[SunSentinel] Brown spurned Spurs to stay home for team, city

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/basketball/heat/ sfl-hornetnote28apr28,0,6257378.story?coll=sfla-sports-heat Brown spurned Spurs to stay home for team, city By Ira Winderman Staff Writer Posted April 28 2004 NEW ORLEANS -- Had he been guided by his head instead of his heart, P.J. Brown would be thinking about the second round of the NBA playoffs today instead of working to get past the Heat in this first-round series. Life with the San Antonio Spurs, as a bodyguard for Tim Duncan, would likely have been more rewarding than the veteran power forward's current reality with the New Orleans Hornets. As a free agent last summer, Brown had that option. Nine months later, the former Heat mainstay said he has no regrets. A native Louisianan, Brown said leaving New Orleans would have been like leaving home. "I feel I was meant to be here and I'm here for more reasons than basketball, and just the whole scenario with the way the team came here," he said. (The Hornets relocated to his home state two seasons after he had been dealt from Miami to Charlotte in the 2000 offseason.) "There's a whole lot of things I want to do in this community, in this state, far beyond after my basketball days are over," Brown said. Awarded the NBA's citizenship trophy during his time with the Heat, Brown has been just as active in New Orleans, running a foundation with his wife, Dee. "It's all about the kids. It's all about the youth," he said. "It's similar to some things I did in Miami: purchasing computers for them, running camps in the summer. "I'm trying to branch out even more this summer. I want to take field trips in the summertime to the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta. I want to take them to the National Civil Rights museum in Memphis. I want to go to Washington, D.C., go to the White House." Brown wound up signing a four-year, $32 million contract last summer with the Hornets, a package that well could take the 34-year-old defensive presence to the end of his career. That left the Spurs to turn to former Timberwolves center Rasho Nesterovic in free agency to replace retired center David Robinson. Brown said he keeps an eye on the Spurs every now and then, particularly on a former Heat teammate. "They're doing a good job," he said. "I'm happy for Bruce Bowen." REUNION TIME The series has reunited Hornets guard Baron Davis and Heat guard Eddie Jones, with the two sharing a friendly relationship that goes beyond the year they spent with the Hornets in 1999-00, when Davis was a rookie backup. Davis played in high school and college (UCLA) in Southern California while Jones was with the Los Angeles Lakers. That was when Jones took an interest in Davis. "Taking me under his wing, picking me up, and hanging out with me, working out with me, giving me shoes when I was growing out of my shoes in high school and college," Davis said. PLAIN PAIN TALK Guard Darrell Armstrong, one of several ailing Hornets, said talk of injuries should not overshadow his team's effort in the series. "The way I look at it," he said, "a lot of teams are banged up. To me it's just how much desire, how much passion you have to play through it. Everybody can't play through it. Everybody doesn't like pain." Staff Writer Ethan J. Skolnick contributed to this report. Copyright c 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 218.166.77.108