Wiz Kid

In the last of his four years as a starter at Glynn, Brown averaged 20.1 points, 13-3 rebounds and 5.8 blocked shots. Beyond his physical skills, he impressed NBA scouts by demonstrating a good rapport with his less gifted teammates. Brown says he never realized he might be the best high school player in the country until last summer, when he began to meet the bigger national names. Against fellow lottery selections Chandler (the No. 2 pick), Eddy Curry (No. 4) and DeSagana Diop (No. 8), he more than held his own.

Unlike most other high school draft choices of recent years, Brown has the muscle to play inside as a rookie, and his strength will increase as he begins lifting weights regularly for the first time. He didn't fill out until this year—"I wasn't 200 pounds until I was a junior," he says—by which point he was already a deft ball handler with a reliable midrange jumper. "Everybody in the NBA has to have a great jump shot," he says. "If I develop mine more, I could even play some small forward."

Again, he uses Jordan as his model, noting that he perfected the turnaround shot that made him unstoppable. "What Mike did, he found out what his weaknesses were, and he kept working on them until he didn't have any," Brown says. "That's what I need to do."

Jordan has already invited his new prot�g� to his estate in suburban Chicago for 10 days of well-heeled boot camp in August. "The guy took probably the biggest risk of his life, picking a high school player Number 1," Brown says. "I'm conscious that if I screw up, I'm messing with Michael's reputation. I know he's going to work me to death."

When they sat together during a press conference in Washington after the draft, Brown playfully repeated his vow to beat his boss. "That is a dream," responded Jordan. This is a relationship unlike any Jordan has experienced in basketball. After spending a career making sure he was the preeminent player in the game, Jordan now finds it in his own best interests to make Kwame Brown the league's best. Little did young Kwame imagine, as he was watching his idol on TV all those years ago, that he would be the one chosen by Jordan to extend his legacy.

Says Williams, who knows a bit about the big picture, "I really don't think it's an accident it's turned out this way."