Kwame Brown taught Andrew Bynum everything he knows

A. Isaac Senior Editor

Kwame Brown 135x95 Kwame Brown taught Andrew Bynum everything he knows

Kwame Brown has not never quite lived up to the hype of being the first overall pick in 2001. His career numbers are average to say the least—6.8 points and 5.6 rebounds a game. At best, you could say he was a serviceable NBA big man for almost a decade, at worst, he’s one of the biggest draft busts in history.

That didn’t stop Brown, however, from dropping this nugget of information about Andrew Bynum following the Warriors-Lakers game Friday night.

“That was my young fella,” Brown said. “I taught him everything he knows.”

“I’m one of the better defenders in the league and we played against each other every day in practice,” Brown said. “I told him if you can score against me, you can score on anyone.”

Kwame Brown’s defensive prowess aside, his peers never thought too highly of him or his ability to perform when it counted. If you recall, Kobe Bryant told this hilarious story about him in October of last year.

I got to say, it was tough doing it that year. I was playing with guys, God bless them — God bless them — but Kwame Brown. Smush Parker. We had one game right before…by the way, what I say here, I say directly to them, see what I’m saying, I don’t talk behind people’s back. Things that I say to you, I’m comfortable saying this to them and I’ve said this to them…But like, the game before we traded for Pau, were playing Detroit and I had like 40 points towards the end of the game. This is back when Detroit had Rasheed [Wallace], Chauncey [Billups] and those guys, so we had no business being in the game. So down the stretch of the game, they put in a box and one. So I’m surrounded by these players, Detroit players, and Kwame is under the basket, all by himself. Literally, like all by himself. So I pass him the ball, he bobbled it and it goes out of bounds.
“So we go back to the timeout and I’m [upset], right? He goes, ‘I was wide open.’ ‘Yeah, I know.’ This is how I’m talking to him, like, during the game. I said, ‘You’re going to be open again, Kwame, because Rasheed is just totally ignoring you.’ He said, ‘Well, if I’m open don’t throw it to me.’ I was like, ‘Huh?’ He said, ‘Don’t throw it to me.’ I said, ‘Why not?’ He said, well, ‘I’m nervous. If I catch it and they foul me, I won’t make the free throws.’ I said, ‘Hell no!’
“I go to Phil [Jackson], I say, ‘Hey Phil, take him out of the game.’ He’s like, ‘Nah, let him figure it out.’ So, we lose the game, I go the locker room, I’m steaming. Steaming. I’m furious. Then, finally I get a call, they said, ‘You know what, we got something that’s happening with Pau.’ I was like, ‘Alright. Cool.’…That’s what I had to deal with the whole year.”

But yea Kwame, you made Andrew Bynum the player he is today. Thank you for providing us some Monday morning fodder. I was getting worried we would only have Steelers fans to laugh at today.

Look who is taking credit for Andrew Bynum’s development [Los Angeles Times]

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