Journey To Jadwin - Brian Taylor '84
6/22/2026
From the projects, to Princeton, to the pros.
One of New Jersey’s favorite sons, Brian Taylor ‘84 was an All-American at Princeton who went on to play in both the NBA and ABA. While Taylor’s basketball career was the stuff of legend, his mission has always been bigger than basketball. Taylor’s post-playing career has been devoted to uplifting the next generation and helping young people follow in his footsteps.
“I hook them in by talking about basketball, but it’s not about that,” said Taylor. “It’s about getting their attention. Once I get their attention it’s all about teaching them the value and importance of education.”
Taylor grew up in a public housing project in Perth Amboy called Delaney Homes, just 30 minutes from Princeton. Perth Amboy is a sports town with diversity and Taylor has many fond memories from growing up there.
While Taylor is known for his exploits on the hardwood, baseball was his first love. His older brother, Bruce, was a standout baseball player and a young Brian worked as a bat boy for his older brother’s team, where he learned the importance of team play and leadership. Taylor had a front row seat to how his brother conducted himself; Bruce was a tremendous leader and treated people the right way. Taylor realized that it didn’t matter how talented he was, how good a teammate he was would ultimately determine success or failure.
Some of Taylor’s most valuable life lessons were learned a six-year-old bat boy.
I learned a lot about responsibility. Something that stuck with me for my entire life was learning how to give back, provide and serve. My service mentality began as a bat boy.Brian Taylor
Taylor also learned how important hard work was, observing the work ethic demonstrated by the older kids. Taylor realized that to be successful he had to outwork everybody and used that mindset throughout his career.
Sports ran in the family, as Taylor’s father, Steve, was also a great athlete but never spoke about his prowess. He found out how exceptional a football and baseball player he was from his uncles.
Given baseball was Taylor’s first love, it’s not a surprise he became an elite player himself and played all positions.
Like his younger brother, Bruce also excelled at baseball, football and basketball and was drafted in the 30th round of the 1966 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft by the Baltimore Orioles but declined the opportunity and went to play football at Boston University where he earned All-America honors. Bruce eventually played in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers and was the first person in the family to attend college. His success was a great motivating factor for a young Brian as he mapped out what he hoped his future looked like.
“Watching him helped me grow and gave me an advantage over some of the other folks,” proclaimed Taylor. “Having a great support network with him, my father, mother, sister and younger brother meant a lot.”
As Taylor entered high school, he had the opportunity to play football with his brother. He spent most of the year as the quarterback on the JV team but had been elevated to varsity by the end of the season. Taylor believes playing football was critical for his development as a basketball player, as it toughened him up. It made Taylor stronger physically and mentally, preparing him for the double and triple teams he would face throughout his career.
On the basketball court, Taylor was able to play on the varsity team as a freshman and after an injury to his brother, ended up starting. A talented Perth Amboy squad was upset in the state tournament, and Taylor saw his older teammates crying after the game.
“I was wondering why there were so many tears,” said Taylor. “I found out why later.”
Sophomore year saw Taylor move up to the varsity baseball team and have a breakout season on the basketball court, earning All-State honors as he led the team to the state semifinals.
By junior year in 1968, recruiters from all three sports, including at the professional level for baseball, were coming for Taylor. He helped Perth Amboy make history that year, as it defeated Neptune, 71-70, for the school’s only state championship in one of the most famous games in New Jersey high school basketball history. The game was played at the Atlantic City Convention Center and shattered attendance records, with 16,000 people showing up to watch.
Despite dropping a close contest to East Orange in the state semifinals his senior year, Taylor led Perth Amboy on an incredible four-year run that saw the team go 99-5. He scored 2,495 points to end his career as the second-leading scorer in New Jersey history.
By the time his high school career ended, Taylor had earned 12 varsity letters in total and showed the value of being a multi-sport athlete.
While excelled at all three sports, but basketball became his favorite. Taylor became a huge fan of Oscar Robertson of the Milwaukee Bucks and attended his camps in high school in Staten Island. Taylor got to know Robertson, and he became an influential figure.
The New York Knicks of that era were also made an impact on Taylor. They were his favorite team and shaped how he viewed the game.
