Joshua Brown was never the most recruited player in the room. He was a late bloomer at Park Center High School, a sophomore role player who worked his way into a starting spot by his senior year, and a college prospect whose biggest recruitment break came at a summer elite camp. But five years, nearly 1,700 points, and one professional season in Spain later, Brown is exactly where he believed he would be.
Brown joined hosts Charles Hallman and Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald on the Blacklight on Sports podcast to talk about his journey from youth basketball in the Twin Cities to the Canary Islands, his time working with the Minnesota Lynx as a practice squad player, and the mindset that has carried him through every level of the game.
A Late Bloomer Finds His Footing
Brown grew up playing alongside his older brother, with his father coaching, learning the fundamentals from the ground up. At Park Center, he played on the freshman team as a ninth grader, moved to JV as a sophomore, and was the eighth man on the varsity squad as a junior. By his senior year, he was starting most games.
The recruiting break came the summer before that senior season, when Brown attended a University of Minnesota Duluth elite camp.
“I lit it up there. That was the first time the head coach saw me play,” he said. “After that, they recruited me hard until I committed after my senior season.”
That senior season was 2020. COVID-19 cut it short the day of the section final, eliminating Park Center’s chance to compete for a state title. Brown committed to the University of Minnesota Duluth shortly after.
Five Years at Duluth
Brown arrived at the University of Minnesota Duluth during a pandemic-shortened season, playing only 13 conference games. Because that year did not count against eligibility, he went on to start all five seasons at the school, finishing in the top 10 in all-time scoring with around 1,700 career points.
His proudest team memory came the season they won the regional championship and advanced to the Elite Eight, something no Duluth team had done before. It was not the winning itself that stood out most to Brown, but how the team got there.
“In the middle of the season, I would say that’s the most turmoil a team in my college career had,” he said. “But it was the fact of how we got over that hump and how we came together as a team, which allowed us to do something that no team has ever done in the history of Duluth.”
During that regional championship win, Brown hit a free throw with about 50 seconds left in the game that gave him his 1,000th career point.
“That was two birds with one stone. I got my personal accomplishment along with our best team accomplishment in the same minute,” he said.
Signing Pro and Heading to the Canary Islands
After finishing at Duluth in 2025, Brown got an agent, trained through the summer, and signed his first professional contract in November 2025 with a team in the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory located near Morocco in the Atlantic Ocean.
His team finished 11-7. Brown led the team in all five major statistical categories, averaging approximately 29 points, 13 rebounds, and three assists per game. The biggest adjustment, he said, was not basketball.
“Living on the other side of the world, being by myself a little bit, not having my parents within distance, being six hours ahead on the time difference. The isolation was the biggest thing off the court,” he said. “It really matured me in a short time span.”
He closed the season with a performance that stopped the conversation. In the final game, Brown scored 51 points and grabbed 25 rebounds.
“I had prepared all season. I worked out every day, Monday through Friday, no matter what. The first thing I would do is wake up and go to the gym,” he said. “During that last game, I felt like all the work came together.”
He did not realize how historic the performance was until a teammate told him he had 48 points while standing at the free throw line. He checked the box score himself after the game, confirmed the total, and called his parents from the parking lot.
“I was just in the parking lot calling my mom and dad like, ‘That’s what I did this game,'” he said.
The season ended on a bittersweet note. His team missed the playoffs by one game, making the final performance one that mattered personally but not in the standings.
Inside the Lynx Practice
Before heading overseas, Brown had connected with the Minnesota Lynx through Tim Gil, a former player of his father’s. Gil reached out looking for an extra player for practice. Brown did not know what he was walking into until he arrived.
“When I got there, I was going into the Lynx practice,” he said.
He impressed the staff that day, was added to the group chat, and has been a regular practice squad presence for multiple seasons. At 6-foot-4 with guard skills, Brown said he functions as a versatile defender who can match up at multiple positions.
“In the women’s game, I’m 6-4, so I can be a center. But in the men’s game, I play guard. So I’m in there with guard skills and guard IQ, but playing whatever they need me to play,” he said. “A lot of times I play the three or the four, but I can guard one through five.”
The experience has sharpened his basketball IQ in ways he did not anticipate. He described watching coach Cheryl Reeve, who was recently inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, use game-specific preparation in practice.
Before a game against the Connecticut Sun, Reeve had players on the sideline yell “trees” whenever someone grabbed an offensive rebound, a reminder that Connecticut’s size in the paint meant kicking the ball back out rather than going back up strong.
“Every game it’s something different that they’re specifically focused on, how they can attack the other team,” Brown said.
He also spoke to Reeve’s demanding standard in practice and the way her players respond to it.
“She demands perfection. If they’re doing something wrong, she’s instantly getting them on the line. The players respond. They know they’re messing up. They got to refocus,” he said. “That unwavering demand for perfection really affects everybody’s level of play to be higher.”
What Comes Next
Brown graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth with a double major in sociology and communication and a minor in coaching. He has spent time this summer training a high school team and working with younger players, which he described as rewarding in ways that are different from playing.
“With younger kids, you can see their development on a drill-by-drill basis. You can see the progress in a kid’s mind a lot more than you can with older people,” he said.
He is open to returning to the Canary Islands for a second season but is not rushing the process, staying prepared and letting his agent work while focusing on what he can control.
His closing message landed on that same theme.
“The hardest times of my life, the times where I lost focus, the times where I was having trouble mentally, physically, emotionally, is when I started thinking about the things that were outside of my own bounds,” he said. “Control what you can control. Focus on your own attitude, the energy you give off. Some days my 100 percent might only be 80 percent. But that’s still 100 percent of what I have to give today.”