Ex-Huskies Brown and Roberts Labor in Obscurity of NBA G League

Both former UW players are reserve players in the pro basketball minor leagues.

Dan Raley | Feb 26, 2023

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Washington Huskies

A year ago, Terrell Brown Jr. and Nate Roberts were finishing up University of Washington basketball careers, putting the final touches on a 17-15 season.

Brown, in his one season in Montlake after playing for Seattle U and Arizona, led the Pac-12 in scoring by averaging a 21.7 points per game and was named as a first-team All-Pac-12 guard.

The Seattle native had experienced a triumphant return home.

The 6-foot-11 Roberts, from Washington, D.C., and with eligibility remaining, chose to move on after playing 78 games for the Huskies and starting for two seasons.

Today, they are somewhat lost in the obscurity of the NBA G League.

They're the only former Huskies found at this level of pro basketball, with eight other ex-UW players drawing paychecks from NBA teams.

Brown plays for the Western Conference-leading Memphis Hustle, coming off the bench for the 16-5 team.

He averages 6.1 points per game while backing up starting guards in Vince Williams Jr. from Virginia Commonwealth and Kennedy Chandler, who played his college ball at Tennessee.

In his most recent outing, Brown drew just a minute of time in a 123-97 home victory over G League Ignite, a game that drew 3,813 at the Lander Center in Memphis.

Roberts pulls on a uniform for the 11-12 Motor City Cruise and similarly comes off the bench, finding minutes when and where he can. He averages 1.6 points and 4.1 rebounds a game.

In his most recent outing, he pulled some time in a 104-87 loss to the Raptors 905, a game that drew 1,888 at the Wayne Center in the Detroit area.

The message here is better enjoy your college days when you have them.

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Published Feb 26, 2023

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.