“Clyde and Willis,” said Taylor. “Dollar Bill. Dave DeBusschere. Dick Barnett. Earl Monroe. Those guys had great influence on me. Not only because they were great individual players, but for the way they played as a team.”
While coaches from all three sports were coming after Taylor, Princeton was an easy choice. He attended a summer enrichment program at the Lawrenceville School the summer before his junior year and met a few kids who were going to Princeton. Taylor’s next-door neighbor, Norm Townsend ’72, had also just committed to Princeton for football, and he visited him several times. Being in that environment during his high school years made a monumental difference. Taylor immediately fell in love with campus and desired to attend the university because of its academic reputation.
Taylor also loved watching the Tigers of that era play basketball. He remembers watching players like Bill Bradley, John Hummer, Geoff Petrie and Chris Thomforde and aspired to follow in their footsteps.
Forutnately, Taylor had always been focused on academics which made Princeton a perfect match. His parents, Steve and Maude, prioritized education right from the beginning and he was fortunate to have coaches who regularly talked about its importance.
“Education became very important to me during my high school years,” said Taylor. “I had a good guidance counselor who made sure I got the extra help to do well on my SAT, and to continue to be a good student and well-rounded person.”
Taylor committed to Princeton early his senior year and joked with Pete Carril that he barely had to recruit him.
It took no time at all for Taylor to make an impact on the court at Princeton. Freshman were not allowed to play varsity sport at the time, so Taylor led the freshmen squad to a 17-0 record and averaged 28.6 points-per-game. As a sophomore, Taylor was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year and first team All-Ivy after averaging 23.5 points. At the end of his sophomore year, Taylor was rewarded with a spot on the U.S. team for the 1971 Pan-American Games in Cali, Colombia.
Heading into his junior year, Taylor was well and truly on the national radar. He would be named All-America by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) in addition to earning All-Ivy honors for the second consecutive season.
Taylor’s junior year was a particularly memorable one. The season opened with an impressive 99-68 win over Rutgers in a packed Jadwin Gymnasium. That game meant a lot to Taylor, who was playing against a rival in John Somogyi, formerly of St. Peter’s High School. Somogyi was also a New Jersey high school basketball legend whose 3,310 points stood as a state record for 24 years. Taylor and the Tigers ran the Scarlet Knights off the floor.
Princeton was ranked as high as No. 14 in the AP top 25, along with Rutgers defeated the likes of, North Carolina, Villanova, Indiana, California, Stanford and Michigan.
The Tigers’ victory over the second-ranked Tar Heels was a win for the ages. In another full Jadwin, the Tigers took down a Dean Smith’s UNC squad that boasted future NBA players like Bob McAdoo, Bobby Jones and George Karl, 89-73.
We backdoored them to death.Brian Taylor
They closed the season out Ivy League play with nine consecutive victories and made it to the NIT, where they took down Bobby Knight’s 20th-ranked Hoosiers inside Madison Square Garden, 68-60.
As Taylor’s junior year went on, word began to spread that he might leave Princeton early for the NBA or ABA. He had Carril’s full support to move up to the professional level, feeling that Taylor’s only obligation was to his family.
In just two seasons of varsity play, Taylor left Princeton with his name etched prominently throughout the record book. Taylor’s 1,239 points rank 15th all-time in school history, and his career scoring average of 24.3 points ranks second all-time to Bill Bradley’s 30.2 and third all-time among Ivy League players. Bradley was the only player to score more points in a season than Taylor, as Taylor ranks fourth (25.0, 1971-72) and fifth (23.5, 1970-71) on the Tigers’ single season scoring average list
The Seattle Supersonics drafted Taylor with the 23rd overall pick in the 1972 NBA draft, but after going and watching the ABA’s New York Nets, a team coached by Lou Carnesecca that featured the likes of Rick Barry, John Roach and Bill Melchionni, Taylor felt the ABA was the perfect landing spot. He also wanted to stay close to home.
“They played with the red, white and blue ball,” said Taylor. “The place was packed. I thought wow, I can get paid to do this, so I decided to sign with the Nets before the NBA draft.”
Despite Taylor’s stellar college career, many doubted his game would translate to the pro level. The doubt poured fuel on the fire, and Taylor was named ABA Rookie of the Year. The Nets, with help from Taylor, rode a wave of success through the mid-70’s. Julius Erving joined the team, and the Nets went on to win ABA titles in 1974 and 1976.
