New London – Maybe Kareem Brown knew. Maybe he knew all along, even in the days his dreams included professional basketball. Maybe he knew that here — the gym at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School — tugged at him, called him, so palpably through the voices of all the kids who need him.

This is Kareem Brown now: middle school basketball coach. The kid who was a two-time state champ at New London High is a man now, back in the place he was taught. Brown has become a beacon to a concept from which we can all learn: Never give up what you want most … for what you want today.

For some of us, what we want most might not happen today. What we want most won’t come through simpler, convenient answers, but until the evolution of time and space allows pieces of social reality to snap into place.

For Kareem Brown, what he’s wanted most is to teach kids what he was taught, a concept time and space taught him.

“I trained to play (basketball) in Europe. I tried the NBA ‘D’ (Development) League and I even made training camp,” Brown was saying one day last month, after his first game as Bennie Dover’s coach. “I pushed myself to a limit. I took it on the chin. But you know what? It made me realize what I truly want to do. Start helping kids.”

And so Brown reached out to Bennie Dover athletic director Ed Sweeney and principal Dr. Alison Burdick, who know passion when they see it. Brown coaches his kids with Glen Hall, a 1994 graduate of New London High, who also played on a state championship team.

“(Sweeney and Burdick) gave me the opportunity to do this and I am grateful,” Brown said. “It’s something I love to do. I want to help the kids be ready for coach (Craig) Parker (at the high school). I want to help them to be better men one day. Just to teach them to work hard, be dedicated. I think it helps them be better outside of school. Be a better leader in school.”

Brown played on two state championship teams (2004, 2005) at New London, among the most accomplished kids in Parker’s 21 years of coaching. Somewhere, he became more of a purist than he ever thought he’d be.

“I feel coach Parker’s pain,” Brown said, alluding to those pangs of coaching angst known only to coaches. “I’m more of a guy that likes to teach skills. I like to train kids. That’s my joy of basketball. Coaching is something I do because I know I can help. On my off time, kids can call me any time of the day. ‘Hey, coach, I want to work on my game.’ It doesn’t matter where I am.

“I don’t care about wins and losses. They don’t define you as a player. It just defines a record. You can play your hardest and take a loss. It doesn’t define you as an individual. As long as I know they’re learning the game, that’s all I care about.”

Maybe that’s not all. Brown also works with kids in the elementary schools who have behavioral issues.

“I try to be a big brother to them,” Brown said. “I love what I do. I wake up every day and even if I don’t feel like going to work, I keep thinking, ‘these kids need me.’”

The kids do. They need more Kareem Browns in New London. And out. The people who come back. To help kids. To teach what they’ve been taught. With the depth and reflectiveness required to understand that time and space are our greatest teachers.

Time and space taught Brown that today’s disappointment over his basketball career became tomorrow’s good fortune for the kids of the city. They get to learn from someone who was taught all the right things.

Time and space win again.

Bravo.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.