Larry Brown (basketball)

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Larry Brown
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Larry Brown
Olympic medal record
Men's Basketball (Player)
Gold 1964 Tokyo United States
Olympic medal record
Men's Basketball (Coach)
Bronze 2004 Athens United States
For other people of the same name, see Larry Brown (disambiguation).

Lawrence Harvey Brown (born September 14, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, United States) is a successful coach in the National Basketball Association.

He has been a successful college and professional basketball coach since 1975. He has won over 1,000 professional games in the ABA and the NBA and is the only coach in NBA history to lead seven different teams to the playoffs. He is 1,285-853 in his career. He is also the only coach in history to win both an NCAA National Championship and an NBA Championship.

Brown was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach on September 27, 2002.

Contents

[edit] Player

Brown,a 174 cm (5 ft 9 in) point guard, played at The University of North Carolina under the legendary coach Dean Smith after playing high school basketball in New York. A stellar player for the Tar Heels in the early 1960s, Brown was considered too small to play in the NBA and so began his professional career with the NABL's Akron Wingfoots, where he played for two years (1964-65). During that time Brown was selected for the 1964 Summer Olympics team while leading the Wingfoots to the 1964 AAU National Championship. After a brief stint as an assistant coach at North Carolina, Brown joined the upstart American Basketball Association, playing with the New Orleans Buccaneers (1967-68), Oakland Oaks (1968-69), Washington Caps (1969-70), Virginia Squires (1970-71), and Denver Nuggets (1971-72). Larry Brown is the all-time ABA assists leader.

[edit] As a coach

Brown's first head coaching job was at Davidson College in North Carolina. Unfortunately for Wildcat fans, it would only last during the summer offseason and he never coached a game. That one month experience would be a harbinger to Brown's nomadic coaching career.

Brown moved on to the ABA and coached with the Carolina Cougars and then the Denver Rockets, who later became the NBA's Denver Nuggets in 1976, for three and a half seasons from 1975 to 1979. He then moved on to coach for UCLA (1979-80, 1980-81), leading his freshman-dominated 1979-80 team to the NCAA title game before falling to Louisville, 59-54.

After two years with the NBA's New Jersey Nets, Brown began his tenure at the University of Kansas (1983-1988). There he was named "Coach of the Year" for the NCAA in 1988 and "Coach of the Year" for the Big Eight Conference in 1986. Kansas finished first in the Big Eight in 1986, and second in 1984, 1985, and 1987, ultimately leading Kansas to the national championship in 1988, defeating favored conference rival Oklahoma 83-79 in the final. Upon leaving Kansas, Brown had five NCAA Tournament appearances, three Sweet 16 appearances, and two trips to the Final Four. As a collegiate coach, he had a cumulative coaching record of 177-61 (.744) in seven seasons, including a 135-44 (.754) record at Kansas. However, he left under a cloud, as NCAA sanctions were levied against Kansas in the 1988-1989 season as a result of recruiting violations that took place during Brown's tenue.

Brown moved back to the NBA after his time in Kansas, taking the head coaching job with the San Antonio Spurs, and has since led the Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks. The coach won his first NBA Championship during his first year with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one in the NBA Finals. By doing so, Brown became the first man to coach teams to both NCAA and NBA titles.

Brown was also chosen as the head coach for the USA men's basketball team at the 2004 Summer Olympics which earned a bronze medal.

Despite criticism for never staying in any one place for very long, Brown is hailed as one of basketball's greatest teachers, and is unparalleled as a rebuilder of teams. The Nets and the Clippers are not only the "second teams" in their metropolitan areas, but have long been regarded as laughingstock franchises. Prior to the 2001 arrival of Jason Kidd, the Nets had made the Playoffs in only 10 of their first 25 seasons in the NBA. Two of those 10 times were in 1982 and 1983, under Brown. The Clippers, in San Diego and Los Angeles combined, made the Playoffs in only three of their first 27 seasons. The first two of those times were in 1992 and 1993, under Brown. Those were also the second and third of the three times the franchise had finished .500 or better since moving in 1978, after being the Buffalo Braves, until finishing over .500 and making the playoffs in 2006. In 2005, Allen Iverson said that Larry Brown was without a doubt "the best coach in the world."

Despite Brown's prowess in coaching and handling different egos and personalities, Brown has often been criticized for not playing rookies. A famous case is that of Darko Milicic, a #2 draft pick of the Detroit Pistons, who only played about six minutes a game for a combined 71 regular season games in his first two years. This has been the subject of many articles in the media and has given rise to the Internet's "FreeDarko" movement.

In May 2005, rumors surfaced that Brown would become the Cleveland Cavaliers' team president as soon as the Detroit Pistons finished their postseason. The Pistons lost to the San Antonio Spurs in seven games in the 2005 NBA Finals. The rumors of Larry Brown's potential career in Cleveland were dispelled when the Cavaliers publicly announced former NBA player Danny Ferry as their new top executive.[1]

On July 19, 2005, the Pistons, displeased with Brown's public flirtations with other teams, bought out the remaining years of Brown's contract, allowing him to sign with another team. [2] [3] A week later, on July 28, Brown became the head coach of the New York Knicks [4], with a 5-year contract reportedly worth between $50 million and $60 million, making him the highest-paid coach in NBA history.

On January 13, 2006, The New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks to give Brown his 1,000th win in the NBA, becoming only the 4th coach to do so joining the ranks of Lenny Wilkens, Don Nelson and Pat Riley. Coincidentally, all four of these coaches have served as head coach for the Knicks at one point in their career.

