WITH AN EYE ON . . . : Hubie Brown: TNT’s top scorer in the game of analyzing the NBA

A born teacher, Hubie Brown has been educating people most of his adult life. In the ‘60s he taught high school economics and business and coached prep sports in New Jersey. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, he taught the art of team basketball as a respected professional coach in the NBA and the now defunct ABA (American Basketball Assn.)

Today Brown continues to inform and educate as one of the lead basketball analysts on TNT’s NBA telecasts. His cogent insight and no nonsense approach to the game have made the former New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks head coach one of the premier basketball mavens working in the electronic media. Few NBA analysts can break down a play like the professorial Brown.

“I honestly believe you should be a teacher in this position,” says Brown, the NBA Coach of the Year in 1978 while with the Hawks. “That’s how I present my analysis. Fortunately we have the freedom to use the telestrator (a kind of electronic chalkboard used to analyze replays) at Turner more than the national broadcast people do. So we have an opportunity to teach more.”

Though the NBA season concluded several weeks ago, basketball fans will get one more chance to absorb the hoop wisdom of Brown before the league breaks for the summer. This Wednesday Brown, announcer Bob Neal and reporter Craig Sager will be part of TNT’s fifth consecutive telecast of the annual NBA draft. The 29 NBA teams will secure the rights to the best available college and amateur players in this two round process, which will be held in Toronto.

A dozen years ago the NBA draft was a no frills affair that received relatively little public and media attention. Today it is a major event that’s held in a huge arena and is usually attended by 10,000 to 15,000 fans. NBA cities now bid for the privilege of hosting the draft.

According to Brown the key to drafting well is to pick skilled and determined players who can best fit into the coach’s system of play. Analyzing a player’s character and desire is far more difficult than evaluating his physical abilities, he observes.

“The NBA game is played under great (physical and emotional) duress,” states Brown. “How you handle that is what separates the less talented players from the (good players). They can evaluate you with all of their aptitude tests, physical quickness tests, their power tests and all that stuff. But it’s a lot harder to evaluate your work ethic.”

Hard work has long been a trademark of Brown’s, who was known as a taskmaster when he was a head coach. The evening before a telecast he studies tapes of previous contests he’s broadcast. Then on game day he interviews coaches and players at length, attends a production meeting, and spends three hours in the afternoon compiling and condensing his voluminous game notes.

“I know people laugh when I come to the games and I’ve got all kinds of stuff in front of me,” states Brown. “But I don’t worry about what they think. All I know is that I want to be totally prepared because I owe it to the audience to have that type of preparation.”

Brown, 61, actually began his sports broadcasting career as an NBA analyst for the USA Network and CBS during the 1981-82 season, a brief period spent away from coaching. Though he resumed his coaching career with the Knicks the following season, he continued to work the microphone during the post-season whenever his team was not competing in the playoffs. When New York fired Brown in 1987, he became a full-time analyst for CBS and then moved over to TNT in 1990 when CBS lost its network rights to the NBA. During each of the last four seasons he has also worked a handful of Los Angeles Clipper telecasts in place of the team’s regular colorman, Bill Walton.

Brown also helps to conduct 20 to 30 instructional clinics for basketball coaches every year. Held in various locations in the United States and around the world, the clinics help satiate the analyst’s appetite for direct, hands-on teaching. Brown says he isn’t hankering to return to the coaching ranks.

“I will always listen to somebody (who presents a coaching offer),” he reveals. “But I’m very happy with my style of living right now. Remember, I coached for 30 years, not for just five or 15.”

The NBA draft airs Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. on TNT .