“That was a really, really special time,” said Taylor. “Playing three years with Dr. J, winning two championships and making the All-Star team twice.”
The 1976 ABA championship would be the league’s last, as it merged with the NBA in June.
Taylor’s NBA career began in Kansas City Kings. After the Kings, Taylor moved on to the Denver Nuggets in 1977-78 then the San Diego Clippers in 1978. Taylor led the NBA in three-pointers made in 1980 with 93 and made more three-pointers himself than 18 teams in total. He was ahead of his time given the way the three-pointer has revolutionized basketball, and Taylor credits Carril’s style of play for helping him get ahead of the curve. Carril taught Taylor than open shot, even from long range, was a good shot and better than a contested shot.
Gene Shue, who coached Taylor in San Diego that season, gave him the green light to let it fly from three. Shue saw the value of the three-point shot when other coaches around the league were afraid of it and didn’t understand how to use it. Taylor’s favorite spot was the corner; he’d dump into inside to Bill Walton or Swen Nater, then his defender would turn his head and double team the post. Taylor would find himself wide open in the corner and made opposing teams pay. That year, Taylor also played alongside Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, father of Kobe Bryant.
An achilles tendon injury forced Taylor to retire in 1982, and he would soon return to Princeton to complete his studies. Taylor earned a degree in political science and a certificate in African American studies. After earning his degree, Taylor got into the IT industry and started a business called Computer Intelligence. However, he decided he wanted to do something his kids would be excited about it because they didn’t get to see him play and decided getting involved in education was the obvious choice. He felt his mission was to give back as an administrator and stay true to his service mindset. Taylor became an admissions counselor, basketball coach and computer science teacher at the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles and stayed there for 10 years. Being able to teach, coach and administrate was a dream job.
By the 10-year mark, Taylor felt he could be more useful in a different setting. He went to some of the toughest neighborhoods in LA as a founding board member of the Inner City Education Foundation and vowed to make a difference. The initiative started as an elementary school, then a middle school, then a high school. Taylor presided over View Park Prep, located in the Crenshaw neighborhood, and earned the highest math test scores in the LA Unified School District for middle school students out of nearly 100 schools. Taylor became renown for finding and developing fantastic teachers. In 2012, Taylor moved to Phoenix and took over as headmaster at Teleos Prepatory Academy, a school that had gone through five headmasters in the four years before Taylor arrived. Taylor saw himself in the children there and was a stabilizing presence at the school.
After returning to New Jersey in 2016, Taylor's service did not slow down. He worked with the Boys and Girls Club in Perth Amboy and founded a non-profit called the Brian Taylor Leadership Institute in 2017. He's worked with Perth Amboy’s Office of Recreation to run college tours, a basketball camp and the “Summer of a Lifetime” program which sends 10 students from Perth Amboy to Princeton for a week to connect with professors and get experience in classrooms, labs and lectures.
Being able to graduate from Princeton 10 years after I left was one of my greatest accomplishments. Now, giving back to communities that wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to higher education is something I’m very proud of.Brian Taylor
In August 2021, the Perth Amboy City Council voted unanimously to rename the courts at Washington Park, which Taylor grew up playing on, the “Brian Taylor Basketball Courts.” Taylor was also given the key to the city in 2021.
His work had not gone unnoticed
Along with his 10-year NBA career and work with young people, Taylor’s family is his proudest accomplishment. He’s been married to his wife, Terry Powell, for 47 years and the couple have five children together; Terbrie, Bryce, Taryn who goes by her middle name Lily, Blaine and Brendyn.
The landscape of college athletics has changed, but Taylor believes the Princeton experience stands the test of time.
The smartest thing I did was come back to Princeton after playing 10 years as a professional to gain this education but also be part of this network that is always there for you. The value of a four-year degree from Princeton will last a lifetime.Brian Taylor
As much as he’s accomplished on the court and off it by changing the lives of the country’s young people, the Brian Taylor story is far from over. With encouragement from New Jersey’s Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Dale Caldwell, Taylor will be releasing a memoir and telling his story in his own words. Princeton fans will be enthralled to relive the special moments Taylor was part of from his perspective and the next generation will be inspired by his journey from the projects, to Princeton, to the pros.
The “BT Express” charges on.
