Lobo legend Greg Brown remembered for love of family, legacy beyond basketball

Jul. 13—The Pit floor was the stage that brought Greg Brown to the attention of thousands.

Saturday, with several hundred in attendance, it was the stage for an emotional, heartfelt celebration of his life.

Brown, a basketball star at Albuquerque High, New Mexico Junior College and UNM, died last month in a single vehicle car crash west of Albuquerque. He was 51.

The 5-foot-7 Lobo legend was larger than life to his friends, family and the countless fans who fell in love with his play on the court and his soul off it.

His accolades on the court include a state high school championship, a Western Athletic Conference championship and the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, given to the nation's best basketball player under 6 feet.

But he was remembered time and again Saturday as a man who loved his family — his mother Mary Francis Brown, sister Helynsia Brown and his children Amaya and Amari all sat front row — even more than basketball.

"Greg was so proud of Amaya," said Joseph Anderson, Brown's uncle and close friend. "He would always tell me, 'Man, I don't care what anybody says, Amaya is my GOAT.' He said Amaya was the best defensive basketball player he ever played against.

"And he told me, Amari, that you were a much better basketball player than he was. ... He said you were twice the player that he was looking forward to seeing what you're going to accomplish."

Amari graduated this past spring from a school in Atlanta and, like his father, will start his college basketball career at a junior college this coming season.

"I know he'll always be a part of me," said Amari Brown.

Amaya Brown, who was heavily recruited after starring at Cibola High School, played at Florida State before finishing her college career as a Lobo.

"I will forever be grateful to have shared this court with my dad," she said, fighting through tears to make sure everyone in the arena understood that as much as her father bragged on his kids, she and her brother were every bit as proud to be his children.

"My dad was more than just basketball," Amaya said proudly. "He was smart. He got his master's degree. He always bragged about getting his level three (teaching) license. He would call me every day (for awhile) to brag about how he had his level three license and about being a teacher.

"My dad was also funny. He liked to talk a lot of mess in our house. ... I'm going to miss joking with my dad. I don't know what I'm going to do without my dad."

Greg Brown, a 2007 inductee into the UNM Alumni Lettermen Association Hall of Honor and a 2008 inductee into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame, worked as an assistant and head coach for multiple local high schools and AAU basketball programs in Albuquerque through the years as well as being a teacher.

He was also a friend and mentor to many.

In one of the more humorous moments of the service, Volcano Vista state champion boys basketball coach Greg Brown, a well-known figure in Albuquerque basketball community himself, walked down from the Pit stands to talk about his friend.

"My name is Greg Brown," he said, garnering chuckles from some, confused looks from others.

"They also call me Gregory Brown. I was born in in 1972 (same year as the late Greg Brown). I was a point guard here in Albuquerque. I liked to shoot the 3. I got to play high school basketball here on this court. Played a little college basketball, but I didn't have 35 points against BYU. I didn't have 42 against UTEP. I wasn't WAC Player of the Year. But I was a friend."

The two had a connection that went far beyond having the same name and a love of basketball.

The Volcano Vista coach said he recalled the "helpless" feeling he had anytime he tried guarding the late Greg Brown on the court, but also the tremendous gratitude he had for all the times he could lean on his friend — be it for having to raise a daughter, how to raise a son or how to handle the death of a father.

"Be strong," the late Greg Brown would always tell him. "You're going to be alright."

The calmness and poise the former Lobo point guard showed later in life as a friend and father was just a piece of the basketball brilliance former New Mexico Junior College coach Ron Black saw on display in Brown's sophomore year of high school playing in the Pit for Albuquerque High, where he starred for the great Jim Hulsman.

"I said I hope he doesn't grow an inch," Black said of his first memory of watching Brown play. "I knew if he was 5-9 or 5-10, I'd never be able to recruit him. I never worked harder to recruit anyone in my life than I did Greg."

After two stellar years at NMJC, the Lobos finally came around and recruited Brown, thought by most to be too small to play Division I basketball.

As a Lobo, he became the state's everyman — a local star who wasn't much taller than the thousands of fans who cheered for him every night in the Pit.

"I think Greg's legacy is what he's done after basketball and the people he still continued to touch," said former Lobo teammate J.J. Griego. "He touched this whole community. He touched this whole state."

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