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Hubie Brown turned 90 years old last month. Yet, as he begins his 50th season doing work associated with the NBA, whether as a coach or a broadcaster, he is still sharp and fit enough to call games at the highest level.
Brown’s first assignment this season? Spurs-Knicks, for the Madison Square Garden debut of rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama, alongside top play-by-player Mike Breen on ESPN, on Wednesday, Nov. 8.
Dave Roberts, ESPN’s Head of NBA Event and Studio Production, told The Post: “An incredible 50 seasons in the NBA and still going strong. Hubie’s impact on the NBA, the game of basketball, and its fans can’t be understated. We’re looking forward to celebrating Hubie’s unparalleled legacy during this milestone season.”
Sports Clicker caught up with Brown this past week and asked him to share some of his secrets to a long and fruitful life and career.
“Never underestimate the IQ of the audience,” Brown said, speaking in a universal sense as opposed to just broadcasting basketball.
“Whether I’m speaking to a practice session as a coach, or to coaches at a convention, or to major corporations, which I did for many years — you never underestimate the IQ of the audience. And I never go to an event unless the preparation is there.”
Brown, speaking with a vivid memory, relayed something his father told him when he was in seventh grade — in the mid-1940s.
“No matter how good you’re going to have it in life, always remember you’re half a step from the street,” Brown’s father told him.
“That is imprinted on my brain,” Brown said.
“Always be prepared. Never cheat the audience. When I was a high school coach, you wanted to give them 55 minutes in the classroom, and then you wanted to be able to develop their talents and take them to a high level in athletics.”
He said he took this mindset with him as he moved up to coaching college, then assistant coaching, then becoming a head coach.
“When you become a head coach, and you bring people to your staff, then they have to be teachers,” he said.
He noted that 10 assistant coaches from his staffs with the Kentucky Colonels (who won the 1975 ABA championship), the Atlanta Hawks, the New York Knicks and the Memphis Grizzlies ultimately became NBA head coaches.
“You’re not doing this by yourself,” Brown said.
“You’re doing this with other people, who are not getting the attention that they deserve for their contributions as you reach a high. In Kentucky, [or when] we turned around the youngest team in the NBA at the time in Atlanta. We go to the Knicks and we have eight new players out of 12 and we’re right at the top. We take over the Grizzlies, who never won more than 22 games in Vancouver or Memphis, and then in the second year, we won 50 games.
“You can’t do that unless you have teachers with you, and they all buy into the team. It’s just like your players. Everyone has to buy into the accountability fact every day. That’s preparation and participation. We’re not gonna accept anything less than that.”
Brown credits Larry Costello, his former teammate in college at Niagara who in 1972 brought him to the Bucks as an assistant coach on the team that featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson and Bob Dandridge and reached the 1974 NBA Finals, for giving him a rigorous blueprint.
“I thought I knew a lot about basketball, as a high school coach, or an assistant at William & Mary and Duke, and then you go into this other world that is incredible,” Brown said.
“For so many years, you have energy within you as you move through [life and various career stages],” Brown said. “But as you get older, you have to pay attention.”
Brown noted that he played tennis 3-4 times per week, and has kept up a disciplined swimming regimen.
“Once I got past the 50 mark, the concentration of keeping your body fit was important,” Brown said.
“The tennis factor came in for me after 50, and then for swimming I would always try to go to a club. And then since the 2000s, we’ve had a pool in our home. That discipline has to be incorporated as you get older in the television business.
“I know you’re saying, ‘Well, gee, you’re 90.’ Well, you don’t think you’re 90, because you have a schedule for your company — ESPN/ABC — where they are the highest level of the profession of NBA games, and you are not only performing for viewers in the United States but you also realize there are 215 countries getting the games. So how could you not prepare for the maximum of knowing the two teams that you’re going to do?”
He compared working in TV to being on another type of team.
“You and the play-by-play announcer are the face. You’re out in front,” he said.
“But you know, we’re only as good as our producer and director, who are organizing everything that you’re seeing. We are just talking about it. A lot of times people miss that, so to me, when I’ve won these different TV awards, I always try to make sure I give the credit to the announcer who has to allow you to get in, and also the producer and director who are keeping what we are talking about at the highest level with pictures going across the world.”
Brown has also put an emphasis on getting enough sleep.
“As I got older, say 75 or so, I stopped staying up to watch the West Coast games that would end at 1 a.m. I stopped that. I try to go to bed at 11 p.m. and get 7-8 hours of sleep,” he said.
“That has helped me greatly in the last 15 years. I would stay up until 1 — then you cheat yourself of your rest.”
Brown explained that he never had it in his mind that he was going to advance from high school to college to professional basketball coaching, but rather that it happened organically.
“I was never looking for the next step; I was very happy,” he said, referring to all the stops along the way.
Including the ABA years, he has been in professional basketball for 52 years.
“Looking back on it, you can’t do this unless your wife and family buy in,” he said.
“When I married Claire Manning, I was a high school coach in Cranford, New Jersey. We moved eight times. We had four children. She got all four through college degrees at outstanding colleges.
“New schools. New neighborhoods. New friendships. This is all being done because she says, ‘Let’s try. Let’s go for it.’ You can’t do that unless the head of the family buys in.”
Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions and LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Company are in talks to create a basketball series modeled after the Netflix “Quarterback” docu-series, the Wall Street Journal reports … WWE announced that it will host “Bash in Berlin,” its first Premium Live Event in Germany, next August … Women’s college volleyball is on the rise — a record 612,000 people watched Wisconsin vs. Nebraska last week on Big Ten Network, and a Fox executive believes that record is “sure to be eclipsed” by Wisconsin vs. Minnesota, which aired on Fox after NFL games (including Packers vs. Vikings) on Sunday.
… Former ESPN host and gambling analyst Doug Kezirian is joining upstart Only Players, and the plan is to soon finalize linear TV distribution for a daily 30-minute show … Dude Perfect is returning to Amazon for the Black Friday game between the Jets and Dolphins … Victor Wembanyama’s NBA debut drew nearly 3 million viewers on ESPN; the network’s Wednesday night doubleheader had an 80 percent increase over last year’s comparable window.