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Friday, December 12, 2014
"Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story" Makes its ESPN Classic Debut Tonight!
"Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story" will air on ESPN Classic tonight starting at 10:30 p.m. Producer Ted Green's labor of love--a film about a great basketball player who triumphed despite being deprived of the opportunity to play pro ball during a significant portion of his prime years--is gripping, heartwarming and heartbreaking. It should be appointment viewing for any serious basketball fan.
"Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story" made its Dayton, Ohio debut in August, 2013. Dayton, my hometown, is where Roger Brown played freshman ball for the University of Dayton and where he excelled for several years on the AAU circuit before signing with the ABA's Indiana Pacers. Brown's spectacular clutch shooting helped the Pacers win three ABA titles and earned him the respect of several of the greatest players of all-time: Julius Erving, George Gervin and Rick Barry spoke very highly of Brown when I interviewed them more than a decade ago and asked if they thought that Brown deserved to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
"Bobby 'Slick' Leonard: Heart of a Hoosier" Captures the Essence of an Indiana Sports Icon
Ted Green, whose documentary "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story" vividly portrayed the accomplishments, triumphs and struggles of one of the most underrated players in pro basketball history, has now produced another compelling documentary about an Indiana sports icon: "Bobby 'Slick' Leonard: Heart of a Hoosier" is a 90 minute journey depicting how a boy who literally grew up on the wrong side of the tracks became an elite college basketball player before averaging 9.9 ppg in a seven year pro basketball career that helped prepare him to become a championship-winning coach.
Younger fans who know Leonard primarily for his famous "Boom Baby" calls during Indiana Pacers' radio broadcasts may only be dimly aware that Leonard coached the Pacers to three ABA titles (1970, 1972-73) and they almost certainly do not realize that Leonard was a basketball legend long before the ABA existed. Leonard was a high school star in Indiana and after receiving dozens of scholarship offers--including one from reigning NCAA champion Kentucky--he stayed in his home state to play for Indiana University. He averaged 16.3 ppg (second on the team) during the 1952-53 season and played a major role as the Hoosiers won the 1953 NCAA Championship. Leonard was a great leader, a superb floor general and someone who brought a spirit of camaraderie to every team for which he played or coached.
The extended trailer of "Bobby 'Slick' Leonard: Heart of a Hoosier
showcases Leonard's deadly outside shooting touch, details his exploits
during the Indiana University's 1953 NCAA title run and describes how
he both built and saved the Indiana Pacers franchise but what comes
through most of all is that--beneath the fiery surface of his fierce
competitiveness--Leonard is loyal and compassionate, grateful to his
mentors and a willing mentor to others.
Leonard was not only a talented player in his own right but even early in his career he also had an eye for talent in others. Leonard met fellow future Hall of Famer Sam Jones when they both served in the military and Leonard suggested to Jones that he consider a career in pro basketball, something that--by Jones' own admission in an interview with Green--Jones had not thought about at all prior to meeting Leonard. Jones eventually won 10 championship rings with the Boston Celtics, more than any other player in pro basketball history except for his teammate Bill Russell, who captured 11 championship rings. When I interviewed Leonard more than a decade ago, he told me that Jones is the most underrated guard in NBA history. Leonard's insights enriched several of my articles, including Classic Confrontations: Boston vs. St. Louis and James "Captain Late" Silas Commanded Respect in the Clutch, but one of the best tips that Leonard gave me never made it into print because I did not have my own website at the time and did not yet have the opportunity to write any playoff preview articles: in the spring of 2004, Leonard told me that he expected the Detroit Pistons to win the NBA championship, even though his beloved Indiana Pacers--and several Western Conference teams, including the star-studded L.A. Lakers--would finish with a better regular season record. Leonard believed that Larry Brown's coaching, combined with the midseason acquisition of Rasheed Wallace, would push Detroit over the top and he was right on the mark.
It is not surprising that Leonard recognized the Pistons' potential before most people did; he was a masterful basketball strategist whose Pacers posted a 6-2 record in seven game playoff series. Leonard so enjoyed his time with the Pacers that he turned down an opportunity to coach his alma mater, a job that eventually went to Bobby Knight. Leonard told Green that this worked out best for all parties concerned.
Leonard did not have much of a real opportunity to demonstrate his coaching chops in the NBA; he only coached for one and a half seasons in the NBA before his ABA tenure and he spent just four seasons with the cash-strapped Pacers after the 1976 ABA-NBA merger. Leonard has called games for the Pacers' radio network for nearly three decades and he is still a fixture courtside in Indiana, though his health no longer permits him to make road trips.
