The Grind, presented by Bank of Clarendon: Sumter High's Brown ready to take Gamecocks to the mountain top

BJ Brown has been surrounded by basketball his entire life. Both of his parents were college athletes. His mom, Nikashia, won two state titles in high school before playing at College of Charleston, while his dad, Bryan Brown, shined at Claflin. After his playing days were done, Bryan turned to coaching. The Sumter High head coach has guided some of the state's top athletes through the years, most notably coaching an AAU squad that featured current NBA stars Ja Morant, Zion Williamson and Nic Claxton.

BJ almost had no choice but to thrive on the court. While that journey came with its share of trials and tribulations, the Sumter High senior has proven to be one of the best hoopers in the state. He was an all-state player a year ago and was named one of the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association's Elite Boys players last week. After signing to continue his basketball career at Drexel, BJ only has one thing to check off his bucket list before graduation.

"I think this is probably one of the years where I think it's ring or nothing," BJ said. "I definitely think we have the skill set; I think we're very diverse offensively and defensively. I think the sky's the limit, as long as we can get to the sky. We need the stairs; we can't take the elevator.

"I think I've pretty much accomplished everything that I've wanted to individually. I think, at this point, it's more of a team thing, and we just want to get a championship."

FINDING LOVE FOR BASKETBALL

While BJ was almost bred in a lab to be a basketball star, it wasn't his first love. For a while, BJ thought his future was in football, that is, until he took a hit in the fifth grade that made him question whether the sport was for him.

"He really wasn't a basketball kid at all; he was die-hard about football," Bryan said. "He knew all of the coaches in the NFL, all of the backs, everybody that played for every team; he knew the scores of all the games. He was 100% a football guy."

As a basketball-obsessed parent, Bryan naturally wanted BJ to share that love for hoops, but he also knew how important it was for BJ to find that passion at his own pace.

"It was tough, but it's one of the things that I've learned from other coaches that I've been around, and being around other parents, I learned that I can't push anything on him; it has to be him. It had to be 100% authentic what he wanted to do," Bryan said. "Part of me felt like, if I didn't push it on him, he would come back to it."

BJ's love for football was relatively simple. He was good, and he wanted to continue to be successful.

"I'm a perfectionist, so I like to be good at everything I do," BJ said. "When I found out I was really good at football, I thought I was really going to be good. When that hit came, it was like maybe it's time to pick that basketball up."

BJ played basketball growing up, but he never felt like he was the best player on the court. It would be hard to tell now looking at the 6'6" wing player he's grown into, but BJ was not a natural athlete in his early years. Bryan taught him the mechanics of the sport, but he lacked the athleticism to take his game to the next level.

"I did a good job getting him ready skill-wise, but there was nothing I could do with his athleticism. I didn't know how to do it," Bryan said. "He was really behind at a young age. As he developed his athleticism to go with the skills that he acquired over the years, you could see every year the more athletic he got, the better he got, and that's been fun to watch."

Because he wasn't an overwhelming athlete, BJ had to hone his toolbox of skills. In many ways, he thinks playing on the courts at Caughman Road Park in Hopkins, where he competed with many of the current crop of standouts at Lower Richland and A.C. Flora, helped him develop into a better basketball player because he wasn't the most talented player out there.

"That environment that I was in, getting to play recreation basketball there, I really couldn't beat that. I think that really instilled the basketball player I am today," BJ said. "I wasn't able to just kill everybody around me, so that humbled me a lot. Because I'm not able to run through everybody and make a layup, it really taught me how to play basketball at a young age."

READY TO BE GREAT

As BJ grew up, Bryan knew that he needed some other voices in his son's ear. At a certain point, the labels of dad and coach can become too muddied. A clearer voice would help him take the next step. Bryan was confident in that fact because he played that role in the life of another Sumter star, Ja Morant. Bryan played college basketball with Tee Morant, the father of the current Grizzlies superstar. When Tee needed another voice in his son's ear, he turned to Bryan. That decision turned out pretty well for the Crestwood product, so Bryan turned to one of his assistant coaches, Tre Woods.

