An elementary school-aged Cam Brown stood in his father’s office inside Quicken Loans Arena wearing a funky shirt, shorts and two mismatched tennis shoes. Much of his body was marked up in Sharpie. He believed that if he looked as embarrassing as possible, his mom wouldn’t take him to see the his father, Mike Brown, then-head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But Brown had thought wrong. His mom forced him to go wearing exactly that and Mike remembers just about falling over when he saw his son in the arena. Growing up, despite always playing sports, Brown’s favorite pastime was reading, Mike said, and he’d often rather do so than watch the NBA.