NBA champ Bruce Brown shares inspiring message with Boys & Girls Club of Dorchester

BOSTON — Bruce Brown has enjoyed a very solid five-year NBA career, and is now a champ after helping the Denver Nuggets win a title in June. Through each of his stops, Brown has never forgotten his roots.

As promised, the Dorchester native was back in his hometown Friday, paying a visit to the Boys & Girls Club of Dorchester to inspire the kids from his old neighborhood. In addition to playing a spirited game of knockout and signing plenty of autographs, Brown took questions from the kids and had a lot of words of wisdom to share.

Brown said that growing up in a tough part of Dorchester put a chip on his shoulder, and he hoped that finding success in his future would lead to a better life for his family. It wasn’t until middle school that Brown realized that he wanted to play in the NBA, but he also knew that he had to do better in school if he wanted to play college ball.

“You always hear the stats of people making it out of the city or anywhere in the world, so I took it one step at a time,” he told the kids. “First, I have to get into a good high school, then a good college. I took it one step at a time.”

Brown started playing basketball when he was six, but he didn’t take school seriously until he reached his later years high school. He started at Wakefield Memorial High before transferring to Vermont Academy his junior year, eager to get his grades up and get into a good college.

“It was going to be tough to play Division 1, so I went to boarding school and focused on studies and what I needed to do in the classroom,” Brown told the group. “And that got me into the University of Miami.”

Brown played two seasons at Miami before declaring for the NBA Draft in 2018. He was taken in the second round by the Pistons and played two seasons in Detroit before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets. He was a solid bench player throughout his two seasons with the Nets, but really broke out off the Nuggets bench last season. He played a key role in Denver’s NBA Finals win over the Heat, scoring 21 points in Game 4 and the winning points in the team’s title-clinching win in Game 5.

Brown had an important message to all the kids at his old Boys & Girls Club on Friday.

“Don’t be scared to step out of your comfort zone,” he told them. “I always wanted to do what everyone else was doing. But now, I love country music and country things. At your age, I didn’t know what country music was. So go experience new things and try new things. Step out of your comfort zone.”

Brown made it clear that anything can be possible as long as you focus and put your mind to it.

“The best part is just coming back to you guys and letting you know that you could do it too,” he said. “I was sitting here listening to people talk to me, so if you have a goal and people say it’s too hard to reach, I’m sure you can do it. Because I’ve done it.”

All of Brown’s hard work has paid off. After winning it all with the Nuggets, he signed a two-year, $45 million contract with the Indiana Pacers this offseason.