On e of the best story tellers and color commentators, not to mention an NBA lifer as a coach, is leaving the booth. Legendary basketball announcer Hubie Brown, 91, is signing off for the last time, calling it quits after the 2024-25 season.
The longtime coach first started the second act of his career, broadcasting games, after he was let go by the Atlanta Hawks in 1981.
“We are going to give Hubie one last shot on a game,” ESPN Burke Magnus said on Jimmy Traina’s “SI Media” podcast.
“He deserves that. We think the world of him. I think it’s absolutely remarkable the level he still calls games at age 90-plus.”
It is unknown at this time when that last curtain call will take place, but it will be appointment television and a celebratory final game is in the works for Brown.
“I don’t mean to be purposely mysterious here, but we’re going to honor Hubie this year during the regular season at some point to be determined and send him off in style,” Magnus said.
Embed from Getty Images“I don’t think there’s a single human being who’s ever had a longer association with professional basketball.”
Brown has been affiliated with pro basketball dating back to his first season as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1971. The New Jersey native proceeded to carve out a Hall of Fame coaching career, which included stints as the head coach of the Kentucky Colonels, with whom he won the 1975 ABA championship, as well as the Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies.
Brown has had a trying and emotional year to say the lease, as his beloved wife, Clair, passed away in June, and his son, Brendan Brown, passed away at 54 just two weeks ago due to a heart condition.
Brendan was previously an assistant coach for the Grizzlies and a commentator in his own right for the Knicks. Both teams his dad coached.
“It doesn’t seem real to have to say this and I’m struggling to find the right words, but on Sunday Brendan unexpectedly passed away due to health complications,” his wife, Kate Brown, said. “We’re still in a bit of shock and processing.”
After resigning from the Grizzlies due to health issues early in the 2004-05 season, the two-time NBA Coach of the Year joined the ‘World Wide Leader’, ESPN in 2004 and coached multiple teams during his longstanding career in basketball.
He graduated from Niagara University in 1955 and immediately began coaching and molding young men in high school hoops throughout the New York-New Jersey area.
Brown took over as head coach of the Knicks when the great Red Holzman departed in 1982, a job Brown held until for five seasons, until 1987.
Over the course of both his coaching and broadcasting careers, which also included stints at CBS and TNT in-between coaching jobs, Brown has earned numerous honors, including inductions into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame and Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
