Steven Spieth has 5 inches of height, and nearly that much hair, over his older brother, Jordan. But since the basketball season has started up again at Brown, fans at opposing arenas have zeroed in on what Jordan has that the 6-foot-6, mop-topped Steven will never possess.
“I get a lot of comments now at games about his success,” Steven said, referring to his brother, after Brown’s home loss Tuesday to New Hampshire. Smirking, he gave an example: “Jordan has a green jacket. What, what do you have?”
He laughed.
“You’d think Ivy League fans could come up with something clever,” he said, adding, “Honestly, it’s all pretty annoying. None of it is too clever. They’re just talking the talk, trying to get in my head.”
Since the end of his sophomore season in March, Steven has endured two stress fractures in his right foot and switched positions, from guard to forward. In the same span, his brother has won two golf majors, including the Masters, and ascended to No. 1 in the rankings.
“Definitely, a lot of people wouldn’t know that much about me without my brother having so much success,” Steven said.
The middle of three children, Steven might wither in the shadow of such an accomplished sibling if not for their parents, Shawn and Christine, who spread their support around without fuss or favor. At the Tour Championships in Atlanta in September, they watched Jordan put the finishing flourishes on one of the best seasons in golf history with a victory that secured the FedEx Cup championship.
After the trophy presentation, Christine rose from the grass around the 18th green, dusted herself off and said cheerily, “Time for basketball season.”
The family lives by the motto that if no child is special, each one is special. Christine and Shawn attend as many of Steven’s games as they can. Along with younger sister, Ellie, they traveled here for Brown’s game at Providence last weekend.
“When we were in high school, they used to switch off any time our competitions would conflict,” Steven said. “They’ve definitely both supported us, which is really nice.”
Jordan, 22, spent Thanksgiving Day in Sydney defending his Australian Open title. Shawn and Christine stayed behind in Dallas to host three Brown basketball teammates who accompanied Steven home for the holiday ahead of the Bears’ game against No. 25 Southern Methodist on Sunday.
The main course was football. Jordan bought Dallas Cowboys season tickets, and Steven said Shawn was rustling up more seats so that they could spend Thanksgiving at Jerry Jones’ 100,000-seat palace in Arlington, watching the Cowboys host the undefeated Carolina Panthers.
“I don’t think we’ll do a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with our game a couple of days later,” Steven said. “We don’t want to stuff our faces. We’ll go to the game, and that will be our celebration.”
The Brown team is a band of brothers for Steven, who said he has roomed for the past two years with the junior guard J.R. Hobbie. He brought Tavon Blackmon, Kyle Haber and Miki Ljuboja home with him for Thanksgiving.
“He hangs out with mostly guys on the basketball team, and most really don’t know anything about golf, so there is a separation there,” Christine said in an email.
The Brown game’s notes make no mention of Jordan. It is by design, said Christopher Humm, the director of athletic communications.
“I want him to be Steven; I don’t want him to be Jordan’s little brother,” Humm said.
On Tuesday, the lines to pick up holiday pies at nearby bakeries were longer than the one to get into Providence’s Pizzitola Sports Center. At the start of the game against New Hampshire, six people sat in the bleachers behind the basket that Brown was shooting at, and a single person sat at the opposite end. The announced crowd was 556 in the 2,800-seat arena.
Steven, who had finished a paper for his micro-organizational studies class less than four hours before pregame warm-ups, had 11 points, five assists and three rebounds in the Bears’ 88-77 loss.
It was his 64th start in 65 collegiate games. The only time he was not in the starting lineup was Senior Night last year, when he came off the bench so a senior could start.
Steven leads by word and example, dispensing instructions and encouragement in a manner that calls to mind the interactions of the caddie Michael Greller with Jordan.
“I think that’s one of his strengths, his communication,” Brown coach Michael Martin said. “He has a high basketball IQ. He, in a lot of ways, is an extension of our coaching staff on the court.”
Steven is playing catch-up after missing a large chunk of the team’s offseason conditioning program because of his stress fractures, both to the second toe of his right foot. He suffered the injury the first time in the second-to-last wind sprint of his final workout before leaving to watch his brother play in the Masters.
“I went from the gym to the plane,” Steven said, adding, “It hurt a lot. I was walking on the outside of my foot because I couldn’t miss a hole, couldn’t miss the weekend.”
Steven was in the gallery when Jordan won the U.S. Open and then included in his post-victory comments that he was happy to be the Steven’s brother. The feeling is mutual.
“We were always pretty competitive growing up,” Steven said, “but now that we’re kind of doing our own things, not playing against each other, we’re supportive of each other.”
During the weekend, Steven said, he will follow his brother’s progress at the Australian Open on television.
“I watch pretty much anything I can of his rounds, even if I have to turn it on and have it on the background at class,” Steven said with a laugh.
To his mother’s chagrin, Steven probably will not be able to squeeze in a trip to the barbershop while at home. His hair, which is long enough to tuck behind his ears, has grown so shaggy that he wears a thin headband during games to keep stray strands off his face.
“Though I think it’s kind of doing a subpar job right now,” Steven said, laughing again.
He added, “My mom’s not too happy about my hair right now.”
She twice has told him to cut it.
“It’s not really rebelling against anything,” Steven said. “I think it’s just fun messing with my mom a little bit.”
It is also a fun way to mess with his brother, who has a receding hairline that he often references in interviews, suggesting that his hair loss is related to the stress involved in winning golf tournaments.
“If he doesn’t have any hair, I might as well have extra, right?” Steven asked.
He was joking, but Christine suspected there might be a strand of truth in his words.
“I think it is his way of being his own person,” she said, referring to Steven’s hair. “I tease him about it, but if that’s the worst thing he is going to do, I think I am a pretty lucky mom.”
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