Wiley Brown, head coach at Indiana Southeast and former Louisville basketball star, grew up literally across the street from me. We looked up to him because he was 6’8” and because he was a standup guy. I like to think he honed his skills on the whole court in my backyard—it was dirt but still a whole court. Brown and my sister were classmates and both basketball players but her tryout as a walk-on at Georgia Tech didn’t last a week.
When I asked Wiley what should I do about my socks not staying up, he said use rubber bands liked the varsity. In 1980, Brown and the Louisville Cardinals won the NCAA National Champion but dude never got the bighead. A few years ago, he was an assistant coach with Louisville and called my sister and her husband to offer tickets to their game against UNC Charlotte. Since my brother in law is a pastor and sports fan, Brown asked him if he would like to speak to the team and meet coach Rick Pitino before the game. After the brief devotional, Brown asked the pastor if he would like to hold a clipboard and sit with them on the bench. How cool is that? He declined and sat with my sister.
The moral of the story is: when you get married, you miss out on cool stuff. I would have been on that bench and in the huddle during each timeout.
For the second time in my life, I will be cheering for Duke this weekend. You know Duke has that whole Boston Celtic/Nerds v. Homeboys thing popping. But, Wiley Brown’s late teammate Derek Smith is the father of Duke’s Nolan Smith. An article in the local newspaper today says that Smith and Brown created the high-five back in the day. Who knew? The only other time I cheered for Duke was during the Grant Hill era. Hill is just good people.
Things have changed on East Lee Street in 30 years. This street has produced many PHDs, Master’s degrees and military honors from modest homes paid for with real sweat. When I pickup lottery tickets and cigar wrappers today (you know what the kids do with Blunts), the youth don’t even speak. Old ladies can’t sit on their porches because the ugliest language in the world gets pumped out of car stereos and foul mouths. The last time Brown was home I told him we had some good point guards in the area and he looked like “now tell me about their mindset and attitude.” At the end of the day, team sports are about building character and winning at life. Some cats aren’t team players. Personally, I played on the tennis squad–a squad is a group of individuals from the same school.
Blue Dogs who voted against the healthcare bill are on the squad—not a team. These local point guards are brilliant raw talents (like Iverson) but can they function inside the team concept. There is no “I” in team and but their is a “u” in squad. Okay, that doesn’t really mean anything.
Project Logic Ga 
Great article Sylvester, aka Slt-Town has produce a few success stories. When I come home I see no progression or real growth for the youth in our community. Carl has always been a stand up and stand out kind of guy.
Oh yeah. Marion Butts led the NFL in rushing while with the Chargers and Robert Toomer was one of the best running backs in prep sports history.
I can’t leave out the women basketball legends: Barbara Ann, Tia, Alphanette.
Sly,
Wiley was the first so-called big time athlete I saw play ball in SOWEGA. I was a sixth grader and had just begun attending games regularly. The energy, excitement and pageantry associated with the games was intoxicating and I couldn’t wait to be a part of it upon going to high school. The night that Wiley came to town was absolutely amazing. The energy and buzz in the building during warm-ups was of the charts as all anticipated what was to come; this was during the time that few players dunked during a game and we all expected to see one that night; Wiley did not disappoint. He dunked, and the crowd went wild.
Unfortunate for me, I missed the damn thing; somehow I was distracted during the sequence (not sure the cause) and remember the palpable chorus of “WHHOOOPPP” that accommodated the execution. That it occurred in our home gym did not matter; we were just excited that it occurred at all.
I was equally excited to see him playing on TV; my brother and I adopted Louisville as our team. When Louisville won, we where as excited as anybody; I was proud as shit that somebody from the area started the game, and that I saw him play in high school. I also remember WALB did a feature story when he came home; I fantasized about having similar experiences one day.
Until this game, I assumed our local guy was the best athlete on the planet; but Wiley made him look fairly pedestrian. However, instead of diminishing my perspective about our local guy, it propelled Wiley to astronomical levels in my opinion; our local guy was still the man in my book. I now know that neither where particularly special given comparisons to players like Kobe and Lebron. Heck, neither would register among the top 10 from this area given the eventual emergence of players like Dontonio Wingfield, Melvin Drake, Alexander Johnson, Jumain Jones and others in later years. (IMHO)
Thanks Albany Herald for the article on Wiley; I wondered what had occurred with dude. Thanks also to you Sly for the forum; it was fun to reflect on a much more innocent time of my life. I think of those days often.
When attending games now, I look at the kids and wonder their thoughts. My son attended some high school football and B-ball games this past year; months later, he plays one-man football/basketball games against phantom teams and it makes me smile as his games are accompanied with play by play announcements. I smile because it also takes me back; for months/years after my Wiley experience, I did the same thing.
Shifting the subject slightly; because of my experience, and the role sports played in my development, I cringe whenever people decry it’s pursuit among black youth as a career option. (Same with being an entertainer). I understand that folks want to encourage kids to consider other options, but do so without implying that professional athletics is wrong or lacking in nobility. Who doesn’t at some point want to be an professional athlete or entertainer? Please folks, encourage other pursuits, but stop hating on the professional athletics (entertainers) as career pursuits; it is not inherently problematic.
Sorry about the length of this post; I got started and well, it was hard to stop. Sports are powerful in this society; don’t know what my development would have been without it.
What I think: wow…you broke that thing down. Thanks for your detail post and comments. I could not agree with you more. It is go seeing coaches like Brown impact young people. He had a great relationship with Coach Crum and now grooms young men for life himself.
Talking about someone coming into your gym, I rememeber a few years ago Lewis Clinch with Crisp Co. jumped over a Worth Co. Ram for a reverse dunk and we had to give him a standing ovation. Clinch later played for GA Tech.
Sly,
Never saw Clinch but heard he was nice. I did see some of the others I mentioned during the early 90’s; during that time, Metro Albany area featured some of the best players/teams in the country. ASC could only dream of drawing the crowds those teams would draw during cross town/metro games. In fact, I believe some of the teams would have beaten ASC had they played them.
ASU needs to keep the area players at home and win a D-2 national championship. We had a WCHS Ram named Blackmon who was so nice (nicknamed Snow) and this year Josh Alford is pure talent.
Hell, Michigan’s Fab Five could have attended FAMU or Howard and won a national championship with a school that….(I better leave that alone.)