Ricardo Brown’s strength of heart

IRVINE, California – Ricardo Brown has always impressed me. He is considered the first major Filipino-American basketball player to come to the Philippines and play with great success in the PBA. He dealt with tremendous pressure, public untruths told about him, adjusting to a new culture, and being technically an outsider to a degree that nobody had before him. And yet he carried it all with dignity, professionalism and great respect for the country and its people. All this stemmed from some very early guidance about life and treating people and work with proper value. That work ethic and thoughtful behavior would be his guiding values throughout a career filled with challenges.

“Very early, at about five, my Dad taught me to do all those fundamentals right,” Brown revealed. “The dribbling behind the back, between the legs, that all came natural to me.”

Brown says that, from that age on, he was fortunate to have gotten great guidance from some of the best coaches in the US. While still a junior at Pepperdine University, there was the possibility for him to play in the PBA, which he looked forward to with great relish, as he would learn more about his mother’s homeland and its culture. As is typical of his nature, he did his research and learned as much as he could about the country. Then a greater calling came, as Amb. Danding Cojuangco recruited him to play for the Philippine team that would eventually win the Jones Cup. For Ricky, that was a priceless opportunity to wear the Philippine colors on his chest, and be a part of something special.

Inevitably, the PBA also called, and Brown was all set to see action for Crispa, having met with and liked its patriarch Danny Floro. Then, a couple of days before the deadline for new recruits to sign up, he received a call from Ignacio Gotao, team owner of Great Taste Coffee. He said they needed Ricky in a position of leadership on the team. Knowing he would be playing with the likes of Atoy Co, Philip Cezar and Abe King whom he still deeply respects up to this day, Brown accepted. 

There was, however, one unfortunate twist to the story. Someone had leaked supposed details of his contract (they weren’t true) to the public, and Ricky was met with a lot of flak. Some fans screamed invectives at him during his first PBA game. Thankfully, none of the players openly tried to take him down or hurt him because of the false publicity.

At the same time, homegrown players thought that the physical nature of the local game would rattle Brown. They didn’t realize that, having grown up playing American football, the six-foot guard enjoyed the contact. Later on, Brown observed, players developed more respect for one another and no longer committed fouls that could injure or cripple other players. But back in the 1980’s, it was more common. Eventually, many people who disliked Brown because of all the hype were gradually won over by his brilliant shooting and playmaking. Being truthful, Brown admitted he got more fulfilment when he didn’t have to score, when he made a breathtaking and unexpected pass for an assist.

“I never thought about what I was going to do when I came down the court with the ball,” the long-time educator now based in Cerritos told this writer. “I just responded to the moment. And it was very hard to defend me. If I didn’t know what I was going to do with the basketball, how could the player defending me possibly know?”

Still, even at that early stage, Brown was preparing for a life outside of basketball. After his retirement, he was hearing a lot of horror stories about his contemporaries falling on hard times. It broke his heart, but he knew that both the players and the league back then had a certain responsibility to make sure that it wouldn’t keep happening,“When you’re 35, 36, 37 and all you know to do is how to dribble that basketball, good luck with the rest of your life,” Brown warns. “That is why I am so grateful that I was fortunate enough to go back and get more education and make a better life for myself after basketball.”

Then, the possibility of suddenly not being able to play hit Brown hard as a San Miguel Beerman. He had been playing well and was actually on track to win a second MVP when a freak accident during a game almost ended more than just his career.

“It was during the last game before the finals, against my former team, now Tivoli Ice Cream. Presto kept changing the name of its product a lot then,” Brown describes in detail. “I got elbowed in the chest, and after a while, it started to hurt. I even put an ice pack on it. But I was stubborn and kept playing. Later on, I developed congestive heart failure, and had to stop playing and come back here to the States to get treatment.”

Luckily, a combination of Brown’s dogged determination and great medical help put him back on the road to recovery faster. The player Pinggoy Pengson had dubbed “The Quick Brown Fox” missed the first two conferences of the 1989 season, which San Miguel Beer had claimed, and came back just in time to help them win a rare Grand Slam in the Third Conference.

“Just imagine, I had missed the finals and was almost unable to ever play again, my life was in danger for a while, the team didn’t really need me, and yet they and the fans welcomed me back.” Brown still shakes his head in disbelief. “And we won. How sweet was that?”

In 2012, Brown returned to the country for the first time in 18 years, after three back surgeries and caring for his ailing father. He received an overwhelming welcome from the fans, including autograph-signing opportunities and a ceremony wherein he finally was personally handed his PBA Hall of Fame trophy. Now, Ricky Brown is looking for an opportunity to coach in the PBA even as an assistant, again re-educating himself so he can give back to the game and the people he truly loves. That is simply the way Brown lives his life, doing things the way they should be done.