Pro day: Peyton, Eli Manning crash Lexie Brown's draft prep
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) A week before Lexie Brown goes to the pros, the pros came to her at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The standout Duke guard got some surprising visitors during a pre-WNBA draft workout - Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning.
The brothers have come to Duke's campus each spring since 2013 to work with their receivers, and they stopped by Cameron Indoor on Thursday along with some of Eli's New York Giants teammates. Brown finished her workout and watched as the receivers started up a dunk contest, and then Brown and backcourt mate Rebecca Greenwell took on a few of them in knockout.
Brown was ready for these pros - Greenwell said she and Brown each won a game of knockout. The Blue Devil teammates also posed for a picture with Peyton Manning.
Soon Brown will find out if she's ready for the WNBA's best. She is projected to go anywhere from the fifth pick to early in the second round in next Thursday's draft, which she plans to attend in New York.
''I'm excited, I'm nervous. I try not to look at what people are saying where you're projected to go since I'm all over the place,'' Brown told The Associated Press. ''It doesn't make any sense to look at it. I've literally no idea where I'm going to end up.''
Brown didn't need to ask the Mannings for draft advice. She can get plenty of that from her dad, former NBA player Dee Brown, a first-round pick by the Boston Celtics in 1990.
''His journey was a little different than mine. He wasn't invited to the draft and wasn't a highly touted player out of college,'' Brown said. ''Our experience would be more opposite in that regard. He's told me it's a business, it's your job and stay focused on that.''
Brown could give a WNBA team a threat on both ends of the floor. She set the school's single-season steals record this year, passing WNBA defensive stalwart Alana Beard's mark.
''There are so many great scorers in the WNBA, and I feel that I can control my effort on the defensive end and I enjoy playing it,'' she said.
Brown's been working out on campus since Duke's season ended in the Sweet 16 with a loss to UConn. She's been balancing that with business school classes.
''I actually have class the next morning after the draft and finish classes right before training camp starts,'' she said.
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