THO Campus Captain Lanni Brown On Competence, Autonomy and Relatedness

Lanni Brown grew up surrounded by basketball. Her father, Dee Brown, was an NBA legend with the Boston Celtics. Her sister is currently playing in the WNBA and her brother is a D1 Basketball player. While she also found success in the sport, she faced lots of comparisons with her family, struggled to separate her self identity from her performance and ultimately realized that she was “not feeling basketball.”

Her transition to the D1 level exacerbated her struggle as she felt different from her teammates because she didn’t love her sport and even felt selfish, ungrateful and guilty that she was getting a scholarship despite not being fully invested. Lanni chose to shift her mindset and focus on energy, positivity and enjoying the moments and making an impact in her own way. 

Since her competitive career has ended, she is pursuing a Master’s at Jacksonville University in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with the plan to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology She is combining her personal experiences and education to better support student athletes as an advocate, ambassador and future clinician. 

@alanni.noelle