Brown Is New Voice in Basketball Radio Booth

The first time Chucky Brown ’04 attended NC State basketball coach Jim Valvano’s summer camp, he was called up in front of hundreds of participants to receive one of the legendary coach’s weekly awards.

Unfortunately for the young forward from New York City, by way of the tiny North Carolina coastal town of Navassa, he was wearing a cut-off T-shirt that said “Property of UNC Basketball” and a pair of royal blue Duke shorts.

When Valvano saw Brown’s garb, he made the player turn his shirt inside out before he would hand over the award.

“I had just moved here from New York City and I didn’t know anything about the rivalries,” Brown says. “Coach gave me a hard time.”

Now, long after his exceptional career in college and professional basketball ended, the 57-year-old former player will be an integral part of the rivalry as a member of the Wolfpack Sports Network, serving as a men’s basketball color analyst alongside new play-by-play announcer Matt Chazanow.

Brown became an accomplished player under Valvano, helping the Wolfpack win an Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 1987 and an ACC regular-season championship in 1989. Brown was a first-team All-ACC selection as a senior before being taken in the second round of the 1989 NBA draft.

A Wolfpack letterman for four years, Brown played 128 games and went to four NCAA Championship tournaments with the Wolfpack. He scored 1,357 career points, a total that still ranks 25th in school history, and shot 55.7% from the field in his NC State career, the fourth-best mark in the program record book.

He was always a fan favorite, adding touches of Valvano’s humor to his own engaging personality.

Though he was never a featured star in the NBA, Brown spent the next 13 years playing for 12 different franchises. When he retired in 2002, he was tied for the most teams played for during a career.

His best season was in 1994-95, when he played for the Continental Basketball Association’s Yakima (Washington) Sun Kings before being picked up by the NBA’s Houston Rockets. Both those teams won their respective league titles, making Brown one of only two players to win titles in both leagues in the same season.

I’ve done this kind of thing before, but doing it for your school is different. I want to do a great job.

After he retired as a player, Brown returned to NC State to finish the final 13 hours he needed to earn a degree in sociology before embarking on a post-playing career that included coaching at South Johnston High School in Four Oaks, North Carolina, St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh and in the NBA D-League, among other stops. He refereed local youth league basketball and served as a player scout for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans and the Cleveland Cavaliers. He also did some television broadcasting along the way.

In other words, Brown knows basketball from the lowest levels to the highest, insights he will be able to share on every Wolfpack broadcast, just as his former teammate and fellow NC State graduate Ernie Myers ’87 does for the Wolfpack women’s team.

“I’m very excited and a little nervous, too,” Brown says. “I’ve done this kind of thing before, but doing it for your school is different. I want to do a great job.

“I’m just going to be myself and do the best job I can do.”

Brown will follow in the footsteps of Tony Haynes ’82, who has been a color analyst for Wolfpack football and men’s basketball since 1998 and will retire following the current football season.

And he promises only to wear NC State-branded apparel at every game.

A Brief History of Full-Time Radio Announcers for NC State Football and Men’s Basketball

• Wally Ausley (1948-90): Play-by-play and color analyst for football and men’s basketball on the Tobacco Radio network, the Wolfpack Radio Network and others.
• Bill Jackson (1961-74): Play-by-play for football and men’s basketball.
• Garry Dornburg (1975-97): NC State graduate in English; color commentator for football and men’s basketball.
• C.A. Dillon (1950-61): NC State graduate in English; play-by-play announcer for various local radio stations and the Tobacco Radio Network before the Wolfpack Radio Network began in 1961.
• Jim Reid (1950-61): Color analyst with Ausley and other local announcers; later mayor of Raleigh.
• Reese Edwards (1973-74): Took over for an ailing Jackson as play-by-play announcer for the ACC- and NCAA-champion Wolfpack.
• Johnny Evans (1984-present): Former NC State quarterback and punter; NC State graduate who serves as color analyst for Wolfpack football.
• Gary Hahn (1990-2024): Play-by-play announcer for football and men’s basketball who retired following the 2023-24 season in which State won both the ACC title and advanced to the Final Four.
• Chris Corchiani (1996-97): Former Wolfpack point guard who filled in as a color announcer during the 1996-97 season and the ACC tournament for an ailing Dornburg.
• Tony Haynes (1998-2025): Raleigh native and NC State graduate in speech communications who served as men’s basketball analyst and football sideline analyst.
• Matt Chazanow (2024-present): Play-by-play announcer for football and men’s basketball.
• Chucky Brown (2025-present): Former star player at NC State and NBA champion recently named the new color analyst for men’s basketball.