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Once a UNLV basketball star, now homeless in Los Angeles

A promising player who once helped lift UNLV basketball to the top ranks is now a homeless window-washer in Los Angeles. From a profile in the New York Times:

 

Four decades ago, Mr. Brown had galloped down the court, all 6-feet 11-inches and 260 pounds of him. Even all these years later, Mr. Turner, gazing at the man, suddenly remembered the basketball center from Compton whom he watched lead his high school to three championships in the 1970s, and whom he once played against in a high school tournament. A member of the celebrated squad that lifted the U.N.L.V. Rebels into the college basketball’s top rank. A regional legend, destined for stardom. Mr. Turner had idolized him. These days, Mr. Brown spends much of his days at the Mobil station, washing drivers’ windows as they pull in for gas. As dusk fell one recent night, he headed for home, a pile of boxes and blankets on a patch of sidewalk set among the production studios south of Santa Monica. “Vine is mine, all the way down to the 7-Eleven,” Mr. Brown said, his huge frame lumbering down the street, nodding at people who know him from his 11 years on these streets, as well as a few who still recognize him from his basketball days.

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As a longtime journalist in Southern Nevada, native Las Vegan Andrew Kiraly has served as a reporter covering topics as diverse as health, sports, politics, the gaming industry and conservation. He joined Desert Companion in 2010, where he has helped steward the magazine to become a vibrant monthly publication that has won numerous honors for its journalism, photography and design, including several Maggie Awards.
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