Roger Brown

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 excelled for Wingate High in Brooklyn in the late 1950s and was set to play for the University of Dayton in 1960. He never played in college, however, after being falsely implicated in point shaving because he had been introduced to a known gambler; he was never accused of point shaving himself. Unable to play college or professional basketball for a time, he competed in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) for various teams during the 1960s while working at General Motors.

In 1967 he reached the professional ranks when the Indiana Pacers of the upstart American Basketball Association signed him. He quickly became a star, excelling with the three-point play and dominating opponents with a style that earned him the nicknames "The Man with a Thousand Moves" and "The Rajah." In the 1969 ABA playoffs he averaged over 25 points as the Pacers lost in the ABA Finals, the first of five Finals trips made with Brown on the roster. The following year he averaged over 28 points a game in the playoff run as the Pacers won.