Leonard's Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement was long overdue but at least it happened in time for Leonard to enjoy that special moment with his family and friends. It is also wonderful and fitting that Green's documentary first aired shortly before the Hall of Fame ceremony took place. My life path does not currently enable me to write about basketball as much as I used to but I am so happy that the Hall of Fame's doors have finally, belatedly opened to several of the legends who I wrote so passionately about in the past 10 years, including Slick Leonard, Artis Gilmore, Mel Daniels and Roger Brown. ESPN, TNT, Slam and many other major media outlets have consistently dropped the ball regarding the ABA's significance in general and the specific accomplishments of those individuals but in the end justice has been done and that is what matters most. Green deserves much credit for persevering with his documentary work; PBS benefits from what he has done, while ESPN and TNT are that much poorer for not providing a wider audience for a top notch filmmaker who has brought attention to Roger Brown and Slick Leonard despite the NBA's efforts to flush ABA statistics, records and oral history down Orwell's proverbial memory hole.
Green interviewed Larry Bird, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor; Leonard coached against Bird (who now runs the Indiana Pacers) and he played alongside West and Baylor with the Lakers. Leonard once told me that he had played with or against, coached and/or seen every great player who has come down the pike in the past 60 years or so and the high praise that these all-time greats offer to Leonard reaffirms that Leonard's Hall of Fame induction is long overdue. Green should be commended for his tireless efforts to record and preserve the life stories of Brown and Leonard, two very underrated and extremely important figures in basketball history.
The Basketball Hall of Fame Belatedly Welcomes Roger Brown
"It doesn't exonerate people for doing what they did to him. It shouldn't make anybody feel better that they denied him a
special part of his life."--Basketball Hall of Famer Mel Daniels, commenting about the Hall of Fame enshrinement of his teammate Roger Brown
Better late than never--but more than three decades overdue--the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame finally enshrined Roger Brown, who is one of the most underrated players in pro basketball history. Brown starred on the University of Dayton's freshman team in 1961 but he never played varsity college basketball nor did he ever play in the NBA; false accusations robbed him of his collegiate career and stole several of what should have been his prime professional seasons. For six years, Brown was relegated to playing on the AAU circuit and he was also denied his rightful opportunity to earn a spot on the 1964 U.S. Olympic team. In 1967 the Indiana Pacers of the newly-formed American Basketball Association (ABA) signed Brown, who helped the team win three championships in five ABA Finals appearances. The Pacers became known as the Boston Celtics of the ABA. As Julius Erving put it, "The Pacers were the class of the league and Roger was the class of the class."
Brown sued the NBA and received an out of court settlement that compensated him financially and also lifted the league's ban against him but Brown remained loyal to the Pacers instead of jumping to the more established league. Connie Hawkins, Brown's high school friend/rival who was also wrongfully blackballed by the NBA, had previously settled out of court with the NBA but he chose to sign with the Phoenix Suns--and the additional exposure that Hawkins gained from his time spent in the NBA is probably the major reason that he was inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame 21 years before Brown.
Hall of Famers Mel Daniels and Reggie Miller served as Brown's presenters during Sunday's enshrinement ceremony and Brown's son Roger Brown Jr. gave a brief, recorded speech--but the entire tribute to Brown barely lasted six minutes. Brown's career should have received a longer and more detailed appreciation; an uninformed person watching the telecast--and, sad to say, most people who watched the telecast probably are uninformed about Roger Brown's career, if not basketball history in general--still would have no idea why Roger Brown is a significant figure in the sport's history. The Hall of Fame has an obligation not only to honor basketball's greatest players, coaches and contributors but also to educate the public about those people's accomplishments.
Roger Brown had an uncanny skill set, featuring tremendous fakes, deft ballhandling and the rare ability to score equally well both on drives to the hoop and on long jump shots. He made the game look easy and he elevated his performance level in clutch situations, thriving late in games and also in the postseason. Brown had some of his best moments during the 1970 playoffs, averaging 28.5 ppg, 10.1 rpg and 5.6 apg while winning Playoff MVP honors and leading the Pacers to their first championship. Brown scored 53, 39 and 45 points in the last three games of that year's ABA Finals.
"He probably had one of the best first steps in basketball," Gervin said. "You've really got to understand basketball to know what I'm saying when I say 'first step.' Matter of fact, I learned that from him when I played against Roger Brown. He used to pivot and make you move and he isn't going anywhere. It was probably one of the best moves that I picked up, and when I went to the guard spot it really helped to take my game to the next level." "What guys don't realize today is that first step is everything because if I can get the first step on you then you will never catch me. And if you do catch me then all I have to do is fake and you will go for the fake because you are trying to catch up, you are in a recovery situation. That's where Roger was good. He forced you into a recovery situation all the time, so you had to go for his fakes." Gervin contrasts Brown's use of the first step with the way that many current players set up their moves: "Dribbling that ball five, six, seven, eight
seconds is a travesty. What are the other four guys doing, standing there watching? A lot of the guys pound the ball today, but we used to move the ball around and when we got it, we took that first step and made something happen. So we (retired legends) hope and pray that the guys understand that you really need to give the ball up. If you're not going to make your move, give it up, go back and get it. Don't just stand there and pound it."
