Brandon Childress and his younger brother, Deven, liked playing football. Deven still does. But Brandon's preference changed shortly after he stopped by Joel Coliseum and spied his father's name on one of 11 banners hanging from the rafters above and behind the team benches.
At first, scanning the array of retired jerseys of Wake Forest basketball greats, Brandon thought Randolph Childress had been traded by the European club for which he played at the time. "I was too young to understand _ I thought that it was everybody on one team," the Wake freshman recalls.
Shortly afterward, rummaging through a storage room at home, Brandon Childress came upon a vestige of his father's pro basketball career, which ultimately lasted 16 years, three in the NBA and the last 13 overseas, mostly in Europe. "I said, 'Wow! Pretty cool!' Ever since then I said I'm going to try this basketball thing, and I'm here."
Despite joining a seasoned backcourt led by Bryant Crawford, Brandon Childress averages 19 minutes per game coming off the bench and generally has performed well. That impressive start neatly fits the quick 6-foot guard's personal narrative. "I think that's a blessing, to look up and see my last name up there every day," he says of the banner saluting his father. "It's not me personally, but hopefully I can get my name up there someday."
This season, a handful of ACC men's players are on rosters at the same school where their fathers starred decades ago, inevitably conjuring comparisons to their parents' achievements. "He'll be Randolph Childress' son wherever he goes," says Brandon's 44-year-old dad.
Complicating that connection, Randolph Childress is associate head coach under Danny Manning at Wake. He helped recruit Brandon, who was spurned by the heavyweight programs he admired.
