Wizards select Kwame Brown with #1 pick.June 28, 2001 | by espn.comIn an unprecedented and historic move, the Washington Wizards used the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft last night to select high school star Kwame Brown, a 19-year-old from Brunswick, Ga., who said he decided to skip college to help his family overcome financial difficulties.
No high school player had been taken first overall and no player directly from high school has ever played for the Wizards. But the franchise's long-term struggles prompted Michael Jordan, the president of basketball operations, to believe he "had to stick his neck out" and take the risk.
"We feel like we have a quality kid and his potential is unbelievable," Jordan said. "We don't know what this kid is capable of doing, that's the beauty of why we drafted him. We don't know. In a couple of years he may be a star."
The fate of the Wizards, who finished with a franchise-worst 19-63 record last season, does not rest on the 6-foot-11 Brown, Jordan said. But as the No. 1 pick, Brown said he knows he will be judged by how quickly he adapts to professional basketball and whether he can revive the franchise.
"You don't know whether you want to faint, run, jump and cry all at once," said Brown, who starred at Glynn Academy in Brunswick. "I'm not concerned about being the first player chosen in the draft. All eyes are on me right now but I still realize I have a job, as do the guys picked number two, number three, to the last guy. We all have a job to do and we have to do it our best. It doesn't matter what pick. What matters is how you maximize your opportunity."
The Wizards were not alone in deciding to put their future in the hands of young players. Three of the first four players drafted came from high school and another was selected eighth.
Brown, 19, initially committed to the University of Florida but opted for the NBA this spring after several league talent evaluators projected him as a top five pick. By being taken first, he will be guaranteed a contract for at least three years and $12 million.
He said he will use the money to provide for his mother, Joyce, who had supported Brown and his seven siblings by cleaning rooms at a hotel before a back injury left her unable to work. Joyce Brown said last night that she has a chipped disk that stemmed from an injury that occurred when she was a high school basketball player.
"The only thing that may ever be as good [as being selected number one] is when I give my mom the keys to her first house in her own name," Kwame Brown said.
On the first night of his professional career, Brown appeared humble and mature after his selection was announced at Madison Square Garden in New York. In interviews before the draft, Brown had said that unlike some other young players in the draft, he's not obsessed with material things. He proudly displayed his chiseled, tattoo-less arms and openly discussed his days growing up wearing hand-me-downs.
Jordan said those qualities helped persuade the Wizards to take him.
It didn't hurt that as a senior, Brown averaged 20 points, 13.3 rebounds and 5.8 blocked shots. At the prestigious McDonald's All-American game, in which he played against the top high school players in the country, he scored 17 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked a game-high five shots.
As impressed as Washington was with those skills, it was his ballhandling and success shooting from the perimeter that convinced the Wizards that Brown was the best player for their future. There was some reluctance in taking a player so young who has never experienced a big-city atmosphere or played against a consistently high level of competition. Coach Doug Collins and Jordan said the team will put together a support system to help Brown and that teammates will have to nurture him.
Collins said the team is considering signing a free agent to serve as Brown's mentor, although he declined to identify him.
Collins said he remembered how Toronto Raptors free agent center Antonio Davis took high school forward Al Harrington under his wing when both were with the Indiana Pacers.
"We need to surround him with an environment that's really going to make it very comfortable for him to be able to grow," Collins said. "To make him trust us, so he knows we'll be here for him as he continues to grow and experience things."
Joyce Brown said she will move to Washington with her son. "Most likely, I'll go for one year. But I have a 14-year-old son, Akeem, who is 6-3 1/2. He goes to the same school Kwame did. I need to go back and confer with him and see how he feels about it."
Several other high school players had a parent or friends from their home towns live with them their rookie season.
"Without a doubt the mental challenge" will be the toughest part of the transition, Brown said. "All the high school players in the draft are going to be under a lot of scrutiny. A lot of people are hoping we fail so they can say we told you so."
After Brown, two more high school players were drafted with the next three selections. Tyson Chandler, from Dominguez High in Compton, Calif., was taken second overall and later traded to the Chicago Bulls for star forward Elton Brand. The Bulls also drafted local prep star Eddy Curry at No. 4, giving them two high school players to use as building blocks for their moribund franchise.
All three high school players are at least 6-11.
NBA teams sent a clear message that U.S. college experience is no longer a prerequisite for draft success. There were four high school and four foreign-born players taken in the first round. But only four of the 28 first-round picks played for four years in college. And the top college player last season, Shane Battier of national champion Duke, was selected sixth.
Little should be expected from Brown and the high school players during their first year in the league. All-star guard Kobe Bryant, who was taken 13th overall by the Lakers out of Lower Merion (Pa.) High School in 1996, averaged only 7.6 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists as a rookie before becoming one of the top players in the league. Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett, a perennial all-star who began the recent trend of high school players jumping to the NBA in 1995, averaged 10.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in his rookie season.
After the draft, Jordan, 38, played down his rumored return to playing basketball. He is still recovering from two fractured ribs, suffered in a pickup game in Chicago two weeks ago, and gave no timetable about when he would make a decision about a comeback. Retired forward Charles Barkley, a television analyst of Turner Broadcasting who has said he might return to play for the Wizards with Jordan, said he would make his decision Aug. 1.
"We did this draft as if I was nowhere around," Jordan said. "I was doing my job for what the Wizards pay me to do, which is to evaluate talent and try to put together the best basketball team possible. If I decide to play it's only going to add to what's happening."
The possibility of Jordan returning has sparked tremendous interest in the team, and season ticket sales have been brisk.
A team official said that just 300 seats remain in the lower bowl of the 20,000-seat MCI Center.
Kwame Brown, a 6-foot-11, 240-pound forward-center, greets NBA Commissioner David Stern after Brown's name is called first at draft headquarters in New York.Kwame Brown sits and waits for start of the NBA draft. He is the first high school student to be the No. 1 overall pick. Wizards had no other picks in draft.Eric Johnson, a District native and Washington Wizards fan who watched the draft at the ESPN Zone in Northwest Washington, reacts to Wizards' choice.Michael Jordan, the Wizards' president of basketball operations, appears pleased with Washington's selection of Kwame Brown.