“Whatever would benefit the team that night would be how he would play,” Wang said. “A guy as good as him obviously at any point could have just said, 'Hey, give me the ball and get out of the way.' He was always about the team first. Just having him on the team was such a joy.”

‘You take the ball’

Although Brooks never hesitated to get teammates involved, sometimes it was best to let him decide the game. That much was evident in Auburn High’s regional final game against Central-Phenix City on February 21, 2017.

Brooks was in the midst of a 14-point and 9.3-rebound per game senior year, but the season was in jeopardy with seven seconds to go against the Red Devils. Trailing Central 49-48, Tolbert opted for a timeout and called an inbound play under the basket for the Tigers.

The plan was to get the ball to Brooks unless he was double-teamed, at which point Christian would take the last shot. Christian, however, had already made up his mind that the team was winning or losing with the ball in Brooks’ hands.