Roger Brown (basketball, born 1942)

Roger William Brown (May 22, 1942 – March 4, 1997) was an American professional basketball player and councilman.

A noted player even in high school, Brown exceled for Wingate high in Brooklyn in the late 1950s before being set to play for the University of Dayton in 1960. However, he never got to play in college because he was falsely implicated for point shaving due to being introduced to a known gambler, although he was never accused of point shaving. Not being able to play college or pro basketball for a time, he played in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) for various teams in the 1960s while also working at General Motors. In 1967, he found his way to the professional leagues when the Indiana Pacers of the upstart American Basketball Association signed him. He quickly became a star in the league, excelling with the 3-point play along with dominating teams with his play that saw him nicknamed "The Man with a Thousand Moves" along with "The Rajah". In the 1969 ABA Playoffs, he averaged over 25 points as the Pacers went all the way to the ABA Finals. The following year saw him average over 28 points a game as the Pacers won their first ever ABA championship, with his average stat line of 28 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in the championship run being a record for decades. From 1967 to 1974, the Pacers won three championships with Brown on the team that saw him named to the All-Star team four times. Injuries to his knee and back limited him in his later years that saw him retire from the league in 1975 at the age of 32 in the penultimate season of the ABA before it merged with the NBA. Alongside his teammate George McGinnis and Mel Daniels, Brown's number was retired on November 2, 1985, as the first numbers retired by the Pacers; the team has only retired one jersey for a player since that day.

As an active player, Brown ran for Indianapolis City-County Council in 1971 and won election, where he served from 1972 to 1976. He did work for Marion County in his later years prior to his death in 1996. One of seven unanimous player selections to the ABA All-Time Team in 1997, Brown was finally inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.