Braun Bros to square off in renewed Border War

With the revival of the Border War, BVNW alumni Christian and Parker Braun are set to share the court once again, this time on separate teams.

Jonny Isaacson, Sports Editor
January 6, 2020

BoysBballvsLawrence(MK)33
Mahmood Khatib
BVNW alumni Parker Braun (23) and Christian Braun (0) watch the action from the bench after checking out in the fourth quarter of the Huskies matchup against Lawrence High at Charles Koch Arena March 8. The Huskies defeated the Lions, 65-37.

Committing to play basketball for the University of Kansas on Sept. 17, 2018, BVNW alum Christian Braun officially split the Braun household. With his older brother, Parker Braun already committed and redshirting at the University of Missouri, the Brauns had an athlete at each rival school. Upon hearing the news, Parker immediately thought of getting the chance to play his younger brother.

“As soon as he committed to KU, [the Border War] was one of the first things that came to my head,” Parker said.

However, since Missouri left the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference seven years ago, the Border War between the basketball teams of the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri had been dormant. Despite the gap, the longtime rivals announced they are going to revive the series, with the first matchup coming Dec. 12, 2020 at Kansas City’s Sprint Center. The two teams will play each other for the next six seasons.

Hearing the news from a phone call with his mom, Parker was overjoyed at the decision to bring it back.

“I was excited, the first person I actually heard it from was my mom, I didn’t discuss it with my coaches or anything,” Parker said. “She was like ‘They brought it back Parker! You’re going to play Christian!’ and I was extremely excited. That was big news.”

Living in a split house, isn’t anything new for the Brauns. With their mom playing for Missouri and dad going to Kansas, the pair have always had ties to both colleges. Christian said the decision to commit to Kansas was an easy one with the support of both his dad and mom.

“My family played a really big part in it,” Christian said. “My dad went to KU and my mom went to Mizzou, but they were both pretty excited when I got the opportunity to go to KU.”

While both brothers will be wanting to win the game for their school, there will be no love lost between the two, Parker said.

“In the game, we’ll both be wanting to win,” Parker said. “But before and after we’ll go right back to being friendly.”