When they first talked, it was about everything except basketball.
“We just hit it off,” Greg Brown said.
Joe “Jelly Bean” Bryant, the former NBA player, was an assistant coach for La Salle University in the 1990s. Coach Brown, down at Lee High School in Alabama, had a talented player named Ronnie Braxton.
“Joe Bryant was the recruiter,” Brown said by phone Wednesday. “He came down to visit and to watch Ronnie. We hung out and just had a good time. He got back and called: 'We're really interested in Ronnie. We'd like to get you out here for a visit.