Brewer hasn’t forgotten his local roots

FAYETTEVILLE — To his hometown and home university, Ronnie Brewer has become the gift that keeps on giving.

A Fayetteville native and son of former University of Arkansas All-American and NBA basketball great Ron Brewer, Ronnie Brewer fashioned his own great (first-team All-SEC and AP honorable mention All-American) Razorbacks career from 2003-2004 to 2005-2006 before turning professional with an ongoing NBA career giving him the means to give back.

Unlike some just meaning to give back, Brewer gives back constantly and abundantly. He has given as much as $50,000 to UA academics in a single check.Last week in Fayetteville, Brewer raised funds with a big bowling party at Ozark Lanes and “An Evening with the Stars” banquet at the Fayetteville Town Center. Through his Ronnie Brewer Foundation, the fund-raisers aimed at building a new gymnasium for the Fayetteville Boys and Girls Club.

It’s not the same Boys and Girls Club building, now way out west in Fayetteville, that Ronnie played in growing up, but his heart stays with the club wherever the building may be.

“I was raised in the Boys and Girls Club,” Brewer said. “My parents both worked and they dropped us off and we would play basketball or be in the art room or the game room. That’s why I go back and have my basketball camp there. I was raised there and I want to raise money and help the facilities out.”

Brewer is up to keep earning enough to give back. He approaches free agency as one of three Chicago Bulls whose option year is up while the Bulls are trying to fit the salary cap.

So for now he’s a man without a team although 12 teams, including the Bulls, have expressed interest, says Hank Thomas, Brewer’s agent.

Accompanying Brewer on his Fayetteville return, Thomas seems exactly the kind of agent that those knowing Ronnie from his UA days would expect him to have: Smart, understated, down to earth and burning no bridges.

“It had nothing to do with basketball,” Thomas said of Brewer’s current limbo with the Bulls. “It was all about economics. The Bulls have been very honest with him and honest with me that they probably weren’t going to exercise their option, but they do want him back.”

So do others.

“He has to decide what situation he wants to go into,” Thomas said. “The money will be a factor, but he has got a lot to weigh.”

As a 6-7 swingman who can shut down big guards and small forwards and score on them, too, Brewer has the skill sets to fill a lot of needs.

Now he must consider what combination best suits his needs.

He wants to contend for a NBA team title t while continuing to make the money not only for his own economic security but enhancing the lives of so many others.

“All of it is important,” Brewer said. “At the end of the day, you want to be happy and you want to win.”

For his hometown and his hometown university, Ronnie Brewer already has achieved both.