The Right Brand.
In dealing for Brand the Clippers showed there are two smart teams in L.A.
Elton Brand leading by example.
Brand name basketball.
When good things happen to good people.
Elton comes a Clipper.
A Brand New Day.

-The Right Brand:(By Adnan Virk)

The NBA's got an image problem. You hear it all the time. It's about as insightful as somebody telling you that Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton were doomed from the start.

Gee, ya think? Didn't they used to drink each other's blood? Oh wait, that was Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold.

Back to the topic at hand. How do you revive interest in a league which since the departure of one Michael Jordan, has seen its popularity decrease and has garnered more bad press than Enron and Martha Stewart combined?

Jason and Joumanna Kidd fighting over french fries, Allen Iverson's combativeness on and off the court, Rasheed Wallace…well, basically just being Rasheed Wallace -- hothead extraordinaire - would be a few examples.

So where is that hoops messiah, that future king of the court, the Royal of the Roundball? LeBron James, come on down. But before we anoint the Next One, let us pause to praise what already exists. And that's a man named Brand. Elton Brand.

As a sophomore at Duke, Brand racked up almost every award imaginable. After leading the Blue Devils in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots, he was the no-brainer choice for National Player of the Year.

Selected by the Chicago Bulls with the first pick overall in the 1999 Draft, Brand could have cracked under the pressure but instead he swallowed it up and spat it out. The power forward led all rookies in scoring and rebounding-averaging a double-double (20.1 PPG and 10.0 RPG). Here's a list of some of the players who also averaged 20 points-per-game and 10 rebounds-per-game in their first NBA season: Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird and Shaquille O'Neal. Take that, Mike Jordan.

Brand duplicated his stats in 2000-01, brushing aside the sophomore jinx like some pesky telemarketer. But Jerry Krause, suffering one of those chronic brain cramps that seems to affect his judgment, dealt this future perennial All-Star to the Clippers for Brian Skinner and Tyson Chandler. Like I said, brain cramp. How else do you explain dealing a guy who's good for 20-10 a night, for the next 15?

Brand made his first, and definitely not his last, All-Star Game appearance last season and continued to rack up more boards than your local Home Depot. He led the league in total offensive rebounds last season. Ask any NBA insider and they'll tell you that facet of the game comes down to hard work, plain and simple. Not only has he got talent, but also he's got a tireless work ethic. Now there's a concept for the average modern-day athlete!

I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Brand at Vince Carter's 2nd Annual Charity Game on August 2nd. Not only did he play a marvelous game, he was the most charismatic and personable player in the dressing room. How refreshing.

Mark my words, he'll be a Hall of Famer one day. He may be underrated in Trane's book right now playing for the other Los Angeles basketball team, the one that Billy Crystal a.k.a. Mr. Saturday Night roots for, but Brand isn't complaining. He's focused and grounded enough to concentrate on enjoying the ride, rather than worry about the slight bumps in the road.

So there's no need to scour the horizon for an NBA star to admire and emulate. Elton Brand's already here.

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-In dealing for Brand the Clippers showed there are two smart teams in L.A.:

One of the biggest surprises of the summer is the newfound respectability of the Clippers. The worst franchise in NBA history has become one of the league's most intriguing teams, and the acquisition of 22-year-old power forward Elton Brand from the Bulls even has the young Clippers talking about making the playoffs next season. "Why not?" asks 21-year-old co-captain Lamar Odom. "Elton is exactly what we need."

Here is something no one could have predicted four years ago when Chicago was winning its third straight title -- that the Bulls' best player would want to become a Clipper. Coach Alvin Gentry says that initially, he was concerned that the trade might be blocked by Brand's agent, David Falk, who has had an acrimonious relationship with Clippers owner Donald Sterling. "[Then] in the middle of my conversation with David, he put Elton on the phone," says Gentry, "and Elton said he was ecstatic about [the prospect of] the trade."

Brand couldn't join his new teammates at the Los Angeles Summer Pro League last week (he was running a charity event in his hometown of Peekskill, N.Y.), but it's not hard to count the ways he can help a team that finished 31-51 last season. For starters, Brand will improve the Clippers' rebounding. That will allow Los Angeles to run more in transition -- a dangerous counter to the zone defenses that will be implemented next season. "People don't know this, because he played in that triangle system in Chicago," says Gentry, "but Elton can flat-out run and finish on the break."

In his first two seasons Brand, the top pick in the 1999 draft, averaged 20.1 points and 10.0 rebounds as Chicago's only inside threat. The Clippers hope his presence will help center Michael Olowokandi, the No. 1 choice in '98, turn the corner. The double teams that Brand is sure to draw should create open looks and offensive rebound opportunities for Olowokandi, who has averaged 9.1 points and 7.4 rebounds in his first three seasons. Brand should also create more space for Odom, a forward, and 19-year-old swingman Darius Miles, whose jump shot showed signs of improvement in the summer league.