I am thrilled beyond words that Brown has been granted formal basketball immortality by the Basketball Hall of Fame but I strongly feel that the Hall of Fame not only perpetrated an injustice by excluding Brown for so many decades but also by giving him such short shrift in the enshrinement ceremony. People who want to know the complete Roger Brown story should check out the articles listed below and also watch Ted Green's tremendous documentary "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story."
"Undefeated" Shows that Roger Brown's Story is "A Celebration, not a Tragedy"
"People who go looking for the story, they'll find it, and it's a bold and brazen story. The ones who don't go looking, they might miss it--but that's their loss."--Julius Erving, speaking about Roger Brown
On Thursday night, The Neon in Dayton, Ohio held a special, one-time only screening of Ted Green's documentary "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story."
The goal of the event was not only to spread the word about Brown's life and career but also to raise enough money for Arlena Smith to attend Brown's Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction next
month. Brown is one of the most underrated players in pro basketball history and Smith played an important role in Brown's life at a time when the rest of the basketball world abandoned him. The screening was a tremendous success, as the theater filled to capacity with patrons who immensely enjoyed the film.
I had the honor and privilege to meet Smith before the movie started and to sit next to her throughout the screening. She clasped my hand as she sat down and she held on to it throughout the movie. It was a very powerful experience to see Roger Brown's story being told in full color on the big screen. Smith is thrilled with Green's work: "It certainly was beautiful. The movie was excellent, well put together. Ted worked so hard. He made many trips
to Dayton."
Brown came to the University of Dayton from New York City fresh off of a dominating high school championship game performance against Connie Hawkins, the top high school prospect in the country at the time. Brown had a tremendous season for the 1961 UD freshman team but he never played a game for the varsity; prior to the 1962 season, UD expelled Brown because of false and unproven allegations that Brown had a nefarious association with the notorious game fixer Jack Molinas. Underclassmen were not then permitted to jump to the NBA but even when Brown should have been eligible three years later no NBA team signed
him; the league blackballed him, despite not having any evidence that Brown had done anything wrong. Brown later sued the NBA, received a settlement and cleared his name; before that happened, though, he was in basketball purgatory and that is when Azariah and Arlena Smith welcomed Brown into their Dayton home. Brown worked at a GM plant in Dayton and played AAU basketball for six years.
Smith is very sweet, kind-hearted and soft-spoken but when you are in her presence you can also sense her deep inner strength. She loves Roger Brown as if he were her own son. Azariah Smith, who passed away in 2011, served as an assistant coach under Jack Bowles for Brown's AAU team but after Bowles took ill and retired Smith became the head coach. There were standing room only crowds for Brown's AAU
games in Dayton. Arlena Smith told me that when she and Azariah would arrive for a late game, some fans waiting outside grumbled, "How come they can get
in?"--not realizing that he was the coach and she was his wife!
Brown's AAU team defeated top AAU squads such as the Phillips 66ers and the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots but when they were on the verge of winning the national AAU title--and thus potentially earning Brown the opportunity to try out for the U.S. Olympic team as one of the AAU candidates--Brown and his team were banned from the event. The powers that be had no intention of permitting Brown to join the Olympic team. Brown was devastated, not just for himself but also because his teammates were being unfairly punished as well.
Smith told me about that dark time. "One thing that is worth mentioning is how they treated him when he went to Oklahoma (in 1964) for the Olympics and how they shunned him. He called me from there and he was crying. I asked him what was the matter and he said, 'You don't know how badly they have hurt me.' I asked him what did he mean and did I need to fly out there but he said, 'No, Mama. I'm coming home now.' But he said, 'I feel so bad. I haven't done anything wrong.' That just ripped my heart out.'"
In 1967, the teams in the newly formed ABA were looking far and wide for any talented players who were not in the NBA (or who could be convinced to jump
leagues). Oscar Robertson, who then played for the NBA's Cincinnati Royals and was familiar with Brown's skills, contacted the Indiana Pacers and recommended that they sign Brown. The rest is history: Brown helped the Pacers win three championships in a four season stretch (1970, 1972-73). Along the way, Brown set the ABA playoff single game scoring record (53 points) versus defensive ace Willie Wise in the 1970 ABA Finals and he outscored Rick Barry--one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players--32-23 in the deciding game six of the 1972 ABA Finals.