[edit] Recent developments

The Knicks finished the 2005-06 season with 23 wins, good for second worst in the NBA. Despite his storied past, Brown has received criticism from media[5] and fans[6]. Throughout the season, news reports suggested that the players "quit" on Brown and are tired of him berating them through the media. Observers also questioned his shuffling of the starting lineup and bizarre in-game rotations.[7] Brown set a record by using 42 different starting lineups. As an example, late in 2005, Brown labeled Trevor Ariza as being delusional when he questioned his lack of playing time [8]. Two months later, Ariza was traded to Orlando for Steve Francis. His rocky relationship with Stephon Marbury has deteriorated even further with the point guard blaming the team's woeful record on Brown. While he initially responded diplomatically to such accusations, Brown later criticized Marbury and suggested that observers should compare Brown's track record with Marbury's to determine who is better suited to rebuild a franchise.

On June 22, 2006 the New York Knicks fired Larry Brown replacing him with President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Isiah Thomas. They do not plan on paying him the 40 million dollars left in his contract, as they argue that he "violated terms of his contract through various acts of insubordination."[9] Brown took the dispute to Commissioner David Stern and hired Washington powerhouse law firm Williams & Connolly to represent him. Brown and the Knicks reached a settlement on the remainder of his contract on October 30, 2006 for 18.5 million dollars. [1].

[edit] Trivia

Brown's college basketball coach Dean Smith, was a player under legendary college basketball coach Phog Allen, whose college basketball coach in turn was the inventor of basketball, James Naismith. Also, the team Brown coached to the 1988 NCAA Championship (a team that would include Danny Manning) was the University of Kansas Jayhawks-the alma mater of Dean Smith and cradle of Phog Allen's successes as a college basketball coach.

[edit] Coaching stops

[edit] Achievements

  • 1973 Carolina Cougars: ABA Eastern Division regular season champions
  • 1975 Denver Nuggets: ABA Western Division regular season champions
  • 1976 Denver Nuggets: ABA regular season champions (single-division)
  • 1977 Denver Nuggets: NBA Midwest Division Champions
  • 1978 Denver Nuggets: NBA Midwest Division Champions
  • 1980 UCLA: NCAA Championship Game
  • 1986 Kansas: NCAA Final Four & Big Eight Conference Champions
  • 1988 Kansas: NCAA National Champions
  • 1990 San Antonio Spurs: NBA Midwest Division Champions
  • 1991 San Antonio Spurs: NBA Midwest Division Champions
  • 1995 Indiana Pacers: NBA Central Division Champions
  • 2001 Philadelphia 76ers: NBA Eastern Conference Champions
  • 2004 Detroit Pistons: NBA Champions
  • 2005 Detroit Pistons: NBA Eastern Conference Champions
  • College: 1 National Championship, 3 Final Fours in 7 seasons
  • Pro: 1 Championship, 3 Conference Championships, 10 Division Championships, 25 Playoff appearances in 26 seasons
  • 1,000 career NBA wins


[edit] References

NCAA, NCAA March Madness: Cinderellas, Superstars, and Champions from the NCAA Men's Final Four : Chicago: Triumph Books, 2004. ISBN 1-57243-665-4

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2644227

[edit] External links

Detroit Pistons 2003-04 NBA Champions

1 Billups (Finals MVP) | 3 B. Wallace | 7 James | 8 Ham | 10 Hunter | 13 Okur | 22 Prince | 31 Miličić | 32 Hamilton | 34 Williamson | 36 R. Wallace | 41 Campbell | Coach Brown


Preceded by:
Tom Meschery		 Carolina Cougars Head Coach
1972–1974		 Succeeded by:
Bob MacKinnon
Preceded by:
Alex Hannum		 Denver Nuggets Head Coach
1974–1979		 Succeeded by:
Donnie Walsh
Preceded by:
Gary Cunningham		 UCLA Head Men's Basketball Coach
1979 – 1981		 Succeeded by:
Larry Farmer
Preceded by:
Bob MacKinnon		 New Jersey Nets Head Coach
1981–1983		 Succeeded by:
Bill Blair
Preceded by:
Ted Owens		 Kansas Head Men's Basketball Coach
1983–1988		 Succeeded by:
Roy Williams
Preceded by:
Bob Weiss		 San Antonio Spurs Head Coach
1988–1992		 Succeeded by:
Bob Bass
Preceded by:
Mike Schuler		 Los Angeles Clippers Head Coach
1992–1993		 Succeeded by:
Bob Weiss
Preceded by:
Bob Hill		 Indiana Pacers Head Coach
1993–1997		 Succeeded by:
Larry Bird
Preceded by:
Johnny Davis		 Philadelphia 76ers Head Coach
1997–2003		 Succeeded by:
Randy Ayers
Preceded by:
Rick Carlisle		 Detroit Pistons Head Coach
2003–2005		 Succeeded by:
Flip Saunders
Preceded by:
Herb Williams (interim)		 New York Knicks Head Coach
2005–2006		 Succeeded by:
Isiah Thomas


UCLA Bruins Head Basketball Coaches
Cozens • Works • Johns • Wooden • Bartow • Cunningham • Brown • Farmer • Hazzard • Harrick • Lavin • Howland
Kansas Jayhawks Head Basketball Coaches
Naismith • Hamilton • Allen • Harp • Owens • Brown • Williams • Self
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