Draft Workouts - Taliek Brown

Conn's Taliek Brown gets his vertical tested in a pre-draft workout.

With the 2004 NBA Draft rapidly approaching and the Celtics holding three first round picks, Celtics.com will be bringing exclusive behind the scenes information from draft workouts held at The Sports Authority Training Center in Waltham.

Taliek Brown is a 6-1 senior point guard from the University of Connecticut. He helped guide the Huskies to the 2004 National Championship, while averaging 6.3 points and 6.5 assists per game. Brown is a pure point guard who excels at running an offense and making his teammates better.

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Celtics.com: First off, what was it like when that final buzzer went off in the National Championship game?

Taliek Brown: Oh, it was just a great feeling to work so hard the whole year and the work finally pays off. When the buzzer went off, everybody, we just couldn't explain how it really felt.

Celtics.com: Connecticut had a pretty good core group with yourself, Emeka Okafur and Ben Gordon, what was it like playing with those guys?

Brown: We played together for a couple of years, so we just knew this was a great opportunity for us to win and we had a lot of good freshman talent coming in, so we knew this was our opportunity, and this was all of our last years, so we knew we had to come in and just be ready to play the whole senior year and not even give up-just play throughout everything.

Celtics.com: How do you think your workout went today?

Brown: I think it went solid, it went real good and I just got to come out and play hard and keep doing what I'm doing out here.

Celtics.com: Was this your first workout?

Brown: Yeah, this is my first one. I have a couple more planned, but I think it really went good for my first one.

Celtics.com: What's it like being a National Champion point guard, knowing you're going up against high school kids with lots of hype being talked about as first round picks based on potential?

Brown: You just have to stay focused and just try to be mentally tougher than everybody out here, just stay focused, and keep working hard. It isn't in my hands anymore. It's in the GM's hands, God's hands. So, I just got to keep playing, regardless.

Celtics.com: What do you feel you can bring to an NBA team?

Brown: I think I can bring my leadership and my point guard ability—getting everybody involved, and my shot is really improving, so I think I could bring some scoring, also.

Compiled By: Brian Gleason