The wrongful ban stole several of Brown's prime years and injuries cut his career short but he clearly accomplished enough to earn induction in the Basketball Hall of Fame, a sentiment expressed by many Hall of Famers over the years. Connie Hawkins, who was banned by the NBA at the same time as Brown and who played in the ABA until reaching a settlement agreement with the NBA, had a pro career that paralleled Brown's statistically--but the big difference is that Hawkins jumped from the ABA to the NBA for the 1969-70 season and thus spent most of his pro career in the more established league. For many years, Hall of Fame voters displayed a clear bias against players who spent all or most of their careers in the ABA; Hawkins was selected as a Hall of Famer in 1992 but Brown did not receive that honor until this year, 16 years after he died. Basketball Hall of Fame Chairman Jerry Colangelo
deserves credit for following through on his pledge that under his watch the Hall of Fame will properly honor players who, in his words, had previously "slipped through the cracks." Under Colangelo's direction, the Hall of Fame formed an ABA committee and in the past three years that committee has selected Artis Gilmore, Mel Daniels and Roger Brown for induction.
After Brown retired from the Pacers, he worked with the sheriff's department in Indianapolis. One time, Smith visited him and he took her for a ride in a cruiser. She had to use the restroom, so he put on the siren and rushed her home. "When they hear the siren, all of them come," Smith told me. "When they got to the house, he explained, 'My mom had to go to the toilet, so I had to get her there.' It wasn't that bad but he wanted to help me and he was also doing something fun for me. I thought we were going to jail but it was great."
Brown covered all of the expenses for the first three years of the Youth Engaged for Success organization, a Dayton-based group offering support services for troubled children. Brown not only donated money but he also visited Dayton to speak with the children. Barbara Boatright, one of the group's co-founders, recalled Brown's message: "Your beginning doesn't have to be your end. No matter what you go through, it doesn't have to define the rest of your life."
Still, despite that upbeat public attitude, Brown's family members believe that being expelled by UD and banned by the NBA permanently changed him. Roger Brown, Jr. said, "I don't want to use the word bitter--but, yeah, bitter. I always felt that he would watch the athletes of current times and wonder what could have been for him."
After watching the movie, I spoke with Bill Chmielewski, Brown's teammate on the University of Dayton's 1961 freshman team. The next season, Chmielewski led the UD varsity to the NIT Championship and he won the NIT MVP. In his interview during the movie, Chmielewski said that if Brown had been permitted to play for UD then the Flyers would have won multiple NCAA championships. I asked Chmielewski how he first met Brown and what made Brown so special as a player. He replied, "I met Roger at the All-America High School game in New Jersey (in 1960). When I came to look at the University of Dayton, he was here and we hit it off, talking back and forth. Our freshman team was superior. We went 36-4, beat all of the other freshman teams and went to the national AAU tournament. Roger was the type of ball player who made everybody else look good. If the game was close and it came down to crunch time, that was Roger's time. He was very unselfish, giving of himself, he gave the ball up all the time, but he was a money player: at the end of the ball game, give the ball to Rog."
Chmielewski was in New York visiting Fordham at the time that Brown and Hawkins had their now-legendary high school championship showdown. The Fordham coach took Chmielewski, then a high school star in Detroit, to that game. Chmielewski said, "It was amazing. I thought, 'There's nobody like that in Detroit!' Yeah, it was amazing. He was amazing. He had the moves of Jordan and he passed like Larry Bird. A little bit of Magic in there, too. A combination of all of them."
When looking at Brown's pro career, it is important to remember that he not only lost several prime years due to being blackballed by the NBA but also that those lost years took a toll on his game mentally and physically; by the time Brown started his ABA career he was still great but he was not quite the player he had been earlier in the 1960s. Chmielewski told me, "He was a better ball player (before entering the ABA). You have to remember that when he got the raw deal there at school, he had five or six years there where he did not have steady (pro level) coaching or practicing. So for him to come back on the scene and play for the Indiana Pacers the way that he did is absolutely amazing."
I met two other key figures from Brown's life. His second wife, Jeannie, took care of Brown when he became terminally ill. She told me that Mel Daniels and Reggie Miller will be Brown's Hall of Fame presenters. Before the movie began, Willis "Bing" Davis of the EbonNia Gallery spoke eloquently about Brown's affection for the Dayton community and how the community has reciprocated that affection. Brown and Davis were AAU teammates for six years. The wiry, 6-4 Davis is highly regarded as an artist but I never knew that he had been an AAU basketball player. He told me that he was the point guard on Brown's teams, so Davis had an up close view as Brown dominated the opposition.
