Hubie Brown remains among the best voices doing NBA broadcasts. At 83, the accomplished former coach and basketball lifer is generous with his praise — and he rarely falls into those generational battles that much younger talking heads like Charles Barkley do with the new generation of NBA stars. Brown is too old and mature for that — he’s seen it all and has no axes to grind.
Early on in the Raptors-Bulls game last night Brown perfectly identified, as he often does, a characteristic about a player that ultimately changed the outcome of the game. As DeMar DeRozan drove and dished, Brown remarked (with his signature starter, now see), “Now see, that’s a smart move by DeRozan. He’s never in a hurry.” It wasn’t a spectacular move by DeRozan, just a simple perfectly executed move, and Brown’s assessment was the same — simple and perfectly executed. DeRozan unhurriedly went on to score 42 points as the Raptors beat the Bulls in OT 122-120. Watching after Brown’s comment, a fan noticed that throughout the wild frenzy of the closely fought battle, DeRozan did often seem like the only player who never hurried at all. DeRozan added eight assists.
