Raised on Kobe and Magic: Kobe Brown impressing Clippers with his 'unique skill set'
LOS ANGELES — The basketball game that changed Greg Brown's life and set the course for that of his oldest son came on a winter night in 1996 in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Brown had come a long way from his Huntsville, Ala., home to escort a player from the high school team he coached on a recruiting visit to La Salle University. One night, with the recruit occupied, Brown was invited by Joe Bryant, a La Salle assistant coach, to watch a high school game featuring Bryant's teenaged son.
The coaches shared a car ride to the game.
"I say to him, 'Coach, how good is your son?' " Brown said. "He's like, 'Ah he's OK, he's OK. He's got some work to do but he's going to be OK.' "
Bryant had undersold his son, Kobe, by a bit. Brown watched as, only months before he was selected in the 1996 NBA draft, the future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant roamed the back line of his high school's zone defense as a center, appeared as if unstoppable as a point guard, whipped assists and grabbed rebounds.
"He just had this air
