‘More than my Google search’: Former felon earns redemption in Wichita pro basketball
Sitting in a restaurant in downtown Wichita, Terrell Brown is a long way from home — 1,659 miles to be exact — but he still can’t outrun his past.
All it takes is a quick Google search to discover he pleaded no contest to a felony assault charge from a May 2017 incident when he was 19 years old near his hometown in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Before any of the accomplishments from his college basketball career, which ended with honors at New Mexico State, Brown is first identified as a felon. Nothing can be found about his perfect conduct since that has resulted in the charge being reduced to a misdemeanor.
No matter where Brown goes, he knows his Internet history — and the baggage that comes with it — travels with him. He isn’t looking for pity. He owns up to his wrongdoing. He wants to show people can learn and mature from their mistakes.
He has come to Wichita to earn his redemption and prove he can still play basketball at a high level for the city’s new professional team, the Sky Kings.
“I know I am more than my Google search,” Brown said. “But I accept that I can’t change the past. At the end of the day, you can only change yourself.”
The incident that led to Brown’s felony charge
After being the star player to lead his high school team at Moreau Catholic to a California sectional championship, Brown started his college basketball career as a walk-on at nearby San Jose State, a convenient 30-minute drive from his hometown of Hayward.
Brown quickly earned a spot in the rotation, eventually making nine starts and averaging 7.2 points for San Jose State’s best team in years. His play earned him a scholarship for the following season.
His basketball career was taking off, but the choices in his personal life were about to alter his life.
“I was young and dumb,” Brown said. “Going out with the wrong people from back home.”
In the early hours of May 27, 2017, less than three months after Brown’s breakout freshman season, he was one of five people arrested for beating and robbing a man, who said the group punched him multiple times and took his wallet, phone and belt. The group then used his credit card to buy food at an In-N-Out fast-food restaurant in Union City, California. According to Brown, the incident escalated from a spat he had with the man earlier in the night.
After spending the night in jail, he was dismissed from the Spartans for violating team rules soon after. It was a jarring wake-up call.
“I learned from it that day,” Brown said. “I kept thinking, ‘Why would I do something like this?’ We just went too far. People just be doing some dumb stuff when they’re not thinking. Like I said, we were young and dumb. That’s when I figured out that physical violence is not the answer. That’s not going to do nothing for me. I can react a different way.”
Brown was charged with four felonies — second-degree robbery, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, conspiracy to commit a crime and identity theft — and a misdemeanor, receiving stolen property. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in June 2017.
While his case was still ongoing, Brown played his sophomore season at City College of San Francisco, where he averaged 15.9 points and led the team to a 33-1 record and a California Community College state championship. When Brown was able to cradle the trophy, he was overcome by emotion.
“I remember crying because one year before I was in jail for doing some stupid stuff and now I was a champion,” Brown said. “That showed me the sky is the limit.”
Brown was given a second chance by New Mexico State head coach Chris Jans, a former Wichita State assistant, who allowed the 6-foot-1 guard to join the team.
It was a controversial decision, but one Jans and NMSU athletic director Mario Moccia defended at every turn.
“We did extensive background checks on Terrell,” Jans told Las Cruces Sun News in 2018. “A lot of character references to people who have coached Terrell, people who have taught Terrell, people who have been around Terrell as a person on and off floor.”
“When you look at the details surrounding the case, and we have dug into it as deep as possible, we felt comfortable and justified in offering a second chance,” Moccia told Las Cruces Sun News in 2019. “He has been a model citizen and great in the classroom. So far his second chance has more than (panned) out from a student athlete and community standpoint.”
Brown was a standout player for the Aggies in his first season, averaging 11.3 points to earn first team all-WAC honors and help lead the team to 30 wins, a conference championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance. The accolades racked up, even though Brown was dealing with his court case back in the Bay Area throughout the entire season.
He recalled one instance where he appeared in court in the Bay Area, then flew to El Paso, Texas, to meet New Mexico State for a game at UTEP the same night.
“I remember getting off the flight and literally changing into my uniform while I’m driving to the game,” Brown said. “That junior year really was a blur. I was going to practice, going to court, going back to the gym.”
