By Kelsey Burr

ORLANDO, Fla. (June 3, 2024) – The initials “LB” could be seen on every jersey of the girls seventh grade Reach Elite basketball team at the 2024 AAU Memorial Day Classic.

The special patch was a way to honor Lisa Brown, a huge supporter of the team where her daughters, Jasmine, 13, and Janelle, 11, played and her husband, Chris Brown, coached. 

“Lisa was a kind soul who worked tirelessly to make people feel welcomed and included,” Chris Brown said. “She loved to have fun and her smile owned any room she walked into.”

Lisa lost her three- and half-year battle with metastatic breast cancer in August of last year. In the months since, the girls and their father have relied on their basketball community to help cope.

“They’re like family to us,” Jasmine said. “They’re always there for us when we need them, especially the other girls.”

“If we’re getting down, they help get us back up and moving again,” added Janelle.

The team members and their parents were able to be there every step of the way for Lisa, Chris, Jasmine, and Janelle. 

“They were there when she was first diagnosed, they were there through the treatments. Our team has had the fortune where we’ve been together awhile,” Chris said. “I have coached [Jasmine and Janelle’s] teams since they began playing and the outpour of support from current and previous players and parents has been a critical part of us picking up our lives after her death. Almost every practice, a parent is coming up like ‘hey, we just wanted to check on you.”

It was the organization Reach Elite’s idea to add Lisa’s initials to the jersey. They sent it as a surprise to Chris as a way to memorialize one of the most important members of the team. 

“Having her initials on our jersey means an incredible lot to me,” Chris said. “She loved to see the girls achieve in basketball, and now they can take her with them. It means the world.”

“It definitely feels like she’s a part of us still,” Janelle said.

Lisa was a constant at Reach Elite games, and helped provide a balance as Chris coached his daughters. 

“It’s definitely been different. She was always on the side cheering, recording. Like, you could hear her. And since my dad’s the coach, whenever he’s giving me a talk, I’d look to her,” Jasmine said.

Jasmine said her mom would yell encouraging words, such as “you’ve got it” and “never give up”.  

“I can still hear her voice in the crowd when we’re not doing good or we just made a shot,” Janelle said.

Chris said the biggest misconception is that there’s seven stages of grief. To him, it doesn’t work like that.

“[The emotions] come in waves, and you kind of constantly go through all of them on a regular basis,” Chris said. “Even in some of the games here, I’ve had moments where ‘she’s not in the stands, she would love to see the girls doing this.’”

Chris and his daughters said coaching and playing has really given them something to focus on and given them a reason to get up on the tougher mornings. 

“Our AAU season, and the community around it, will always stick out as a critical part of helping us restart living our lives,” Chris said. 

Chris wanted their story shared for a very important reason. 

“One of the last things my wife said to me was that she wanted to not be forgotten. We kind of took it as our motto going forward that we wanted to continue to live for her and anytime we have that opportunity to share her story, to either give inspiration to somebody else, or sometimes even for [my daughters] to get a little boost that ‘hey, we’re doing OK’.”