Early in the morning on June 13, just hours after the Denver Nuggets won the NBA Finals, Bruce Brown made a promise. On Friday morning, he fulfilled it.
Brown, a Massachusetts native, visited the Boys and Girls Club in Dorchester to celebrate his NBA championship at the place where his journey began.
Club president and CEO Bob Scannell welcomed Brown to the building with a message.
“Hard work and perseverance, two values that we take pride in at our clubs,” he said. “Bruce embodies those qualities.”
The gym shook like an NBA arena when Brown entered, with signs welcoming the newly signed Pacers swingman. The scoreboard displayed “94-89,” the final score of the deciding Game 5 of the Nuggets-Heat Finals in which Brown scored the last points at the free throw line.
Brown joked, “I play in front of 20,000 people, but I’m nervous to talk to a few kids.”
Brown shared advice and stories, answering questions that ranged from his childhood dreams to his Dorchester roots to how he made it to the NBA.
“Growing up in Dorchester put a chip on my shoulder. It was really tough over there,” Brown said. “Trying to move my family out, and have a better life for everyone so we didn’t have to worry so much [was my motivation].”
After the Q&A and some photos with the hundred-plus children gathered, Brown played a game of Knockout against several staffers and teen club members. It came down to the NBA veteran and Octavius Nunes, the club’s athletic director.
Brown missed his shot, Nunes drained his, and the gym erupted.
“The reaction from the kids was the best part,” Nunes said. “They’re all in disbelief, like ‘How’d you do that? You beat an NBA player.’ ”
Nunes reflected on what it meant to have Brown visit the club.
“There’s the cliché of ‘work hard, and the results will show.’ Kids hear that all day, every day,” he said. “A lot of the time it starts to get exhausting, but to have somebody who has gotten through it to compete at the highest level come back and talk, and he’s from where they’re from, there’s nothing that can match that.”
After signing autographs for everyone who wanted one, Brown left the gym to one last round of thunderous applause.
Joe Eachus can be reached at joseph.eachus@globe.com. Follow him @joeeachus_.