This past week, a story has developed involving a former NBA player who has made headlines for standing up against several public sports media figures who, for years, have enjoyed laughs at his expense.

Kwame Brown, an ex-professional basketball player who was the first overall selection in the 2001 NBA Draft, happens to be that athlete. In his 12-year NBA career, Brown played in 607 total games and posted career averages of 6.6 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game. Now 39 years of age, Brown seemingly has moved on with his life after failing to live up to his lofty draft expectations.

Having earned north of $50 million throughout the course of his basketball career, Brown has elected to stay out of public view since playing his final NBA season in 2012-13. All that changed when a pair of fellow former professional basketball players decided to once again bring up Brown’s shortcomings on the court.

Former NBAers Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson host a weekly podcast on Showtime entitled “All the Smoke.” During an episode with Los Angeles Lakers executive Jeanie Buss, Buss was discussing a team transaction involving players Marc Gasol and Brown. However, Jackson sarcastically corrected Buss and insisted the transaction only involved Gasol, an obvious attempt to insinuate Brown did not count as an NBA player.

Meanwhile, Barnes seemed to be amused at Jackson’s comment and did not object to the insult directed at Brown. Another episode of the podcast featured fellow ex-NBAer Gilbert Arenas as a special guest. Arenas, who was a former teammate of Brown while a member of the Washington Wizards, talked at length about what it was like to play with the underperforming top draft pick.

Having caught wind of this, Brown decided to end his silence and speak out against the unjustified torment he received on the podcast. Having been the butt of jokes for many years by countless media outlets, Brown seemed particularly upset at fellow members of the NBA fraternity who decided to pile on and make unprovoked attacks at his basketball skills.

As a result, Brown has released a series of YouTube videos addressing his feelings on the topic. In addition to addressing Barnes and Jackson in these videos, Brown has also weighed in on the verbal abuse he has endured for many years by Stephen A. Smith, a longtime ESPN analyst. Smith, known for his verbosity and abrasive style, has routinely taken the liberty of using Brown as a punching bag on national television. The callous and unapologetic Smith once went so far as to refer to the former center as a “bona fide scrub” during a live ESPN segment.

“This grown man went on tours of college campuses around the country to trash my name when I was an 18-year-old kid. I consider that to be child abuse,” Brown said of Smith during one of his video recordings. “I just wasn’t in a position where I could speak out against it back then because I was focused on my career.”

In my personal opinion, I believe Brown has done the right thing by addressing these media bullies for their unprovoked attacks on his reputation. Just because Brown did not end up having a record-breaking career like Wilt Chamberlain or Shaquille O’Neal, it does not give people like Jackson, Barnes or Smith the right to belittle the man.

Brown, a South Carolina native, undoubtedly worked extremely hard and overcame incredible odds to become a professional athlete. Further, he was able to carve out a role in the NBA and played in the league for over a decade which is no easy feat.

In addition to standing up for himself, the former frontcourt player says his bigger message is to take a stand for all athletes. The bully culture of sports media will almost certainly take aim at another high-profile target after they have had their fun chastising Brown.

“This is much bigger than me. What happens when Cam Newton or Kevin Durant has a bad game? If those guys aren’t playing at a superstar level every single second of every single game, they will hear personal insults too,” Brown added. “We should start holding people accountable.”

In closing, I think there can be major lessons to be learned from this story at the grass roots level. If used properly, I think competition and team sports can be great vehicles for the personal growth of young people.

Unfortunately, the venue of team competition can also be fertile ground to publicly humiliate any and all those who participate. Please think twice before ridiculing someone who strikes out, drops a pass or misses a lay-up; it makes the experience unbearable for the target of the insult and it is counter-productive to the entire reason why young people play sports to begin with. If these types of personal insults have gotten under the skin of multi-millionaire athletes like Brown, just imagine the type of psychological damage that can be done to a grade school child who is on the receiving end of such verbal abuse.