College and overseas career

Born in Bayville, New York, Brickowski played college basketball for four years as a power forward/center for Penn State. He won the John Lawther Award in 1980 as Penn State's MVP.

Brickowski was then selected with the 11th pick of the third round of the 1981 NBA draft by the New York Knicks. The Knicks considered him not quite ready for the NBA, so he began his professional basketball career in Italy. After a year in Italy, he played for another year in France, and the Knicks relinquished their draft rights after the 1982-83 NBA season. Brickowski then played another season overseas for Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel.

NBA career

Brickowski signed with the Seattle SuperSonics for the 1984-85 on September 23, 1984, arriving in the league three years after being drafted. After two decent seasons, he signed on with the Los Angeles Lakers, but only played part of one season before being traded to the San Antonio Spurs, along with Pétur Guðmundsson, two draft choices and cash, for Mychal Thompson. Although Brickowski only played 7 games the rest of that season, he played 3 more productive seasons for San Antonio, including scoring a career-high 16 points per game during the 1987-88 season.

During the 1990 off-season, the salary cap went up, which led to Brickowski being traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Paul Pressey, to which the Bucks agreed due to an injury to Larry Krystkowiak. He was a productive player during his time in Milwaukee, but not without trouble: during 1991-92, Brickowski was found with an ounce of marijuana at his Montana ranch. He pleaded guilty, and was forced to pay a $2,000 fine and undergo drug counseling. At the 1994 trading deadline, The Bucks traded Brickowski to the Charlotte Hornets with a first-round draft pick for Mike Gminski. After spending the rest of the season with Charlotte, Brickowski joined the Sacramento Kings. However, he injured his shoulder during preseason, aggravating the injury in a practice in January, and ended up being lost for the entire season.

Although he had a second year on his contract with the Kings, Brickowski signed on for a second stint with Seattle, in which he became a surprising contributor in terms of three-pointers, hitting 32 of 79 (.405). He helped Seattle make it to the 1996 NBA Finals against Chicago Bulls. During that series, Brickowski became notorious in his very physical defense against Dennis Rodman that led to several technical and flagrant fouls. After a season with Seattle, he signed as a free agent with the Boston Celtics on August 1, 1996. After only 17 games, he was released on July 7, 1997, and retired, holding career averages of 10 points, 5 rebounds and two assists per game, in 731 contests.

After the NBA

One year after he retired in 1997, Brickowski joined a team of retired NBA players on a tour of China for a series of exhibition games against the Chinese national team.

Brickowski currently works with the NBA Players Association and lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]