"I was one of those coaches that was put in Ja's life to take Tee's voice off him. He gives me credit for being an instrumental coach in his life, and I think that's what Coach Woods has done for BJ. There's been several times that I would talk with Tre, and we would have conversations about what BJ needs to work on, and I would give him in-depth stuff for what I wanted him to work on, especially early. BJ never knew it, it just looked like Coach Woods was training him, but he doesn't know there was long conversations about what he needed to work on, what he was weak at and the stages for how we were going to do it. But Coach Woods is so good at what he does that now I don't have to say anything. My hat goes off to Coach Woods; he's been very instrumental in BJ's development."

Tre will be the first one to tell you that BJ was a raw lump of clay when they first started to train.

"The first thing I remember from BJ was just him being a scrawny kid that was the least athletic player on the team, and all he could do was shoot," Tre quipped, mirroring the sentiment he shared when BJ signed with Drexel last week. "I've seen him go from that to gradually each year getting better, getting bigger, stronger, faster. And now, he's the leader of our team and one of the best players in the state, but it started from him not being able to dribble the ball, barely being able to get a shot off, us having to take him out of some games because he wasn't athletic enough to be out there. Seeing him go from that to where he is now is crazy."

Tre became the mediator between coach and son. Bryan wanted to push BJ every day because he wanted to avoid the idea that BJ was on the court purely because of his relationship to the head coach.

"BJ's first year, there were times when I would make it tough for BJ; I didn't want people in the community to think I was giving my son anything. I would really be hard on him, and Coach Woods would step in and say, 'You coach the rest of the team, I'll coach BJ,'" Bryan said. "I was doing what I think most coaches would do; I didn't want to give him anything easy. There were shots that he would take that I didn't agree with, and Coach Woods would say, 'He can hit it; let him grow. You wouldn't say that to anybody else.' We went through those struggles, and those things worked out. I'll always feel like I owe Coach Woods my life because he really helped out with BJ's development and also dealing with the mental and emotional struggles that we went through."

The first turning point for BJ came in 2020. He was one of many athletes who learned the hard way just how difficult it is to get back into the rhythm of sports after taking time off. BJ called the time his chubby phase because he wasn't committed to being the best version of himself. That started to shift as he worked with Tre and started working on his body at Apex Athletic Performance Prisma Health in Columbia.

"First of all, I cut out all the bread and butter I had at that stage," BJ quipped. "Then a lot of hard work from a place called Apex Athletic Performance Prisma Health. Every single day, no days off; definitely pushing because there were definitely some days (where) I'm like, 'I don't know about today.' I ended up going and getting better every single day. The biggest thing is just keep stacking days."

Tre could see BJ turn a corner when he started committing himself to lifting. Suddenly, the athleticism he thrives with today started to take shape.

"I think the biggest difference in BJ that helped him get that leap was the weight room," Tre said. "When I first met him, he couldn't run, he couldn't jump, he couldn't play defense well, but the more he got into the weight room and the stronger and faster he got, because he was already good at basketball, he just really couldn't showcase his skills because he wasn't athletic enough. The more athletic he got, the more he was able to showcase what he could really do."

As BJ developed athletically, they could fine-tune his training. The most important step in this growth, which started to peak heading into his junior season, was BJ becoming more proactive in his own success.

"BJ watches a ton of basketball, so he would send me clips and text me that he wants to work on this," Tre said. "It would be basic stuff like basic dribbling, basic shooting, but it would be kind of situational type of things, instead of just putting the ball down and shooting. It would be more of coming off pin downs or catching it at the elbow flashing, all the spots that he will be at in the game. I think he worked on a lot of his game like plays, so I think it translates really well for him."

Bryan loved seeing his son become so active in his own success. As a father, he didn't want to push BJ into basketball. As BJ really started to blossom, he didn't have to.

"This has become all him. I can remember when I had to pull him along, but at this point, I'm so hands off that he's going to Apex on his own, he's going to get extra shots on his own," Bryan said. "You would think that me, as a parent, I'm sitting here hovering over him, but none of that is going on at this point; that stopped years ago. When he decided he wanted to be great, he knew what it took because he saw a lot of the guys that I've coached. I told him that if he becomes a great basketball player, it won't be because of me. It'll be because of himself."

ROLE MODELS

As BJ was developing in the sport, he had a front-row seat to some of the area's biggest stars as they took the leap from local phenom to global star. Of course, Morant is the most noteworthy example but far from the only. While Bryan was at Lakewood, he coached Grant Singleton and Juwan Perdue, who both went on to play college basketball and take their talents overseas to play professionally.

