[外電] Brown's character shows through in tough season
原文出自nola.com
http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1107590109287440.xml
Brown's character shows through in tough season
Saturday, February 05, 2005
John DeShazier
Not that we ever have doubted P.J. Brown, the rare athlete
whose word and handshake are as good as a blood oath, who
universally is respected by his NBA peers, who you don't
fear your son or daughter admiring because he really is a
do-the-right-thing type who sacrifices for the greater good
instead of one who says one thing and does another.
But even for him, this season is something special, despite
the muck the Hornets are mired in.
Brown and his beloved team are going nowhere this postseason,
done in by a 2-29 start that guarantees he will be home for
the playoffs for the first time since 1996, when he played
for New Jersey. And yet he has never stood taller, represented
his franchise better, defined "team" and "sacrifice" more
accurately than Webster's, poured out all he has in the name
of helping the Hornets improve and compete in any way they can.
See, even though he's playing the sport he loves and being
paid well to do it (he's in the second year of a four-year,
$34 million deal), Brown is serving a sentence, made mandatory
when 2003-04 All-Star Jamaal Magloire injured his finger two
months and 35 games ago.
The punishment, so to speak, is playing center. Punishment
because at 6 feet 11 and 239 pounds -- and that listing may
be a little generous on the weight -- the 35-year-old is not,
by any stretch, a full-time, bona fide, back-to-the-basket
center.
"I keep telling Big Cat (Magloire) to come on back," Brown
said, smiling. "I'm definitely ready to go back to my old
spot."
But the effort and production make it hard to tell.
Brown has hacked at Shaq, climbed Yao, chased coltish Amare
Stoudemire, banged Brad Miller and even found time to swap
forearms with Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, power forwards
whom he sometimes has been asked to deal with.
Undersized and, perhaps by now, running on fumes, he has
been the kind of player his teammates should emulate, the
kind New Orleans and every other franchise could use several
more of, the kind for whom the word "professional" doesn't
nearly do justice.
"I think the guys respect what I do," Brown said. "I think
they believe in me, and they know what they're going to get
out of me night in and night out. I think they notice that."
You won't always see his value in the 10.8 points and 9.2
rebounds he collects per game, 11.5 and 9.8 since he moved
to center, or the team-leading 18 double-doubles. You will,
though, in the fact that he keeps showing up for work, banged
up and tired and out of position, the only Hornet who has
started and played in all 45 games, plugging away for a
team-leading 36.6 minutes a night.
"I've always had a lot of respect for P.J., and it has grown
even moreso," Coach Byron Scott said. "He's a true professional.
He goes out there every night, never complains. Anybody that
has a chance to coach him would fall in love with him."
Even this season. Perhaps, especially this season, when
veteran teammates (Darrell Armstrong and David Wesley)
have been traded, others have been injured, one (Jim
Jackson) refused to report after a trade because he didn't
want to play for the Hornets and most of the others are
young enough to have been in grammar school or middle
school when Brown began his career 12 seasons ago.
"I think he's doing a great job for us," forward Lee Nailon
said. "For the most part, he has held his own. I thought he
was going to struggle a little bit, but he holds his own.
"It's good for him, and it's good for us because we don't
have to wait for guys to come back."
"I'm trying not to think about it," Brown said of the
possibility of wearing down. "It's something I'm dealing
with. I really don't have a choice.
"Coach wants me out there. He'll ask me if I need (a rest),
and I tell him, 'Don't ask me that. Just let me go until I
can't go.' It's tough, man. But it's my job."
And it's one he's doing as well as he ever has.
"I just try to go out there and play," he said. "I'm
committed to this team. I want to see us successful and
get back on track, no matter what."
. . . . . . .
John DeShazier can be reached at jdeshazier@timespicayune.com
or (504) 826-3410.
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