5-year-old phenom from Wilmington keeps hooping it up

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — “Everyone says the same thing, they have never seen a talent like this at the age of 5-years-old.” That is Josiah Brown’s father speaking, but it’s true based on everyone we’ve talked to in Wilmington.

In ten more years Josiah Brown will likely be playing high school basketball in Wilmington. That sounds like an extremely long wait, but it makes sense due to Josiah’s age. The Wilmington phenom recently graduated from kindergarten. Josiah already has aspirations to play well beyond high school though.

We recently caught up with 5-year-old Josiah Brown. In a way it was our anniversary checkup of the Wilmington basketball sensation. Do you remember when we visited with Josiah back in July of 2014 when he was just 4-years-old?  “From the time he started walking we had a Little Tykes goal in the house, and he just took to it,” Josiah’s dad Demetrius Brown told us last year. “Pretty much all the fundamentals that most kids in the teens are working on, he’s working on right now at four years old.” Now that Josiah is a year older he’s a bit taller, but not by much, and he’s playing even better. He’s just doing it with a year’s worth of maturity under his small belt.

Josiah’s upside is tremendous. That in itself was reason enough to check out his basketball skills as a 5-year-old, just a year after seeing him play as a 4-year-old. The other reason we decided to feature Josiah again was the fact his story received so much national attention when it originally aired in 2014. “That feed went viral,” Demetrius Brown said. “I’m a computer guy myself, and generally my homepage is set on Yahoo. When I clicked on the computer and saw him(Josiah) on the front page of Yahoo that was a great feeling for everyone to recognize his talent at the 4-year-old level.”

Josiah has yet to hit the court with an NBA player, but he’s certainly met more than a handful. He really can’t remember meeting Kobe Bryant and LeBron James because Josiah was so young at the time, but there are several pros he does remember meeting. “Stephen Curry and Kevin,” Josiah told WWAY’s John Rendleman. “I met Muggsy Bogues and Nerlens Noel too.” The list actually is even longer. Josiah also met Anthony Morrow and Raymond Felton. We have pictures of these encounters. To be honest we’re kind of surprised Josiah can remember them Stephen Curry. Josiah looked pretty young in the pictures we saw, but we’ll take his word. On a related note, the pros first noticed Josiah at the Muggsy Bogues Fundamentals Basketball Camp in Charlotte in 2014. Josiah received an outstanding player award from NBA legend Muggsy Bogues. Josiah won the free-throw shooting competition for 6 to 9-year-olds at that camp.

David Pellom played college basketball at Memphis and George Washington.  Pellom played in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and he’s awfully impressed with Josiah’s game.  “He’s an all-around player. He’s not just a little five-year-old that’s going to score. He’ll pass the ball and he’s a team player. He’s up against 8 and 9-year-olds and he’s only 5 holding his own weight.”
impressed with Josiah.

We asked Josiah what the S stood for on his shirt. “Superman.” he said. Superman, he’s not, but we can tell you that Wilmington’s Josiah Brown is a super 5-year-old worth keeping an eye on to see where the future takes him. Basketball runs in the family.  Josiah watched his dad play in recreational leagues from birth on and his mom, Joy, played college basketball at UNC Wilmington.