"My wife and I, we're kind of like adopted parents to Larretha. We call her Lala," Brown said.

Brown saw her strengths.

"She was so good. I could vision her as being a potential WNBA player. She was that good," said Brown.

But Draughon also had weaknesses. She served prison time for robbery a couple of years ago. While behind bars, she was one of the inmates featured on an Oprah Winfrey documentary. Brown, who was also interviewed in the documentary, was one of few people Draughon asked to visit her in prison.

"She didn't want anybody to come visit her but me and her grandmother and her mom, and she put us on the visiting list," Brown said.

And he was one of the first people she called when she was released.

"When she called me, she said, Coach B? And I said, yeah girl, what? And she said, I'm out! I said get out of here! Oh wow. I was excited," Brown said.

Draughon went on to play basketball on a scholarship at Vincennes University, where she just wrapped up her freshman year.

Late Monday night, in a wild gun battle involving a large group of people at a west side baseball complex, six people were shot. Twenty-two-year-old Draughon died.

Brown isn't clear about what led to Draughon's death, but he said she would sometimes follow the wrong crowds.

"She'd be with a group of kids, well you know, let's go here, lets go there, you know. And I believe that she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time," Brown said.

Brown can't believe that's what may have cost Draughon her life.

"[She's] a girl that didn't really reach her potential, and her life was really cut too short," Brown said.

The five other people wounded in the shooting are recovering. Police have not made any arrests, or said how Draughon might have been involved in the incident.