Illinois, Utah, Romania, and Everywhere In Between: The Long Journey of Dee Brown

Walking through the University of Illinois' athletic facilities, you see a number of familiar faces. Photos of Red Grange on the wall, tributes to Dick Butkus nearby. Enter the school's basketball facilities, and you'll find a tribute to the 2005 Illinois men's squad. The most heavily featured of the bunch? Dee Brown.

"He was very, very special. When he would walk into the gym, you would know it," said Bruce Weber, who coached Brown at Illinois between his sophomore and senior seasons. "It didn't matter if it was practice or open gym. When he was on the floor, he brought everyone else to another level."

Brown was far from the most successful pro to come through the school, but he was undoubtedly the most celebrated while he was there. When you go back and marvel at what that team did, you'll see signs of number 11 everywhere you go, and for good reason.

He was a one-man fast break, good enough to earn a special on SportsCenter to showcase his talents. He was a leader, good enough to lead his team to the 2005 NCAA championship finals. He was unselfish, finishing third all-time in assists in the Big 10. It was his unselfishness that shined through.

"When you're on a team, it's a group of guys, not just one individual," Brown said in an intreview with VICE Sports. "Everybody was all 'Dee this' and 'Dee that,' but it was such a team-oriented game that we played."

He persevered despite his size. Listed at 6'0", he had to go off talent and willpower to get around the giants of the Big 10. Brown was a first-team All American in 2005, and was named Sporting News National Player of the Year. He seemed to be on the path to success. Then he broke his foot at the NBA Draft Combine. Suddenly, as teammates Deron Williams, Luther Head, and Roger Powell left for the NBA, Brown was on his way back to school.

With Williams gone, Brown played a much more traditional point guard role than ever before. Illinois was good in Brown's senior year, but they weren't title contenders. Dee Brown was good as wellt, but he didn't dominate the position the way scouts wanted him to.

"I thought I was an NBA guy, but people always had questions about my game, and what I could do," he said. "Everybody wondered if I could play point guard, but I'm one of the all-time leaders in assists in the Big 10."

Still, his size made it tough for scouts to grow fond of him, especially given his senior year production.

"The thing that Dee Brown faced that I think most guards of his size and stature struggle with is making the transition from college basketball to NBA-level basketball," said one NBA draft scout, who wished to remain anonymous. "That injury, I don't know how much it affected him coming back, but the bottom line is he was a small guard who basically wasn't as good [at the] NBA level as he was at the college level. I think a lot of that had to do with his size."

The size factor was a serious one when scouts looked at Brown. He plays the game more like a shooting guard than a point guard and that can be a tough thing to do well in the pros. He certainly had the ball handling and speed, but past that, he was of the shooting guard mold. He shot well, but probably not well enough. He finished in traffic well, but not well enough. And despite finishing his gaudy assist totals in the Big 10, he was not a good enough distributor to impress scouts. He fell all the way to the middle of the second round, eventually picked forty-sixth overall by the Utah Jazz.

"Dee was kind of a combo guard," Coach Weber said. "He didn't have the great size that the NBA guys were looking for. Then he had the injury after his junior year, and I think that might have set him back a little bit. But it's very, very difficult to make the NBA, and he was in the league for a little bit. That's an accomplishment for any player."

In a lot of ways, Brown was like many college graduates, in that the NBA was Brown's first time away from home. Before college, Brown was a celebrated prep athlete in Illinois. He even won the highly competitive Mr. Basketball honor in 2002, beating out some of Chicago's finest. He had never claimed residency outside of Illinois before he went pro.

No matter what the reason, scouts seemed to call it correctly: Brown struggled in the NBA. He bounced around different teams, often being cut in the middle of the season.

Had Brown never broken his foot at the combine, his draft fortunes may have been different. Or, maybe not. Regardless, it would be understandable if Brown still had some questions about it. It would be understandable if he still thought about it, or had some bitter feelings about it.

But if you ask him, he'd tell you just the opposite.

"Breaking my foot may be the best thing that could have happened to me."

Brown is currently playing in Romania. He's competing for the Eurocup with CSU Asesoft Ploiești. He and his wife, Delores have been touring Europe , and both say they couldn't be happier. While he may have been receiving a majority of the accolades at Illinois, he said the team concept has never left him. That started in college.

It may not have suited him in the NBA, but that does not seem to bother Brown. He's a natural in Europe, and he's taken up the European game as a new cause. Brown believes the Euroleague doesn't get anywhere near its rightful due.

"Everybody has questions about me being a pro, but I'm in my ninth season of pro ball," he said. "A lot of people don't know that the NBA isn't the only place you can play high-level basketball."

In less than 10 years, Brown has played pro ball in Turkey, Italy, China, Puerto Rico, Latvia, and now Romania. He's touring the world, making a living playing basketball at a professional level.

"For me, I've just been blessed to continue to play basketball and provide for my family," he said. "I've been here since before it was cool to come over to Europe. Now that the game is so global it's not seen as a failure to come overseas and play basketball. It was never a failure."