GW's SirValiant Brown Declares for NBA Draft
5/3/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
May 3, 2001
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- George Washington's SirValiant Brown (Springfield, VA/Lee H.S.) has decided to forego his final two collegiate seasons and make himself eligible for early entry in the 2001 NBA Draft.
As a freshman in 1999-2000, Brown was named an Associated Press honorable mention All-America player. He was GW's second AP All-America honoree in as many years following Shawnta Rogers' honorable mention selection in 1999. The Atlantic 10 Conference Rookie of the Year in 2000, Brown set a new GW single-season scoring record with 738 points surpassing the 31-year-old mark of 723 points held by Bob Tallent during the 1968-69 season.
Brown was recognized as the league's Rookie of the Week six times as a freshman. His six Rookie of the Week citations is the most for a Colonials player since Yinka Dare won the award nine times in 1992-93. He becomes just the second Colonial to make himself draft-eligible following his sophomore season since Dare in 1994. (Dare was the 14th player selected in the `94 draft by the New Jersey Nets.)
One of the country's impact freshmen, Brown broke the Smith Center single-game record for individual scoring with 42 points against Siena Dec. 11, 1999. Brown was twice named MVP of the BB&T Classic (in 1999 and 2000) after scoring two-game totals of 50 points each year--one point shy of the tournament record.
Brown, who was second in the country in scoring with 24.6 points per game as a freshman, had eight 30-plus point games in addition to the 42-point effort. He nearly became the first freshman to lead Division I in scoring falling just one-tenth of a point shy to Fresno State's Courtney Alexander--who recently completed his rookie season with the Washington Wizards.
He finishes his GW career with 1,274 points which ranks 19th on the career scoring list. His 20.9 career scoring average ranks behind only Joe Holup's 21.4 ppg from 1952-56.
The 2001 NBA Draft is scheduled for Wednesday, June 27, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.