Many thoughts and feelings raced through my head after watching the movie and talking with Arlena Smith, Bill Chmielewski, Bing Davis and Jeannie Brown. Sadness. Rage. Outrage. Disappointment. Frustration. Why do so many terrible, unjust things happen?
However, there is another side to Brown's story. Joy. Triumph. Vindication. Love. Love is a big part of this story--love between family members, love between teammates, love between Brown and his adopted Dayton family, the Smiths. The power of love resonates and reverberates throughout "Undefeated."
While it is easy to see that so much was senselessly lost, it must also be remembered that so much was relentlessly fought for and gained. I'll leave the last words to Mike Storen, who lifted Brown out of basketball purgatory by signing him as the first Indiana Pacer: "I would suggest that it's not a legacy of the tragedy of what happened to Roger Brown. What we have is a joy to share that in the final analysis Roger was able to demonstrate to the basketball world what a great player he was. That's a celebration, not a tragedy."
Producer Ted Green will attend the screening, as will Arlena Smith. Smith and her husband Azariah (who passed away in 2011) provided a Dayton home for Brown in the 1960s when the University of Dayton and the NBA turned their backs on him; Brown was kicked out of school and banned by the NBA based on false allegations about his supposed connection with notorious gambler/game
fixer Jack Molinas. Connie Hawkins was also unjustly banned by the NBA for the same reason. Hawkins and Brown both joined the ABA when it was formed in 1967 and they both later reached settlement agreements with the NBA, clearing their names.
Hawkins jumped from the ABA to the NBA in 1969 but Brown chose to remain in the league that had accepted him from the start. Brown's loyalty may have cost him with the Basketball Hall of Fame voters, who for years seemed to harbor a deep bias against players who spent all or most of their careers in the ABA. Hawkins' pro career mirrored Brown's in many ways, with the main difference being that Hawkins spent seven years in the NBA. Hawkins was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1992--so the voters ignored him for a few years (he retired
in 1976, one year after Brown) but not nearly as long as they ignored Brown.
When I interviewed Basketball Hall of Fame Chairman Jerry Colangelo in 2010, he vowed to make sure that the Hall of Fame honored deserving players who had previously "slipped through the cracks." Brown earned this honor and the focus should remain on him but Colangelo deserves a tip of the hat for following through on his promise. Jerry Colangelo is a man of his word; under his watch, the Hall of Fame has inducted neglected ABA players Roger Brown, Artis Gilmore and Mel Daniels.
Each ticket for "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story" costs $10; tickets can be purchased at The Neon box office and at the EbonNia Gallery, 1135 West Dr. Martin Luther King Way, Dayton, Ohio, 45402. All proceeds from the screening will go to the Arlena Smith Hall of Fame fund. You can also contribute directly to the fund by writing a check to “The Arlena Smith Fund” and sending it to the EbonNia Gallery.
There are names in basketball history that will endure the test of time
Which will be brought up in conversation as if they were quotes from some great line
Jordan, Magic, Russell, Bird, West, Chamberlain, Miller to name a few
And as the conversation continues and the crowd who’s listening gathers around
The name that has to be added to the list would have to be that of Roger Brown.
As gifted as the aforementioned athletes in every aspect of the game
But diminished by youthful unawareness his rightful place to his glory and his fame
What he couldn’t do on a basketball court hasn’t come to pass
With two bad knees and age running out, he was still head and shoulders above his class
Deceptive speed and quickness, great hands, and serious hops.
Great strength, silky smooth jumper from anywhere on the court and motor you couldn’t stop.
A fierce competitor at both ends of the floor,
The things he did to the opposition had the crowd screaming for more
So smooth was he in tight games
It came to be a lock, down by one or two
Slick would call timeout, at the right moment as the seconds ticked off the clock
The die has been set long ago and this was just another repeat
And as we’d listen for those famous words from Slick – “Rahjie, put him to sleep.”
