WILMINGTON Scuffling with co-workers isn't the typical formula for career-advancement.
But if you're miserable in Serbia, not getting paid, and jerked around by your employer, it's worth a shot.
That's how power forward Andre Brown forced his release from BC Buducnost Podgorica, a Serbian basketball team, in the winter of 2005.
“I wasn't playing, no one spoke English, and I didn't have an interpreter,” said Brown, now trying to make the Charlotte Bobcats as a third power forward.
The paychecks stopped, and Brown asked the Serbian team to void his contract. The club declined.
“I ended up getting into a fight with one of my teammates to get them to release me,” Brown recalled. “I was pretty sad not to get my money (about $60,000), but I was pretty happy, too, to leave.”
Smith drops in for dinner
Retired North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith had dinner with the Bobcats coaching staff Tuesday and watched practice Wednesday.
Smith is Bobcats coach Larry Brown's mentor, and Brown would love to see Smith back in basketball. If Smith wanted to be a Bobcats consultant, that would have already happened.
“Michael and I talked about that right from the start,” said Brown, referring to Bobcats managing partner Michael Jordan.
Brown says he picks Smith's brain all the time.
“He's always real careful about not over-stepping bounds,” Brown said.
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