Former Louisville standout Erik L. Brown (above, middle) is facing a 20 year sentence for setting his own apartment on fire, an event triggered by Brown’s schizophrenia, according to his attorney.  How dangerously paranoid is Brown?  Not very, if you ask most Celtics fans.  From the Lexington Herald-Leader’s Brandon Ortiz.

Once the nation’s leading freshman scorer in college basketball, Brown, 28, now believes the CIA installed a chip in his brain in a conspiracy that somehow involves his former University of Louisville coach, Rick Pitino (above).

About a year or two ago, before the arson arrest, Brown told friends that he’d just got back from hanging out with filmmaker Spike Lee in Los Angeles and was going to make a movie with him, Washington said. He also believed he’d signed a contract with the Detroit Pistons for millions.

Psychologists say the indications are that Brown first began to have symptoms of mental illness in 2003, according to his public defender, Herb West.

Brown has had auditory hallucinations, paranoia, delusional thought processes and suicidal ideations, Dr. Steven Simon of the  Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center said.To this day, Brown believes that the CIA implanted a chip in his brain when he was in Ireland, Simon said. He thinks that the CIA is following him, and that Pitino has something to do with it.

As recently as last week, he called his attorney to repeat his beliefs, West said.

I’m sure most persons who have all their marbles will agree (I believe there’s a clinical term for this), the CIA has much more important things to do.