Longtime NBA coach and broadcaster Hubie Brown, 91, plans to retire from television after the NBA season, according to ESPN president Burke Magnus.
Magnus said on ‘SI Media with Jimmy Traina’ that the current season would be Brown’s last broadcasting games for ESPN, with which he has been for more than 20 years.
“We are going to give Hubie one last shot on a game. He deserves that,” Magnus said after confirming Brown would not broadcast an NBA Finals game. “We think the world of him. I think it’s absolutely remarkable the level he still calls games at age 90-plus… I don’t mean to be purposefully mysterious, but we’re going to honor Hubie this year during the regular season at some point to be determined and send him off in style.
“I don’t think there’s a single human being that’s ever had a longer association with professional basketball.”
“That’s for you Hubie!”
Bobby Portis, who’s mic’d up, shouting out Hubie Brown who’s calling the Bucks-Suns game this afternoon for ESPN
pic.twitter.com/kTsgLA36Uq
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 17, 2024
Hubie Brown to end nearly 40-year NBA broadcasting career
Brown began coaching in 1955, and after more than 15 years in the high school and college ranks, eventually worked his way up to being an NBA assistant in 1972. After two seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks, Brown earned his first pro head coaching gig when he was hired by the ABA’s Kentucky Colonels.
With the Colonels, Brown won an ABA Championship in his first season. The ABA merged with the NBA after Brown’s second season in Kentucky, at which time he became the Atlanta Hawks’ new head coach. In five seasons with Atlanta, he led the Hawks to three playoff appearances and a 199-209 record.
After being fired by the Hawks in 1981, Brown became the head coach of the New York Knicks in 1982. The Knicks reached the playoffs in each of Brown’s first two seasons but missed the playoffs the following two seasons, and shortly during Brown’s fifth year in New York, he was fired.
Brown remained off of the sidelines for 15 years after being ousted by New York. It was during this time that Brown’s broadcasting career began to take off; he joined CBS as a full-time commentator in 1987 and made his way to TNT a few years later.
During the 2002-03 season, Jerry West, who had coached against Brown in the late 1970s, lured 69-year-old Brown out of broadcasting and back into coaching by hiring him as the Memphis Grizzlies’ new head coach following Sidney Lowe’s dismissal. Brown, who took over an 0-8 team in mid-November, lost his first five games and 10 of his first 12 as the Grizzlies coach.
However, despite a 2-18 start to the season, Memphis rebounded and rattled off four straight wins in December and won 28 games on the season, which set a franchise record. The Grizzlies, since their debut in 1995, had never won more than 23 games to that point.
The following season, Brown led the Grizzlies to a 50-32 record and the first playoff appearance in franchise history. For his work, Brown earned his second NBA Coach of the Year Award after previously winning the award in 1978 with the Hawks.
Amid a 5-7 start, Brown resigned early in the 2004-05 season, citing health concerns. He returned to broadcasting, this time with ESPN, shortly thereafter. He has remained with the network since as a color commentator.
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