Neto would enter the ball to Freddie as we all took our spots
Freddie would pass to Roger
While we all watched the hands on the clock
The crowd would stand in silence as to not disturb a thing
As Roger made the bed for his opponent
So he’d have a nightmarish dream
A soft smile, a serious look, a subtle move that the opponent would take
Would end the game quietly, as his opponent took the fake
Scoring with ease, and unfazed by what he had done
Walking off the floor, he'd wink his eye at us and say
Interview with Ted Green, Producer of "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story"
Ted Green's documentary "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story" chronicles the story of one of the most underrated players in pro basketball history. Roger Brown set the ABA single game playoff scoring record (53 points, later matched by Hall of Famer Julius Erving), he outscored Hall of Famer Rick Barry 32-23 in the decisive sixth game of the 1972 ABA Finals and he won the 1970 ABA Playoff MVP after averaging 28.5 ppg, 10.1 rpg and 5.6 apg in the postseason as the Indiana Pacers won the first of their three championships in a four season stretch. Brown was a key member of all three of those championship teams even though he lost the prime years of his professional career after being wrongly banned by the NBA for his alleged association with the notorious game fixer Jack Molinas; the NBA later officially acknowledged that it had no evidence against Brown but Brown stayed in the ABA out of loyalty to a league and a team that gave him the opportunity to play professional basketball. Brown's loyalty has undoubtedly played a major role in keeping him out of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Like Brown, Connie Hawkins was wrongly banned by the NBA for his alleged association with Molinas but Hawkins jumped to the NBA in 1970 after a lawsuit forced the NBA to lift its ban. Hawkins had four All-Star seasons in the NBA during the same period that Brown won those ABA titles (Brown made the ABA All-Star team four times) and Hawkins was eventually inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame. If ABA numbers are counted--and they certainly should be--then Brown and Hawkins have very similar statistics: Brown averaged 17.4 ppg, 6.2 rpg and 3.8 apg in 605 regular season games, while Hawkins averaged 18.7 ppg, 8.7 rpg and 4.1 apg in 616 regular season games. Both players lost several prime years because of the NBA's ban. Players who competed with or against Brown have long said that Brown deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
Here is the transcript of my recent interview with Ted Green, edited for length and clarity:
Friedman: "Describe your background as a film producer and how you got into this field. What are some of the other movies and documentaries that you have produced?"
Ted Green: "It's interesting. This has been a real midlife change for me. I worked as a sports journalist for 20 years, starting with small newspapers. Then I went to the Cincinnati Enquirer. I was there for a while and then I went to the Miami Herald, where I became the deputy sports editor. Then my wife and I moved to Indianapolis. When we had our twin girls I took the first three years off--well, not off, but to watch the kids while my wife worked at the Indianapolis Star--and I wrote a novel, which is currently sitting in my underwear drawer and I am trying to find the nerve to rewrite it. I worked for the Star for six years in their sports department and what got me into filmmaking was when John Wooden--who is of course an Indiana icon--was approaching his 100th birthday. We felt like we had to do something special. A lot of people don't realize how many years he spent in Indiana. I started out to do just a quick little six minute video. As I did my research I realized that his Indiana story had never really been told before. People thought that his story started at UCLA. So, to make a short story long, that six minute video turned into a 35 minute video. I just walked it down the street to the local PBS affiliate because somebody said that they might be interested in it and, sure enough, they were. It has been on American public television, which is comprised of PBS affiliates, for the past three years. It airs in 80% of U.S. markets and it is called 'John Wooden: The Indiana Story.' It won an Emmy for research, an award from the Society of Professional Journalists and several other nice awards. That project turned me on to something that I really enjoy doing, the idea of telling stories in a more dynamic medium. After that I did another film, also involved with the Indianapolis Star, called 'Hoosier Veterans: Faces of War.' It had nothing to do with sports at all. It was about military veterans from all of the different wars, going back as far as Pearl Harbor and Normandy up through Korea, Vietnam and all the way to Afghanistan and Iraq. We looked at the commonalities and the differences in those war experiences. After that, my wife and I decided as our kids were getting older that I was so into filmmaking that I wanted to change careers and pursue this as a full-time gig. Fortunately, we were able to make that leap. The first piece that I did was just a small segment for WFYI, which is the PBS affiliate here in Indianapolis. It was for a movie called 'Indy in the 60s' and since I was a sports guy they gave me the story of the Indiana Pacers, which started in 1967. I got to talk to George McGinnis and I knew about Mel Daniels and certainly Slick Leonard but there was one guy whose jersey was up in the rafters at what was then, I believe, Conseco Fieldhouse, that I didn't know and that was Roger Brown. I hardly knew anything about him. When I talked to Mel Daniels and Slick Leonard they kept going on and on about this guy. I thought, 'How can this be that I don't know about Roger Brown?'
I decided to get to know his ex-wife, Jeannie. They were married for a while and then they split up and then they sort of stayed together on and off for a long time. In fact, Roger passed away in their house. She took care of him when he had cancer. It took a while to get her to trust me but then she told me Roger's story. She opened up his past to me and she had all of these old boxes of articles. She talked about his Pacers days and the gambling scandal and everything and I was just stupefied that this story had never been completely told before. As a storyteller--and I'm sure that you can appreciate this--when you find a great story that affects you so much and hasn't been told before you want to do it. Ever since that day I became obsessed with telling this story. In the meantime, I did another project called 'Naptown to Super City' which told the story of how Indianapolis very consciously remade itself around sports. It really all started with the Pacers, because the Pacers were a very successful ABA franchise. Then Mayor Lugar, who became a long-time Senator, decided to build a new stadium right downtown and that became Market Square Arena. That led to many other things and we ended up with a whole new city. That was the most recent documentary that I completed. It came out in February and has been well received but all the while I was working on that I was also working on the Roger Brown story. I spent a lot of time in Brooklyn. I spent a lot of time in Dayton, where Roger lived for six years. I talked to a lot of people in Indianapolis. After the Super Bowl documentary wrapped up, I have been working full time on Roger Brown and my hope is to have it finished this year."