While the Clippers were being applauded for getting Brand (whose salary for the coming year is $3.9 million, a relative bargain), some around the league were accusing Bulls general manager Jerry Krause of buying time for himself. The Bulls have averaged a paltry 17 wins over the last three years, and with his strategy of signing marquee free agents an utter failure -- he didn't get a single one -- Krause was turning to a new game plan. He can now plead for patience from Chicago fans after getting high schoolers Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry with the No. 2 and No. 4 choices, respectively. In Chandler and Curry, Krause has two of the most coveted players from the most promising high school class ever to jump to the NBA.

Krause predicts that the 7-foot Chandler will become a power forward with small-forward skills, like the Trail Blazers' Rasheed Wallace. He sees the 6'11" Curry, blessed with soft hands and quick feet, as an inside force. Most promising of all is that Krause acquired two highly talented big men at a time when size has become the league's scarcest commodity. "It's an intriguing move for the Bulls," says former Lakers executive vice president Jerry West, who escalated the demand for high school talent by drafting Kobe Bryant five years ago. "If they can play, the Bulls will have two big guys who everybody will be trying to match up against."

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-When Good Things Happen to Good People:

Oddly, this is the second consecutive column on sports; but not literally, since every profession, in and out of the spotlight of celebrity, harbors the good and the lousy. And since this space mostly concentrates -- with some notable exceptions -- on the lousy, I thought it a welcomed respite to laud the good.

Sadly, this is a society addicted to the perception that young, brash celebrities make for interesting press if they are angry, criminal or just plain annoying. So it is quite refreshing when a relevant story pertains to a subject with a level of intellect, pride and a compassionate respect rarely displayed by even those of considerable maturity.

On the fourth day of February, Peekskill High School, a sizable institution located in a struggling economic hamlet of northern Westchester, New York retired the jersey of its greatest basketball players, Elton Brand.

Governor, George Pataki, a Peekskill HS alum and former mayor of the town, its current mayor and dignitaries from the school district joined the crammed gym to share in the pomp.

It was a profound experience to witness the growth of a physical specimen gaining complete control over the detailed elements and challenges of his game. With each passing season, his talents became refined, as if adding bolder colors to a painting or gorgeous counter melodies to a symphony, until it seemed there could be no more bloom on the rose.

I was among the represented sporting press mainly due to a local broadcasting gig I've enjoyed since the late 80s'. But, admittedly, I attended the event with the same pride I'd felt when a kid I'd seen play the game at the tender age of thirteen was chosen first in the 1998 NBA draft.

Brand arrived dressed in a stylish tan suit, still exhibiting the same genuine, almost innocent smile he'd displayed in his adolescence. At first shielded by a modest entourage, he broke ranks to welcome many of the people who were instrumental in his success. He hugged, shook hands and intermingled with everyone in the press area, but did so with none of the disingenuous condescension of a grubbing politician or a petulant punk star allowing the sycophants a whiff of stardom.

And when he spoke of his recent triumphs, he exuded a keen instinct that his achievements were not merely for himself or even his family, but a town, a generation, a culture, a race and a sport.

"I think I do understand the impact," he said when I asked him if he knew what it meant to a small, decaying urban town that one of their own flourished in its graying pall. "People know that it takes more than just one talent to truly succeed," Brand continued. "My parents always stressed a good academic background, to be good at what you do, but be a good person also."

He trailed off when he said, "good person", as if it seemed ludicrous to him that it wasn't a given that anyone who could dunk a basketball, split an atom or sweep the gym wouldn't try to be the best person they could be.

Having called most of Brand's televised games for his four stellar years as the center for two title squads, I was impressed at how he handled it all. Our conversations on and off the air were never strained, many times I learned something deeper about the human spirit from him, this precocious boy embracing a burgeoning gift, cradling its jewels, but never squeezing too tightly.

There was never a doubt about his considerable skills as an athlete, an almost pristine ballet of power and grace on a basketball court. It was a profound experience to witness the growth of a physical specimen gaining complete control over the detailed elements and challenges of his game. With each passing season, his talents became refined, as if adding bolder colors to a painting or gorgeous counter melodies to a symphony, until it seemed there could be no more bloom on the rose.

But instead of becoming detached, the bane of the modern athlete, Brand embraced the responsibility of his considerable talents. He was a straight A student, quiet, but never reserved. I never saw him brood or recoil from the ridiculous stampede of attention, accolade or criticism a wunderkind must endure. He was a source of great support to his team and schoolmates, whether troubled or scholarly.

"There were great players before me," Brand told me hours before the ceremony. "Hey, and there will be great ones coming. I'm just glad to be a part of that group."

