There was the broken hoop in the front yard and the busted rim in the back of the modest Maywood, Ill. home. not to mention the bent Nerf hoops that landed in the garbage bin on a monthly basis.
Then there was the 10-speed bicycle poking through the bottom of the screen door, and the TV stand that eventually had to be replaced because the cabinet door was ripped from its hinges.
The damage done to Sandra and Chris Brown’s home over the years by their son cost them plenty in repair bills, but it’s a price they gladly say was worth every penny. That’s because the reward has been watching their middle child turn into one of the most exciting NBA players currently in the league.
“With Shannon, it was always something with speed and jumping when he was growing up” Sandra Brown said.
Shannon Brown, Lakers guard and leaper extraordinaire, is taking his best qualities to Dallas’ American Airlines Center, where he will show off his skills against two-time champion Nate Robinson, Gerald Wallace, and either DeMar DeRozan or Eric Gordon in an attempt to become the NBA Slam Dunk champion.
The event will be held at 5:30 p.m. and televised on TNT.
Brown said it’s an honor to have been selected to participate in the contest won by some of the game’s biggest stars, including teammate Kobe Bryant (1997), who will aid him in the competition Saturday.
Brown said many people view him simply as a “dunker” but he tries to bring his all-around game out nightly when he comes off the bench.
“But when it’s time to dunk, I don’t hold back,” said Brown, who is just the fourth Lakers player to compete in the dunk contest, joining Michael Cooper, Antonio Harvey and Bryant.
And when he gets running, don’t look away.
“The things he can to do are crazy,” teammate Pau Gasol told Lakers.com. “It’s like he’s running downhill and he takes off.”
That is exactly what happened to the screen door.
Sandra Brown said when Shannon was in elementary school, he decided to see how fast he could ride his bicycle down a hill, but slammed into the door before he could hit the brakes, busting out the bottom of the screen.
“He was a very active child,” Sandra Brown said. “He always wanted to stay busy. and yes, he was always running and bouncing around, which is why we got him into sports.”
Shannon Brown played both basketball and baseball as a child, excelling in both, and when he didn’t have a great game, he got down on himself hard.
“Shannon used to think he had to get a home run every time he got up to bat,” his mother said. “He would say, ‘I’ve got to score and do the best.’ He did hit a few home runs, but not every time he batted.”
Brown eventually ditched baseball and concentrated on basketball, where the rewards were greater.
He spent hours at the local YMCA, where his dad, a local policeman, would open the gym for the neighborhood kids. and when the gym was closed, Brown shot, spun, jumped and dunked on the self-standing hoop in the driveway.
“One day he came in and asked me to watch him dunk,” Sandra Brown said. “I was surprised he could jump that high.”
Brown, who has a 40-inch vertical leap, threw down his first “official” dunk at a Tim Hardaway basketball camp entering his freshman year of high school, showing his burgeoning ability to float like his childhood hero, Michael Jordan.
“I got a steal (and I was) on the break,” he recalled. “I jumped as high as I could and threw it down. After that, it’s been going since.”
Confident of his dunking skills, Brown, a senior at Proviso East High, entered the 2003 High School McDonald’s All-American dunking contest, going up against LeBron James.
Although he finished second to the kid from Ohio, Brown’s hops and 27.9 scoring average landed him in the upper echelon of the recruiting class that year. He signed with Michigan State, where Coach Tom Izzo said at the time, “He’s got great athletic ability, good ball skills and solid shooting. and, given Brown’s Iverson-esque game, that’s and understatement.”
Lamar Odom compared Brown’s ability to throw it back to Julius Erving and when he gets move down court everyone in Staples Center “gets to the edge of their seat.”
Many share Odom’s opinion. TNT analyst Kenny Smith, along with President Obama, picked Brown to win the Slam Dunk contest, while Orlando’s Dwight Howard, a past champion, called Brown a “great, unbelievable dunker.”
Said Bryant: “He jumps higher than me. … He jumps higher than Michael (Jordan). He jumps higher than all of us …. He’s leaping through the roof.”
Don’t mention home repairs around Brown’s mother. Sandra Brown vividly remembers how Shannon attempted to jump over the two-foot high TV stand in their living room and instead landed on top of it.
“Yeah, I missed on that one,” Brown said, cringing at the memory.
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2007-05-05 04:49:34 Shanghai daily