Friedman: "When do you expect that the Roger Brown documentary will be released and will it be a television movie or a theatrical release?"
Green: "Those are questions that are dogging me every day. The movie is being produced by WFYI, Indianapolis' PBS affiliate which produced my earlier films, and will definitely air on that channel. We have spoken with Lloyd Wright, who is the president of WFYI and is close friends with the presidents of several PBS affiliates around the country. The New York PBS affiliate recently let us use their studios to do an interview with Bob Costas. A lot of people are helping out and a lot of PBS affiliates are very interested in airing this piece. Also, we are in talks with people about having it released a la 'Hoop Dreams' as an independent release in a few major theaters around the country. We are just really early in that process. We have been talking with some of the bigger cable networks. Everyone says that this has to be an ESPN piece. That is very easy to say but I talked with ESPN very early in the process and at that point they didn't really know who Roger Brown was--which is completely understandable; that is why I am doing the piece--and they certainly did not know who Ted Green was, so those talks did not go very far. Since then, the story had gotten so much better and I would put this cast up against the cast of any documentary, when you look at some of the names who are involved. Also, the timing is excellent now because--although nothing is certain--Roger Brown has a very good chance of being the next ABA guy selected for the Basketball Hall of Fame. When I interviewed Bob Costas he said that he thought that Roger would be the next guy in. There is no certainty and there are other very worthy candidates; certainly right here in town we have two worthy candidates in Slick Leonard and George McGinnis. I, like many other people, believe that they should already be in the Hall of Fame. So, if Roger does get in the Hall of Fame in February, a lot of people are going to want to know who Roger Brown was and this documentary explains who he was and why you haven't heard of him before. This is one of the great sports stories that hasn't been told. I am very determined to have this released by February but, that said, we are still fundraising for the finishing funds. I am very, very grateful to the Indiana Pacers and to Bankers Life Casualty (whose name is on Bankers Life Fieldhouse), who are co-title sponsors and have kicked in a very nice amount to get this project off of the ground--but we still fundraising to finish it right and make it as good as it can be to tell this story right and also to get it released by February when Roger will hopefully make it to the Hall of Fame."
Friedman: "What did you find out in the course of your research about Roger Brown that most surprised you?"
Green: "That's a good question. A lot of things surprised me but I guess the main thing is how the whole scandal went down, pre-Miranda rights, how the D.A.s could keep the 18 and 19 year old boys--or young men, however you want to look at it--essentially locked up without offering them phone calls or lawyers, not charge them and keep them for days on end as they grilled them again and again in their attempts to nail the gamblers. It's draconian and it's impossible to imagine something like that happening today, to find out that this is what ruined the careers--for a long time--of two of the great players (Connie Hawkins and Roger Brown) in basketball history, plus also the careers of other good players like Doug Moe and Tony Jackson who were also unfairly caught up in that. It just should not have gone down that way. That is one of the things that surprised me the most, the logistics of how this happened. The other thing that surprised me the most was just how good of a player he was. I mentioned earlier that the documentary has an incredible cast. I've been very fortunate to be in contact with Zelda Spoelstra in the NBA Alumni office--and I want to thank Herb Turetzky for putting me in contact with her. She's in love with the story, she's always been a fan of Roger Brown and she helped me arrange interviews with big name players. Julius Erving told me that when he came into pro basketball Roger Brown was the best player he'd ever seen, describing Brown as a hybrid between himself and Earl Monroe. I asked him if he was serious about that and he said absolutely. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's eyes lit up when he described being a 13 year old watching Roger Brown and Connie Hawkins in an All-Star game for the first time and thinking that he never thought human beings could do some of those things. I talked to Oscar Robertson about Roger Brown's Dayton years. Roger and the Dayton guys would play pickup games against Oscar and some Cincinnati guys. They called it the I-75 series. Cincinnati had just won back to back NCAA championships with Tom Thacker and others. Oscar, who graduated earlier, played in those games as well. They played these games in a high school gym with no fans, no writers. Oscar and Roger did not play the same position but Thacker said that sometimes in the course of a game Oscar and Roger would hook up one on one and it was a wash. Again and again I found myself challenging these guys, saying how could he be this good and yet people don't know about him. Yet again and again that is what I would hear. Those are some of the things that surprised me."
