In the early 1990s, as a video coordinator for the Denver Nuggets, Mike Brown put together highlight tapes of NBA draft prospects.
The assignment was labor-intensive: Wade through video of nine games for each projected first-round pick, stopping and starting at every sequence in which the player in question did something noteworthy. Bernie Bickerstaff, then the Nuggets’ general manager, sometimes arrived at the office early in the morning to find the bleary-eyed Brown finishing an all-nighter.
It was that tireless approach that convinced Bickerstaff that Brown would be the rare video staffer to someday lead an NBA team.