Devin Brown Q&A
What a difference a month has made for Hornets guard Devin Brown. Thirty days ago, the 6-foot-5, 220-pound guard was living in his native San Antonio, working out and waiting for interest from an NBA team. As a month and a half of the regular season went by and Brown still found himself out of the league, he admits that he started to become anxious about his lack of an offer.
New Orleans/Oklahoma City signed the University of Texas-San Antonio product to a contract on Dec. 22. Three and a half weeks later, the Hornets are extremely grateful that the five-year NBA veteran was available. Brown has capitalized on his opportunity, averaging career-highs in points (11.5), rebounds (6.2) and assists (3.8).
In just his fifth game as a Hornet, Brown compiled perhaps the finest game of his pro career vs. Denver on Dec. 29, registering 19 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. On national TV vs. Washington on Jan. 12, the 28-year-old posted a career-best nine assists, along with 19 points.
All this from a player any NBA team could have signed over the first seven weeks of the 2006-07 regular season.
“It makes (Hornets general manager) Jeff Bower a candidate for Executive of the Year, because Devin has done a great job,” a grinning Hornets head coach Byron Scott assessed when asked about the Brown pickup. “Devin was a guy we were looking at before the season started, but we didn’t want to use that last roster spot until we really needed to. Fortunately for us, but unfortunately for Devin, he was still out there when we needed him. He’s come in and taken advantage of the situation.”
Hornets.com chatted with Brown, who candidly discussed his impact on the Hornets so far and the reasons behind why he was temporarily out of the NBA.
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Eichenhofer:When you signed with the Hornets on Dec. 22, could you have imagined this situation working out as well as it has for you? You had a career-high in assists with nine vs. Washington, approached a triple-double vs. Denver and are experiencing one of the best stretches of your five-year NBA career.
Brown:It has been. Coming into this situation, there was a lot of responsibility put on my shoulders. They told me, ‘Come in, play hard, learn Byron Scott’s system and get comfortable out there.’
Eichenhofer: Byron Scott said in early December that you told him you were disappointed with the way you were playing. Are you more satisfied now and do you feel like you’ve played closer to your own personal expectations?
Brown:It has been. Coming into this situation, there was a lot of responsibility put on my shoulders. They told me, ‘Come in, play hard, learn Byron Scott’s system and get comfortable out there.’
That’s what has happened. With me having the time off that I did, I was able to watch a lot of NBA games at home and see other guys play. I realized that I was taking too much of a serious, business (approach) to my game. I realized that I was out there over-thinking and trying to be perfect in everything I did on the floor.
Now, Coach Scott has basically given me free reign to go out there and play. That suits me, when you don’t have to worry that if you make one or two mistakes, you’re going to get taken out of the game. It’s worked well.
Eichenhofer:You mentioned that you started to take the lack of an offer personally. Did you ever get to the point mentally where you said to yourself, ‘I’ve had some pretty good seasons in the NBA and proven that I can be at least a good reserve in the league, so why am I not getting an offer?’
Brown:Yeah, definitely. You start looking around and questioning everything. If you go to work out and practice your game, and people see you miss a couple jump shots, they say (to themselves), ‘You know, that’s probably why he’s not (in the NBA), because he’s not making his jump shots.’
You start working out even harder, and put even more hours in at the gym. But once you get back to ‘The Show’ (the NBA), you’ve got to show everybody why you belong.
Eichenhofer:You alluded to making calls to NBA teams when you were unsigned. How many teams did you and your agent contact?
Brown:We were calling a lot of teams. A lot of teams we called had a good (starting) shooting guard, but maybe needed someone to come off the bench for them at that spot. We were looking for anything, really. There were about four or five teams that wanted to do something, but couldn’t because of the (number of players already under contract) they had. When you start hearing that from teams over and over, day after day, you start to take it personally.
Eichenhofer:As the Hornets’ injuries accumulated, did you and your agent start to look at this team more closely? Especially since they were down to only 10 healthy players before you signed?
Brown: Yes. But this team also had interest in me going into training camp, because (the Hornets) knew that Golden State already had a lot of guards on their team. Well, my agent and I didn’t know what was happening, because the Warriors never told us. They never let us know anything.
(The Warriors) told us, ‘Don’t worry. We want you to be here.’ Then about an hour before the first practice, I found out that I had been waived by them. By that time, the Hornets already had all of their guys in training camp, so there was no way for me to come here.
But there has always been interest (from the Hornets) in me, going back to when I was with San Antonio. I finally was able to come here and it’s worked out very well so far.
Eichenhofer:What did you and your agent think about the timing of Golden State’s releasing you?
Brown:We thought it was very unusual. Throughout the summer, I thought everything was fine. Then at 7:30 a.m. on the day of our first practice, I get a phone call from them saying that they waived me.
To me, that’s not good business. At least let me know, so that way I can go to another team and have a chance to possibly get into someone else’s training camp. But looking back on it now, we just say it was bad business.
Eichenhofer: Do you believe that if the Warriors had cut you in the summer, you would have been signed by someone before the season started?
Brown: Oh yeah. There were four or five teams that were ready to sign me in the summer.