Friedman: "How much footage of Roger Brown were you able to acquire and put in the documentary?"
Green: "I have been very dogged and determined about that. I have come up with quite a bit of excellent ABA footage from collectors and from local affiliates. Jeannie Brown had in her basement an old reel of film. She didn't know what it was. We got it digitized and it was some excellent footage. I actually do have a lot of footage and that is one of the things that I am looking forward to and I am not showing my full hand on this right now with what you see in the previews. As you understand, ABA footage can be very difficult to come by. I have been very fortunate to get some nice footage to show people just how incredible of a player Roger was."
Friedman: "You have touched on this in general but I want ask you this specifically: Why is Roger Brown's story so important to you?"
Green: "It's become a cause for me and I think that is because for so many of the people I talked to it is a cause for them: his family, his friends, his former teammates like Mel Daniels, George McGinnis, Bob Netolicky and Darnell Hillman, his coach Slick Leonard and on and on and on--his proxy family in Dayton, an incredible woman named Arlena Smith and her husband Azariah; Roger lived with them for two years in their very modest house. When Roger was kicked out of the University of Dayton in 1961 (after being falsely accused in the Jack Molinas scandal), the first thing that he did was go back to Brooklyn. He didn't feel comfortable there, so he went back to Dayton. He had no money and he had nowhere to live, so that is when the Smiths took him in. Azariah Smith coached the AAU team at the local GM plant.
A lot of Roger's friends in Dayton are still around. These are people when I call and say that I am doing a film about Roger Brown the phone will be silent for 10 seconds and then they will say 'I've been waiting 25 years for this phone call.' That is the kind of loyalty that Roger inspired and that is the nature of this cause, as hokey as it might sound. This has long been a cause for these folks, to right the legacy of this man. Will I be able to do that with this piece? I don't know. That is certainly the challenge. Honestly, it's become a piece from the heart for me. It's certainly not about money, because I'm going to be losing, but we're making this from the heart. It's important to the Indianapolis community, it's important to the Dayton community, it's important to the Brooklyn community and I think that it's important to a lot of people in the basketball community. It's just a story that needs to be told. This is a guy whose legacy was wronged but he fought through it. He really managed to make a success out of himself and a lot of people want to see his story finally told. Roger Brown's story touched people. His teammates tear up when talking about him and I think that's a good thing. That is what makes this film really special. This is not a dry eye piece."
This photo is from the recent "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story" fundraiser at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Pictured left to right are Darnell Hillman, Slick Leonard, George McGinnis, Tom Thacker, Freddie Lewis, Bob Netolicky, Jeannie Brown (Roger's widow), Mel Daniels and Jerry Harkness.
Green is still actively raising funds for "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story" and you can make your tax deductible contribution to this 501c3 project by visiting the WFYI page. Be sure to specify that your WFYI donation should be earmarked for "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story."
Ted Green is producing a documentary titled "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story." Roger Brown averaged 17.4 ppg and 6.2 rpg in eight ABA seasons and he increased those numbers to 18.7 ppg and 6.4 rpg in the playoffs while playing a major role in creating the league's greatest dynasty as the Indiana Pacers won three championships in a four year period--but statistics do not even come close to completely capturing Brown's greatness. A beautiful phrase that John Papanek used to describe Julius Erving's brilliance could also be applied to Brown: "You had to see the man and hear the music." I told Brown's story eight years ago and I very much hope that next year the Basketball Hall of Fame's ABA Committee--which has already corrected two huge injustices by selecting Artis Gilmore and Mel Daniels--will finally present Brown an honor that he so richly deserves and is so long overdue.
Here is the trailer from Green's "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story":
"A work of art contains its verification in itself: artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the test of being turned into images; they fall to pieces, turn out to be sickly and pale, convince no one. Works which draw on truth and present it to us in live and concentrated form grip us, compellingly involve us, and no one ever, not even ages hence, will come forth to refute them."--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Lecture)
"The most 'popular,' the most 'successful' writers among us (for a brief period, at least) are, 99 times out of a hundred, persons of mere effrontery--in a word, busy-bodies, toadies, quacks."--Edgar Allan Poe
"In chess what counts is what you know, not whom you know. It's the way life is supposed to be, democratic and just."--Grandmaster Larry Evans
"It's not nuclear physics. You always remember that. But if you write about sports long enough, you're constantly coming back to the point that something buoys people; something makes you feel better for having been there. Something of value is at work there...Something is hallowed here. I think that something is excellence."--Tom Callahan
