Indiana Pacers: 25 Best Players To Play For The Pacers
By Phil Watson
Roger Brown. 6. player. 100. <strong>How Acquired: </strong>Free agent, July 1, 1967; Free agent, March 1, 1975.. SF. 1967-74, 1975
Roger Brown‘s pro basketball career was unnecessarily delayed and the small forward was already 25 years old by the time he got a shot with the Indiana Pacers of the fledgling ABA in the summer of 1967.
Brown had played a year of freshman basketball at Dayton before he was kicked out of school and banned from the NBA because of alleged links to notorious gambler Jack Molinas.
Brown was later cleared of any wrongdoing in the point-shaving scandal, but not in time to save his potential NBA career.
But he was a stalwart with the Pacers, earning three All-ABA nods and four ABA All-Star appearances while helping Indiana to three championships.
A versatile wing, Brown was fourth in the ABA in assists in 1967-68 and fifth in 1968-69. He also played third in minutes per game in 1969-70, fourth in three-point shooting in both 1972-73 and 1973-74 and fifth in field-goal percentage in 1968-69.
He averaged 25.6 points per game as the Pacers lost the 1969 ABA Finals to the Oakland Oaks in five games.
Brown was Playoffs MVP in 1970, however, averaging 32.7 points per game in the ABA Finals in a six-game win over the Los Angeles Stars.
He put up 21.3 points a game in a six-game victory over the New York Nets in the 1972 ABA Finals and averaged 10.3 points a night in a seven-game triumph over the Kentucky Colonels in the 1973 ABA Finals.
Brown played out his contract and signed with the Memphis Sounds in July 1974.
But after a month on the waiver wire, he returned to the Pacers as a free agent in March 1975. He played in three games in Indiana’s five-game loss to the Colonels in the 1975 ABA Finals, averaging 5.3 points per game, and is the only player to appear in all five ABA Finals for the Pacers.
Brown retired after the 1974-75 season.
In parts of eight seasons in Indiana, he averaged 18.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 36.3 minutes per game, shooting .471/.317/.792.
He played only seven games with the Sounds before he was traded to the Utah Stars in November 1974. The Stars waived him in January 1975.
Brown is sixth in ABA history with 21,454 minutes, seventh with 312 three-pointers and 10th with 2,315 assists and 10,498 points.
He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013, which unfortunately came well after his death from liver cancer in March 1997 at the age of 54.
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