Legendary NBA coach and broadcaster Hubie Brown will call his final game in February, ESPN announced Tuesday night. The news was first reported by the New York Post‘s Ryan Glasspiegel.
Brown will call the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks on February 9th at 2:00 p.m. ET on ABC. The game is the same day as the Super Bowl later that evening.
Last month, ESPN content president Burke Magnus mentioned on a podcast that this would be Brown’s final season calling games.
Per ESPN’s announcement, “Brown will return to Milwaukee, Wis. where he began his professional coaching career as the assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks in 1972. The two-time NBA Coach of the Year will serve as broadcast analyst one final time as the Bucks host the Philadelphia 76ers. Mike Breen, a fellow Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame commentator, will provide play-by-play alongside his longtime colleague. The duo called the 2006 NBA Finals on ABC together.”
ESPN will honor and celebrate Brown’s career during the broadcast. The longtime NBA voice spent 35 years as a national television and radio analyst. More details about the broadcast will be announced leading up to the game.
Brown has had a storied career both on and off the court. He is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, once in 1978 with the Atlanta Hawks and again in 2004 with the Memphis Grizzlies.
As a broadcaster, Brown called the 2005 and 2006 NBA Finals for ABC before the network moved onto analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson.
Brown is a member of both the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Sports Media Hall of Fame.
Watching his final game will be a bittersweet moment for many fans who have seen Brown coach and call NBA games for nearly 50 years.
Brown is now 91-years old, making it a remarkable feat that he has remained a fixture on ESPN’s NBA broadcasts up until recently.
[ESPN PR]