GM!BOW : Shannon Brown3

Weight/Height: 210 lbs, 6’4

Team, Position: Los Angeles Lakers, Guard

College: Michigan State

Draft Year: 2006, 1st round, 25th by Cleveland

What conclusions can we draw from last night’s duel between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks? A: The Dallas Mavericks will play as hard as they need to in order to win a game. There is no soft bone in their body. B: The Lakers will retaliate anytime they feel a teammate is being fouled hard on a play.

The game became a little more physical than I believe anyone expected and one of the five men to be ejected was none other than the high flying Shannon Brown. After defending his teammate, Pau Gasol, Brown was tossed out of the game. He has not always been such an aggressive player. He has not even always been a Laker for that matter.

Shannon Brown was passed back and forth between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the NBA’s Development League in the earliest stages of his career. He showed the potential of what kind of player he may be, but still needed grooming in a setting where the focus is on the development of your game instead being thrown to the wolves. Maybe that was the Cavaliers goal, maybe not.

He made stops in Chicago, Iowa Energy (D-League) and Charlotte before he landed in Los Angeles. The newest commercial spot for the Development League, featuring Brown, is airing under the NBA’s Where Amazing Happens campaign. Brown was one of the stories that should have put confidence back into the hearts of the NBA general managers and front offices, that players that are sent to play in the D-League, will someday be able to contribute to a championship caliber team.

Shannon Brown is one of those players who can get in the trenches and claw back into a game as well as make a play look so solid and pretty, like his quick mid air switch dunk against Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets. He is so explosive and has such an incredible reach that people are wowed whenever he is up in the air. Even if he does miss a dunk from time to time.

Brown’s life was not always as flashy as his marriage to one of the most beautiful women in entertainment and solid position with arguably the greatest team in the league would lead you to believe. His journey was a constant grind and he is still taking steps on and off the court to improve upon his brand and his worth to his teammates. He set out to make the world believe. Who doesn’t?

Video courtesy of NBA

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