"I just think seeing it is obtainable and being exposed to that environment," Bryan said of the lessons to be learned from his former players who have become successful on the court. "We can't sit here and take that away from him. He has been exposed to basketball at a high level, and he's done a really good job of taking advantage of all of those opportunities that he was exposed to. He didn't let anything pass him by; he soaked up conversations, he's been to the tournaments where he saw Zion and Ja and Nic Claxton, who all played on the same team, and they're all professional athletes. He had an opportunity to watch and be around those guys, so he knows that that goal is obtainable."

As BJ navigated the challenging world of college recruitment, he could take solace in taking the longer path to success. Most college coaches, especially at established programs, would rather dip into the transfer portal than sign a high-schooler. Instead of holding out for a bigger school that might never come, BJ is mirroring Morant's journey to Murray State, playing at a smaller program at Drexel. The fact that he's close with someone who has reached every basketball player's dream, starring in the NBA, from a smaller program just shows BJ that he can do the same.

"It's super big, especially (coming) from the same Sumter County. You don't always have to go to the Dukes and the Kentuckys; you can build your own path. It doesn't just have to be from those big schools," BJ said of Morant's path. "He's definitely been a role model for me. We still keep in touch every now and then, and he definitely wants me to keep pushing."

BJ also had the chance to learn under an incredible leader during his first two years at Sumter High. Caleb Jenkins was a coach's favorite player, willing to do the dirty work and not afraid to speak up to the team when it's needed.

"Caleb Jenkins is definitely one of my favorite leaders of all time," Bryan said. "He led by example, and he is definitely 100% a point guard; he knows how to get his teammates involved, he was selfless. BJ being able to play for him for two years was very instrumental in his growth as a great athlete and as a great basketball player now."

Last year, BJ was the most experienced player on the team. SHS had no seniors, so a lot was placed on his shoulders. There was certainly a learning curve for a quieter leader like BJ, but he learned to embrace that role.

"It was a learning process, for sure, because he had Caleb Jenkins the first two years, and he was the voice in the locker room. So, he had to learn how to be the voice in the locker room and be the example that they see every single day," Tre said. "And even on the floor, being able to manage your emotions and tell guys where to go and say it in a way where they believe in you. I think he's learned that in the best way possible. That goes back to him also hanging out with those guys after practice, him going out to eat with him, him hanging out, calling on the phone, sending them film and just building that relationship with his teammates to where they trust in anything that he says, and they believe in him wholeheartedly."

BJ never felt like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders as a junior. Because they had a team of underclassmen, he knew that it wasn't the end of the world if they had growing pains because they were experiencing that growth in lockstep.

"I'm just real cool, calm and collected. I don't really like to let things get to me, so that pressure that a lot of people would think that I had, I didn't really have it because I'm at a point where I'm like, 'Well, I mean, how much worse can the situation get?'" BJ said. "I mean, no seniors, we're all coming back next year, so let's just work as hard as we can and become as good of players as we can for the next season. Definitely didn't put aside last season because we all worked hard, and we definitely got a lot better."

JUNIOR YEAR LEAP

BJ put together all the pieces last season, and it started from the opening tip. He opened his junior season with a 28-point, 12-rebound performance, and he never slowed down. His favorite game was a double-overtime victory over Lugoff-Elgin. He scored 40 points in the game, but the night stands out because the entire team learned how to win a game against a hungry foe.

"I had 40, but because it went to two overtimes, the adversity - we were down five in both overtimes - I think the resilience in that game (stands out)," he said. "I remember going to a timeout, I think in the second overtime. It might've been 1:30 (left), and I'm going to the bench and I'm like, if we go to another overtime, I don't know. I think the resiliency everybody had in that game to (say), 'We don't want to go to another overtime, let's win it right here.'"

That night also highlighted BJ's basketball IQ. Sure, he wants to have the ball in his hands in the biggest moments, but he also knows that every defense he faces is expecting that. Sometimes, the best play is putting the ball in someone else's hands.

