Hubie Brown has perhaps seen a greater percentage of the history of basketball than any human being that has ever lived. The 91-year-old played his lone professional season for the Eastern Professional Basketball League’s Rochester Colonels in 1958, at the same time as Wilt Chamberlain was playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. By then he had already begun what would be a 70-year career in the sport, joining St. Mary Academy as a coach in 1955.
He would proceed to coach at the college and professional levels, winning an ABA championship with the Kentucky Colonels in 1975 while winning the NBA’s Coach of the Year award in 1978 for the Atlanta Hawks and then again in 2004 for the Memphis Grizzlies. He will forever be known, however, for his extensive work as a broadcaster. Brown called his first game for USA Network in 1981, and whenever he hasn’t been employed as a coach, he’s taught basketball fans the intricacies of the game on the air ever since.
But on Sunday, Brown called his final professional basketball game. Fittingly, it took place in Milwaukee, where his NBA coaching career began, as the Bucks defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 135-127. Despite the game between high-profile Eastern Conference foes, the afternoon undoubtedly belonged to Brown. Before the game, Bucks coaches were “Thank you Hubie” shirts as they worked with their players.
Several former broadcasting partners of Brown’s, including Dave Pasch, Mark Jones and Mike Tirico, stopped in to share their appreciation for the retiring legend.
Players took the time to appreciate Brown’s legacy as well. Several stopped at the broadcasting table to speak with him before, during and after the game. Damian Lillard called it “an honor” to be a part of Brown’s final game and said that “it’s mandatory that we pay our respect to him.” Official James Williams came over after the game to present Brown with the game ball, earning a joke from Brown about how many technical fouls he picked up during his coaching career.
But the broadcast ended, fittingly, with a heartfelt tribute from play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, and a final goodbye from Brown himself. Brown called the tributes on Sunday “humbling,” and spoke about all of the people whose paths he crossed during his illustrious career. “You come to work, and you want to give everybody 100. But you don’t realize the lives that you cross when you do 50 years of this.”
Brown was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2005. The College Basketball Hall of Fame selected him a year later, and in 2022, he was picked for the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame as well. Now, he retires as one of the greatest basketball broadcasters of all time, bringing an end to a career in the sport that spanned from Chamberlain to Victor Wembanyama. Brown spent 70 years teaching the world about the game of basketball, and he was fittingly honored for that throughout his final NBA broadcast.