And it's a tough group, the "too good - to soon" set, from any era and any school. Elton Brand, and others like him, experience what can only be described as a world wind youth. Athletes have a short window. The journey from novice to expert spans a third of the normal lifetime. The pressures of time begin immediately, and the clock runs quickly.

By the age of 13, Brand was already touted as a "can't miss", a throwaway sports phrase that usually renders children to the level of lucrative product. Peekskill's head coach, Lou Panzenaro told me on local radio that winter that a 6' 9'' kid was dunking on his varsity players. As a freshman he was the best player on the team and by his sophomore year, the best in the region.

By his senior year Brand was one of maybe five to ten of the best talents in the country. He was elevated to a McDonald's All-American, became a significant player for Duke University, the premier basketball and academic institution in the nation, and the number one draft pick of the NBA in 1998 by the Chicago Bulls.

Traded this past off-season to the Los Angeles Clippers, Brand has raised his level of play to near All-Star status, and his new teammates root the hardest for him. Two of them, Corey Maggette and Darius Miles joined Brand for what they described as "the long trip" from NYC earlier in the day.

"My boy is the best teammate," Miles told me, as the crowded gym chanted Brand's name moments before the unveiling of his retired jersey. "I've learned a lot about the game and more from him. There was no question I would come up here to see him honored."

The late, great Dick Schaap, who'd spent quality time with every significant athlete for the better part of the past century, once told me something I won't soon forget, and something that came streaming back when a mountain of a young man in a tan suit gave me a bear hug and thanked me for sharing in his honor.

"Only the smallest percentage of people ever perfect anything," Schaap said. "And athletes do it before they even know who the heck they are as people. Not to mention they do it with everyone counting on them, watching their every move and expecting them to carry the day all the time."

Elton Brand is carrying the day just fine.

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-Elton Comes Home a Clipper: (By Henry Naccari)

While sportswriters of today are busy writing and preaching a common refrain that all pro athletes are overpaid, selfish bores who only care about themselves, they miss stories about those who give back and don't forget about their home towns.

This story shines the media spotlight on a National Basketball Association (NBA) burgeoning superstar who never forgets about his hometown and accommodates every person seeking a handshake, autograph, or just a moment of his time to chat with him.

Peekskill native and Los Angeles Clippers star forward Elton Brand - the former NBA Rookie of the Year for the Chicago Bulls - was mobbed by well-wishers, former teachers, children and the press at the Peekskill High School gymnasium last Thursday during his one-day stay to aid in teaching a free basketball clinic and announce the creation of a web site designed to improve children's math skills.

Brand, who along with his older brother was raised in Dunbar Heights by his mom, said he gives back to Peekskill because the city is a part of him. "Peekskill is me," said the 22-year old Brand. "This community helped raise me and make me who I am today."

Brand returned to town as part of Elton Brand Youth Day where he helped launch mathmastery.com and gave basketball clinics to children ranging in ages 7-14. Mathmastery.com provides rigorous math content, support materials, and fun family activities to increase student achievement in math. The web site's official launch is Aug. 1.

The Elton Brand Foundation has partnered with the site to create the MathNSports Club, which presents basic math skills, as well as more advanced skills, within the context of sports. During his press conference, Brand said he struggled with math while growing up, but said he overcame his troubles through rigorous studying and hard work.

He added that he got involved in the web site because math is a skill used in everyday life, especially sports. "You see math every day in sports and sports statistics," said Brand, the former NCAA Player of the Year at Duke. "The key to being successful in life is understanding math and making it fun for kids to learn."

Those who've taught and coached Brand all said his actions are typical of the way he carried himself throughout high school and he provides a positive role model for kids. "The kids need a realistic role model," said Brand's former high school study hall teacher Mel Bolden. "Most of the kids around here remember him from high school. He is part of the family unlike a Michael Jordan who is from Carolina."

High School teacher John Testa said Brand was a student in his publishing class and called him a model student who worked hard. "He gave me the most respect I have ever gotten from a student," said Testa. "He was interested in learning and honing his computer skills and worked hard at it."

Both men said they think "it is great" that Brand, who was traded to the Clippers just two weeks ago after two years in Chicago, gives back to the community on a regular basis. "He was a role model all through high school and once he got accepted to Duke his status went through the roof," said Testa. "Everyone looks up to him and he knows what it takes to be a success."

His former high school basketball coach Lou Panzanaro recalled Brand being an A student with tremendous basketball skills. "His work ethic exceeded his skill," said Panzanaro. "He is mentally tough and respectful."

Even though he is showered with praise wherever and whenever he sets foot in Peekskill one thing remains constant: Brand remains humble, approachable, and friendly.

Too bad the same thing can't be said about more of today's athletes.

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