After the season was finished, Brown changed his plea to no contest to the felony count of assault in May 2019 with the other charges being dismissed. He has since served two years of probation with perfect conduct, which reduced the felony to a misdemeanor.
Even though the felony has been downgraded, Brown knows he will always be labeled as that by some in the court of public opinion.
“I really am sorry for what I did, but I can’t change anything now,” Brown said. “I honestly am sorry, but at the end of the day, you can’t change what happened.”
The second chance given to Brown through basketball
When assembling the debut roster of the Wichita Sky Kings in The Basketball League, head coach Sean Flynn immediately had a good feeling about Brown after talking with him.
Working three seasons as the coach of Pratt Community College, Flynn was well-versed in recruiting underdogs and players looking for second chances. The Boston native prides himself on reading people and detecting how genuine someone is.
Jans and New Mexico State coaches showered Brown with praise, but it was Flynn’s own conversations with Brown that sealed the deal to bring him to Wichita.
“I think what happens sometimes with second chances, guys will get them in college and sometimes get third and fourth chances and in a way, they can be enabled,” Flynn said. “Terrell was never enabled. A lot of guys say they’re grateful for this, grateful for that, but sometimes you don’t feel like it’s genuine. Terrell embodies gratitude and he is everything he says he is. It’s really rare to meet congruent people who are young, but he is a congruent person. I think his second chance is very well-deserved and I also think he’s very grateful for it all.”
Brown has been looking for a chance to break through in professional basketball since his final college basketball season was abruptly ended by the coronavirus pandemic. He gained confidence scoring 16 points for the Panamaniacs in the 2022 The Basketball Tournament, but didn’t receive a call until Flynn offered the opportunity in Wichita this past spring.
Without being able to pick out Wichita on a map, Brown hopped on a plane and headed to Kansas to become a professional basketball player after a three-year absence.
“I’m loving every single second I’m out here,” Brown said. “Like bro, I’m really playing pro basketball. I’m taking in every minute and appreciating it. I get to play basketball and get paid. Yeah, I’m loving this.”
Brown is also making the most of his chance in Wichita, averaging 12.5 points for the Sky Kings, which improved to 14-4 after taking down the No. 1 team in the TBL this past weekend at Koch Arena. He was also named the MVP of the TBL All-Star Game earlier this season.
Flynn knew Brown was a great player for New Mexico State, but that was three years ago. The coach wasn’t sure what to expect from a player who had been out of competitive basketball for so long. Brown has exceeded all expectations this year in Wichita.
“Outside of the NBA and G-League, there’s no other level where you’re playing with this many Division I guys at once,” Flynn said. “Even if you’re playing at a pretty high level overseas, you might play with four or five, but you’re never going to be playing with 12 guys who were DI. Terrell has handled that beautifully and has brought an incredible approach to the defensive end. He can really guard and then on offense, he can play with the ball in his hands at point guard or play off the ball. He’s just a winner and a complete basketball player and I really do believe his best days are ahead of him.”
Much like his time as a Kansas junior college basketball coach, Flynn says his objective with players on the Sky Kings is to showcase their talent and try to elevate them to a higher level of play.
Brown, 24, is still young and while his ultimate goal is to someday play in the NBA, he said he would gladly accept a job somewhere overseas next season. Flynn said he will do everything in his power to make that happen after Brown has been a model teammate and citizen in the community, the coach said.
“Terrell can walk into a room and change the dynamic by just his approach and the way he lives,” Flynn said. “He can capture a room and change the way guys are thinking and looking at things. As much as he might feel like he’s behind, he’s right on pace for where he’s supposed to be.”
Brown said there’s some frustration with how the pandemic altered his basketball trajectory, but he tries not to dwell too much on the past. He’s focused on moving forward, on growing, on trying to make it in the basketball world to provide a better life for his parents, Alisa and Hartrel, back home in the Bay Area.
His time in Wichita will likely just make up one chapter in his life’s story, but it will be an important one. It feels like the beginning of something, what exactly remains to be seen.
Starting anew is never simple for Brown, given his past history. But with every passing day, he’s turning skeptics into believers and showing he is so much more than his Google search.
“If people want to view me (as a felon), they can do that,” Brown said. “All I can do is try my best to change their perspective on that and that’s what I’m doing.”
