COMMENTARY

By Mike DeCourcy

updated 1:36 a.m. ET June 10, 2005

Mike DeCourcy

It might have been nice had there been some NBA letterhead available for the announcement -- just to make him appear he was even peripherally part of the league. Instead, the official news arrived almost unofficially, on plain sheet of powder-blue paper under the heading of PLAYER UPDATE.

Dee Brown suffered a fracture of the fifth metatarsal of the right foot on Wednesday night.

That meant his week at the NBA pre-draft camp was finished after less than half a game. That meant his entry into the draft would need to be abandoned. It meant he'll get the chance to reinforce all the statements he made last winter about his preference for college basketball over the pro variety.

Some scouts at the camp believe this might not be such a tough break.

Brown was a consensus first-team All-American as a junior for Illinois' national runner-up squad and Sporting News player of the year. Quite a resume. But he came home to Chicago this week hoping to complement his statistics and honors with a demonstration that he could be, without having played the position regularly at any prior level, an NBA-quality point guard.

He was mostly a shooting guard in his first three seasons with the Illini, whose offense was in the hands of Deron Williams, Brown's classmate. Williams is good enough -- he does not need to compete in the pre-draft camp. He will be one of the first 10 players drafted, probably one of the first five.

Brown has to be a point guard in the NBA. He measured at 5-11 in his socks before he was injured, 6-0 in shoes. Though that made him unusual among players at this camp -- most dropped an inch or more from their listed college heights when they took off their shoes -- he still is not tall enough to play off the ball in the pros.

For as long as he played, though, Brown was looking as if his decision would not be easy when the week was complete. He wasn't excellent, but he was working his way in that direction. In 10 minutes, he made one shot, passed for two assists and grabbed one rebound. The technical term for this sort of performance: just getting started.

Brown attempted a crossover dribble in front of Florida guard Anthony Roberson early in the game on Wednesday night, but he lost the handle and watched Roberson take off in the opposite direction. Not long after, he fouled Roberson twice on the same possession. Then, Brown began to play.

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