Remembering the under-appreciated career of P.J. Brown

Remember P.J. Brown? If you were a fan of the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets you should. Fans of the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets and Miami Heat should remember him as well.

If you weren’t a fan of those teams, of course, you don’t remember P.J. Brown. Why would you?

The 6’11” power forward was drafted by the Nets with the 29th pick of the second round. He played three seasons with them and four with the Miami Heat. He then went to the Hornets/Pelicans for six years, before playing one season each for the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics.

P.J. Brown was never the best player on the court.

The big man averaged 9.1 points and 7.7 rebounds per game throughout his career. While those are solid role numbers, they aren’t going to win him any awards.

You know how there’s a bruiser badge in 2k? They invented it because of Brown. Okay, clearly they didn’t, but you get the point, Brown wasn’t afraid to bang down low.

He was also an incredibly efficient player. Brown shot 46% from the field in his career, and 79.4% from the free throw line. He averaged 1.5 assists compared to only 1.2 turnovers, while averaging one block, and 0.8 steals per game.

Efficiency was a big part of Brown’s game. While he may not have averaged too many points, it was due to a lack of shooting, not a lack of ability. Meanwhile, 1.5 assists aren’t much, but it’s still a higher number than the 1.2 turnovers.

Brown played six years with the Pelican/Hornets. His first three years in New Orleans were arguably the three best years he spent in the NBA. The man known as Big Cat (baller nickname by the way) averaged over 10 points per game in all three of those years. In fact, his worst year from 2002-03 to 2004-05 saw him average 10.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the role players and the underdogs. You know, the guys that don’t get all the glory.

Brown fits that description perfectly. He won’t go down as an NBA-great, but he always helped whatever team he was on.

While he may not have been the best player on any of the rosters, Brown’s teams went to the playoffs 11-of-his-15 seasons. At some point, the common denominator has to be considered.

Sure, you could say someone that averaged 9.1 points and 7.7 rebounds per game in his career couldn’t have had that much impact, but all I see are doubters.

To top it all off, he went out as a champion. Brown retired after the 2007-08 season that he spent with the NBA champion Boston Celtics. Not a bad career for a late-second rounder.

Next: Throwback Week: Favorite Pels’ offseason move of the past

There are a lot of things you could call P.J. Brown. Just make sure you know one of them is “underrated” while the other is “champion”.