Lexie Brown makes inspiring return to Los Angeles Sparks after Crohn’s disease diagnosis

In the midst of posting some of the best stats of her pro career this season, Los Angeles Sparks guard Lexie Brown can’t help but think back to one of her lowest moments that followed her injury-shortened 2023 season.

“I was in the weight room and I could barely lift a 15-pound dumbbell to do a full split squat,” Brown recalled. “I had lost a lot of weight and when I looked at myself in the mirror I was kind of unrecognizable. And I just started crying.”

The issue that left Brown questioning whether she’d be able to continue her pro career: Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes inflammation of the digestive tract. After being limited to just 11 games last season and undergoing three surgeries (with a fourth surgery necessary in the future), Brown, the daughter of former NBA player Dee Brown, is averaging 8.5 points and posting career bests in rebounds (2.6) and assists (3.4) this season.

“Lexie was off to a tremendous start last season,” Los Angeles Sparks head coach Curt Miller said following a recent game. “I’m excited about — if we can keep Lexie healthy — what type of offense we’ll have. I’m excited to coach her in the prime of her career.”

Brown, in her seventh WNBA season, was playing the best basketball of her career in 2023. She scored a then-career-high 26 points in the fourth game of the season (she hadn’t scored 20 in a game since the 2019 season) and appeared on the verge of having a career year.

But signs of physical problems emerged early in 2023 training camp when what should have been normal practice sessions proved difficult to complete.

“I’m usually in the gym doing extra workouts,” Brown said. “But I just didn’t have any energy.”

She initially chalked up her lack of energy to what she described as “super intense” practices under a new coach (Miller was hired before the 2023 season). “One of the harder training camps I’ve been in since joining the league,” Brown said. “I just attributed it to being overwhelmed.”

As her symptoms worsened, Brown visited several doctors who were unable to figure out why she was having problems. Excruciating pain almost forced her to skip a June road trip, but she managed to power through to have her second-best scoring game of the season (21 points, on 7-of-10 shooting) against the Minnesota Lynx on June 11, 2023.

The day after the Sparks’ road win at Dallas on June 14, 2023, Brown saw another doctor in Los Angeles.

“The day after I saw that doctor, I was in surgery,” Brown said. “Everything happened quickly.”

Brown was told by her surgeon there was a possibility she had Crohn’s disease. “I had heard of Crohn’s disease,” Brown said. “But, honestly, I thought it was something that old people got.”

An attempted comeback a month after that surgery lasted just three games. After Brown scored a season-low two points in a July 25, 2023, loss against Indiana, she decided to shut it down for the season, still not 100% sure what was wrong. The surgeon mentioned it might be Crohn’s disease, but there wasn’t a diagnosis at the time.

The idle time sent Brown down a terrifying research rabbit hole about Crohn’s.

“Every time I had a new symptom, I would go straight to Google and be like, ‘OK, what does that mean?’ ” Brown said. “I was on Reddit and WebMD and there were a lot of situations and opinions and worst-case scenarios that were a little hard to deal with.”

Those searches offered suggestions on what to eat and what not to eat, leading to a diet and a significant weight loss — 30 pounds — off her 5-foot-9 frame. “Finally my mother told me, ‘get off Google, girl, you’re gonna drive yourself crazy,’ ” Brown said. “She told me to stop thinking about other people’s experiences, and to just tackle my experience head-on. That’s what I decided to do.”

As Brown sat out the latter part of the season — she only played in 12 games in 2023 — she wondered about her future.

“I kept thinking, ‘what am I gonna do? Am I gonna be able to play basketball again,’ ” Brown recalled. “I had worked so hard to get to that stage in my career, and I was playing well. My mind was all over the place.”

The official diagnosis of Crohn’s disease came in November 2023, which gave Brown a sense of relief.

“I had already assumed what it was, so it didn’t catch me off guard,” Brown said. “It was nice to have an answer.”

Having the diagnosis gave Brown and her doctors a plan on how to fight the disease. Not long after Brown started taking medication for Crohn’s, the symptoms began to subside. 

While Brown began to feel better, there were still questions about her future. 

“I was thinking what am I going to do,” Brown said. “I had worked six years to get this WNBA body, and it was gone. My mind was really all over the place. I was thinking am I going to play basketball again.”

It was a relief when the Sparks showed they had Brown’s back, signing her to a two-year extension on Feb. 6. Weeks later, Brown was back on the court with Athletes Unlimited, where she finished the season 10th in the overall leaderboard.

“I’m really happy with how my body feels right now,” Brown said in the midst of the AU season. “I’m way stronger than I thought I was and I’m happy to get back to the point of playing well.”

Brown, who is helping raise awareness for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, has had three surgeries so far with a fourth on the horizon.

“I’ll wait until after the W season,” she said. “It’s nothing dire and if it doesn’t happen after this season, it could be in a year or two. But there is one more surgery left.”

To be back in her happy space on the basketball court, Brown is grateful that in the toughest journey of her life the Sparks had her back. 

“I have so much appreciation for the Sparks organization because they believed in me at a time where they didn’t have to extend me,” Brown said. “I wasn’t feeling well last year and was playing well. I promised the team that, now that I’m feeling better, I would keep playing at that high level.”