Drafted first in 2001, Kwame Brown came into the NBA with great expectations. Sadly, Brown never quite lived up to those expectations.
Over his 12-year career, he never blossomed into a star. In fact, his NBA tenure is widely remembered today for being highly disappointing and underwhelming.
In a sit-down on VLAD TV, former star point guard Gilbert Arenas (who is also his former teammate) looked back on Brown’s career and flamed him for being a drunk.
“He ended up going to Golden State and played six games… horrible. They didn’t make the playoffs, they were like 13th. He just leaves and their sixth. Wherever he went it was cancer. I can be honest now, we’re not friends,” said Arenas. “He was a f**king drunk, man. He was a drunk, that’s what Kwame Brown was. Had a bad game, drunk. Had a good game, drunk. It’s how he coped with life… as soon as I leave practice I’m drunk and I’m going to be drunk all day. When he spats on everybody — drunk. He can’t get in front of that camera sober.”
Kwame Brown had a pretty ugly career that will be remembered in the history books for all the wrong reasons. But the reality of the situation was actually much more serious and dire than anyone imagined at the time.
“I had to ask players and coaches, like, ‘was Kwame Brown that bad?’ I remember I was talking to someone the other day and we were talking about alcoholics and he was like ‘your old teammate was an alcoholic… I walked past him a couple of times and just, bad.’ It was bad because he didn’t have anyone. So he drunk. Had a bad game, drunk even more. And he always had bad games, so he was always drunk.”
Those are revealing words by Arenas. Unable to play up to expectations on the court, Kwame turned to booze to drown his sorrows.
While the guy is alive and (seemingly) healthy today, one has to wonder how much his career and life have been influenced by his constant drinking and how much things would be different if he had his habit under better control.
