RJ Brown’s "moment he’ll never forget"

Saturday night was a special occasion for the Adelaide 36ers and especially for Raheim Brown Junior.

The talented teen, who only celebrated his 16th birthday in the last fortnight, has had a whirlwind month and a half since being signed as a Development Player by the Sixers in late September.

The signing made him the youngest NBL player in four decades, and his crazy few weeks was topped off when he hit the court for the first time in his NBL career in the dying stages of his side’s win over the Illawarra Hawks on Saturday evening.

With the Sixers leading by plenty, the cheers started coming from the crowd: “We Want RJ!, We Want RJ!” and the stadium nearly blew its roof off when he was called to the sideline by Head Coach Trevor Gleeson and told to get on.

The teenager overcame some early nerves when he travelled mid-play and had his mid-range fader waved off, only to bring the house down with a three-pointer right on the buzzer.

It made for one proud coach.

“RJ gets that opportunity,” he said, noting the hard work the Woodville High School year 10 had put in at practice in recent weeks.

“He got probably a little bit nervous on the first one. He travelled and the ball still went in, and then we ran a play for him the last play, and, you know, it was just one of those moments he's going to remember for the rest of his life.

“His first game, 10,000 fans, and then he hits a three on the buzzer.

“I'm happy for him. He's certainly a talent and now he's got to go to work to use that talent to be the best he can be.”

While he is nearly old enough to be his dad, Zylan Cheatham has formed a strong bond with Brown, calling him his little brother.

It meant nobody was more excited than Cheatham when the teen took the court.

“I mean, what I was doing at 16 years-old, I just couldn't imagine being in the NBL right now,” Cheatham smiled.

“Unbelievable kid, comes from an unbelievable family.

“I'm just proud as an understatement, you know? I mean, he's like a little brother that, you know, is just, you just kind of see him blooming every day and just getting better and he comes in with such a good mentality every day so it was great for Trev to finally get him some minutes.

“I love RJ. Very proud of him.”

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