attention of Brown, compelling him even more to fulfill his desire, Scannell said.
“It really breaks down a barrier where sometimes kids just stick to the streets in the neighborhood, to think outside the box about what they can accomplish,” Scannell told the Herald.
“Growing up in Dorchester put a chip on my shoulder,” Brown told campers, adding not until middle school did he realize he wanted to become an NBA player. He played for Wakefield Memorial High School for two years before transferring to boarding school Vermont Academy, which he said he had to qualify for.
“The tough thing for me was when I was in Wakefield I didn’t really take school seriously because I didn’t think being from Dorchester would lead me to play at the highest level,” Brown said. … “I just didn’t see the vision everybody else saw for me. I had to leave that behind … I had to persevere and get the help I needed.”
Brown played a key role in the Finals. He scored 21 points in Game 4 which the Nuggets won to take a commanding 3-1 series lead over Miami. That came before he put up four of Denver’s last six points in a championship-clinching Game 5.
The scoreboard inside the Colonel Daniel Marr Clubhouse, during Brown’s visit, read 94 to 89 – the final score of Game 5.
“Up until recently, there was not a lot of inspiration coming from Dorchester,” Nunes said. “There’s not a lot of people who have made it to the highest level, and to have somebody who has done that, and won the championship, and to come back and speak to our kids, it’s going to change lives.”
