Charlotte Bobcats assistant coach Charles Oakley talks about working with Kwame Brown – NBA News
Kwame Brown is not an All-Star, neither is he a player making headlines quite often. However in the last two weeks, the now Charlotte Bobcats centre has been the topic of some very big names.
First, it was the Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, who gave a detailed insight on Browns’ blunders, once he was in the Lakers uniform and now former NBA star and current Charlotte Bobcats assistant coach Charles Oakley
has given his view on working with Brown.
Brown is the starting centre for the Bobcats and after a career filled with disappointments, he experienced an upturn in fortunes towards the second half of last year’s campaign.
Many have attributed that to Oakley’s input. Now that he has spent time with Brown, the coach believes he has been able to teach him things that were perhaps never taught to him at the start of his career.
“With Kwame, I wasn’t with him in Washington; I don’t think anyone ever took the time out give him details as to what he is supposed to do night in, night out.” Oakley told Hoopsworld, referring to Brown’s time with the Washington
Wizards.
Kwame was drafted as first overall by the Washington Wizards, straight out of high school, and was billed as the next big thing. However, the then young star failed to live up to the hype and the huge expectations came crashing
down on his NBA career.
Now a veteran, Brown is showing signs of becoming at least a useful enough player under the guidance of Oakley and the rest of Charlotte’s coaching staff.
“We just started working on some drills and showing him some moves inside.” Revealed Charles “I always told him, ‘If you get the ball in the paint, you can shoot it. You get the offensive rebound, throw it out.’”
Oakley also said the Brown was just not the type of player to put up big scores night in night out. His job should never have been to be a big scorer, because that is not what his talents are suited to.
“You know, you don’t always have to look to shoot…”
Oakley, who was a grafter himself back in the day, said that players have specific jobs on the court and because teams nowadays do not respect that fact, they suffer as a result,
“When we played, if you weren’t a one, two, or three option, the ball wasn’t going to be in your hands. Some teams now put the ball into the hands of guys that shouldn’t even have the ball and that’s why there are so many bad teams
now.” He said.
Kwame is a player who has struggled throughout his career. He showed some signs of revival with the Wizards but chose to change teams. Any progress he seemed to make was often offset by injuries and the player failed to make a
mark even when playing alongside Kobe Bryant with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Now with the Bobcats, in a low profile team where he doesn’t have the burden of expectations, it seems like Brown might finally become more than a liability to his side.
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