"Just making the right basketball play, taking defense gives me," BJ said of continuing to perform when every team knows the ball is heading his way. "They know I probably want the score, but I'm thinking in my head, 'If they take me away, we're not trash, we have players, so I'm just gonna give it to one of them, and they'll do it for us.' If they take me away, we have so many other weapons to where I didn't have to be the man in that second overtime if they're going to take me away. The other guys, they definitely won it for us in that second overtime."

BJ finished the year averaging 25 points, six rebounds and three assists per game, earning all-state honors in the process. It was an honor that he didn't take for granted.

"I think I'm such a humble person, when I got the all-state, I was just like, 'Oh, me?' I wasn't expecting it," he said. "It was truly a blessing. I definitely appreciated all the basketball people in the state that recognized me for it."

For years, Bryan thought his son flew too far under the radar. That can be a blessing in some ways, but he was thrilled to see his son catch the attention of the rest of the state's basketball community.

"There were definitely times where he felt he wasn't getting the recognitions that he deserved; we all kind of felt that. The message has always been the cream will rise to the top; you just continue to be the cream, and you'll rise," Bryan said. "It's good to see, as his parent and as his coach, to see him finally get the recognition he deserves. We're just happy for him. We just don't want it to now be (enough), part of me didn't want him to get the recognition because I wanted him to be hungry and continue to chase after success. Now that it's here, it's gratifying, and I feel like he deserves it."

ONE LAST RIDE

BJ officially opens his senior season today against Orangeburg-Wilkinson. It's the beginning of what he hopes is a run to a state title, though the Gamecocks have a long journey ahead of them. Sumter High enters the season ranked No. 6 in SCHSL 5A DI, and they share a region with the top-ranked team in the classification, Ridge View, and the No. 6 team in 5A DII, Westwood. Along with that competition in Region V-5A, Sumter High has a challenging tournament schedule, which includes a trip to Disney over Christmas break. For BJ, those games are just the stairs to take them to the mountaintop.

"The stairs of these games that we're about to go against, and I think that we're battle-tested through practice as well, so by the time we get to the region with all these tough games and tough matchups we have, I think it's going to be no problem for us by the time we get to the playoffs," he said. "Because we have such a hard region, too, I think it'll be no problem for us to go from the tough non-conference to the tough conference, and then by the time playoff hits, I think we'll just be so much better, from where we are now. I just think you won't be able to stop us at that point."

This is a highly anticipated season for everyone at Sumter High. The expectations are high, and they're confident that they're ready to live up to the hype.

"I'm just excited to see it because I see every single day the work that these guys put in, not just BJ, but everyone. I see that they're all doing it, collectively, every single day. I think we're gonna reap the fruits of our labor this year; we're going to be a really fun team to watch," Tre said. "Especially because he's committed and signed that he's gotten the college stuff out of the way, his mind is fully focused on us winning the championship this year and bring the championship to Sumter High School, and I think we have a good chance of getting it done."

Bryan shared a similar sentiment, though he also admits this season will be bittersweet. After years of watching his son blossom into one of the state's biggest stars, it's hard to watch the number of games he'll be able to coach the child that bears his name.

"It's been bittersweet. It's starting to hit me a little bit. I think after that signing, it kind of felt funny, so I know it's starting to weigh on me a little bit," Bryan admitted. "He's always had to prove himself. He's always kept his head down, no matter what adversity he was up against. I think all of the episodes of adverse situations that he's had to grow through is going to help propel him forward in the future at Drexel because I'm sure he's going to see adversity at an even higher level once he gets there. But just watching him over the years and how he's handled himself, those are things that I'm extremely proud of him about.

"I'm looking for him to continue being himself, continue to let the main thing be the main thing. With him signing, that should take a lot of pressure off him as a player, but just continuing to be himself and continue to grow as a player and continue to lead these guys."

BJ wants to be the player to lead Sumter High to a state title, but he's not doing it for himself. He'll be on the court every night playing for the support system that helped him throughout his entire life. They planted the seed and watered the plant; now, he's blooming for them.

"My mom, dad, sisters, all of them; I have such a great support system," BJ said of the people he plays for. "My family, I feel like it's the best family in the world. They come to anything they can get to. They're talking about planning a family trip to see Drexel a couple of times. I think just the love that I have in my family and all of my friends, everybody is just so supportive of me. I definitely think I do it for everybody who wants to see me win. Everybody around me, that love that they have, it makes me go 100% harder."