Shannon Brown is only 16, and already he has a signature move.
Those 6,874 fans at Welsh-Ryan Arena for the City-Suburban Showdown on Feb. 16 came away buzzing about the Shannon Slam.
The 6-foot-3-inch junior from Proviso East who won’t turn 17 until almost Thanksgiving was driving to the basket, having slipped behind the Julian defense.
In full stride, Brown palmed the ball off the dribble, unleashed his 46-inch vertical leap a step inside the free-throw line and threw it down.
It takes an awfully big hand to make a middle-of-the-bounce grab like that.
“You remember Steven Hunter, the 7-footer who used to play here and is now with the Orlando Magic?” said Brown, whose team begins pursuit of the school’s first state basketball title since 1992 Tuesday against Nazareth or Willowbrook. “We put our hands up against one another, and they’re the same size.
“I guess it gives me an advantage. Most guys have to gather the ball in using two hands to set up their dunks. I can do it a lot quicker.”
National talent scouts and college coaches caught a glimpse of Brown’s hang time at the Nike Hoop Jamboree last summer in St. Louis. Brown was streaking for the basket with one defender to beat, a 7-foot center from Florida.
Both took off at the same time. But the big guy was on the descent while Brown continued hurtling toward the rim. The talk of the camp was how this kid from Maywood had dunked over the 7-footer.
“Shannon has the same kind of leaping ability as Ronnie Fields but has more game,” said Proviso East coach Troy Jackson, an assistant coach on the 1995 Thornton team that upset Farragut with Fields and Kevin Garnett in the Class AA quarterfinals. “Shannon can also shoot the ball from outside and handle it like a guard.
“I’ve seen him dunk off alley-oop passes on fast breaks, pick it up with one hand and cuff it in midair.”
An increasingly accurate jump shot has enabled Brown to average 25 points a game while also contributing eight rebounds and five steals. He credits his teammate, Illinois-bound point guard Dee Brown, for the rising shooting percentage.
“Dee works harder than anyone I know, and I’m following his example,” Shannon Brown said. “He’s been giving me these shooting drills to work on, and he stays on me. Now I stay after practice and shoot until I get too tired.”
It must have felt like shooting practice two weeks ago when he scored a career-high 50 points in a victory over Hinsdale South. Brown had 28 in the first half.
“We played man-to-man with a lot of help, but obviously the help never made it there,” said Hinsdale South coach Tony Lavorato. “We tried to run at him and trap him, and that didn’t work. When two guys covered him, his first step is so quick that he was able to split the double team and get clear looks.
“Even though they are different types of players, Shannon reminds me of Michael Finley because you can see both would be big-time college players and maybe more. The upside on him is so big. The scariest part is that he’ll be much better next year. I’m retiring after the season, and maybe it’s good I won’t be around to face him.”
Chris and Sandra Brown are making sure their son’s aerial pursuits do not leave his head in the clouds. He defers to Dee Brown’s leadership and is quick to credit his teammates for any success.
He also takes his schoolwork seriously, compiling a 3.5 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale. As a rehearsal, he took the ACT last year as a sophomore and recorded an academic qualifying score of 17.
“Shannon and I got to know each other a lot better when we played on the same AAU team last summer at a tournament in Georgia,” said Dee Brown, who is averaging 28 points, eight assists and five steals for No. 3 Proviso East (21-2). “He has improved a lot from his sophomore year, especially on defense.”
There isn’t a better duo in Illinois, and these two are the most entertaining since Garnett and Fields.
“I might be biased, and I haven’t seen Andre Iguodala and Richard McBride from Springfield Lanphier,” Jackson said. “But I can’t fathom a better 1-2 punch. I don’t believe there’s another duo that’s averaging 53 points a game.”
Shannon Brown was all hands and feet as a youngster, and kids would call him “Bigfoot” and ask to see his big hands.
“Up until I was 15, my shoe size and my age were the same,” Brown said. “I’d get mad because I didn’t understand why they were making fun of me.
“But my body finally caught up with my feet and hands, and I’m getting the last laugh. Those kids don’t have anything to say to me anymore. If you want to see my hands, I’ll show you.”
He has shown off his game to college coaches such as Roy Williams of Kansas, Bill Self of Illinois, Rick Pitino of Louisville, Tom Izzo of Michigan State and Steve Alford of Iowa.
Some recruiting services rate him among the top five juniors in the country.
“I’m going to wait until the summer to start figuring it all out,” Brown said. “I know Dee will be at Illinois, but my mom and dad have told me I’m going to be the one living there for four years, so pick a place where I want to go.
“Sure, I think about the NBA all the time, but I’m definitely going to college first. Everybody tells me that college was the best years of their lives. I really want to see what college is like. I realize how hard I’ll have to work to be successful at the college level. Then, to make it in the pros, I’ll have to work even harder than that.”
Until then, there’s plenty of time to just dunk and run.
“Something about the dunk gets the crowd crazy,” Brown said. “My teammates like to see me dunk, and they go crazy too. The dunk can be a big momentum change. It gets us pumped up and the other team a little down.
“Against Downers Grove South I did a reverse dunk along the baseline where I came under the rim. One time Dee threw it up to me and I did a 360-degree turn in the air before dunking it. I’ve done a 180 and dunked it backward with one hand.
“I haven’t done a one-hand windmill in a game yet. I’m saving that for a big game Downstate.”
