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djsunyc
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Agent says Brown deal close
NEW YORK -- With the last "obstacle" no longer an issue, Larry Brown and the New York Knicks moved closer Tuesday to finalizing a deal that would make the much-traveled 64-year-old the franchise's 22nd head coach.
"On a scale of 1 to 10, it's an eight," said Brown's agent, Joe Glass.
Brown, reached by telephone, would not disclose whether he has told the Knicks he definitely wants the job.
Team president Isiah Thomas, also reached on the phone Tuesday morning, said he was in a meeting with team owner James Dolan and Madison Square Garden president Steve Mills and could not immediately comment on whether Brown had given the team a firm "Yes."
"We're making progress, and we're continuing to talk at this point," Knicks spokesman Joe Favorito said.
Brown had dinner Monday night with Thomas and interim coach Herb Williams, a meeting that Brown described as "positive." Brown had been uneasy about the prospect of displacing Williams as coach.
"That was a huge obstacle for me, not for him," Brown said. "It's not at all anymore."
Pressed to say whether he had given the Knicks a definitive answer, Brown wouldn't give a direct reply.
"I wouldn't have met with the owner and with Herb if I didn't think this would move forward," Brown said. "I just can't go any further than that."
Brown's wife, Shelly, said she expected the process to move to a more definitive stage by the end of the day.
"Knicks management is meeting, and we're waiting to hear from them. We're all on board," said Shelley Brown, who has given her blessing to Brown taking on what he once called his "dream job."
Brown's wife had been concerned about her husband's health. He missed 17 games last season due to a hip replacement operation that led to a bladder problem, and Brown underwent his third surgery in nine months shortly after the Pistons lost Game 7 of the NBA Finals to the San Antonio Spurs.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic told Brown he needed rest, and he and his wife have decided he'll get enough of it during the next two months before training camp begins.
Brown's two young children also are enthused about the move to New York, and Brown has already toured the team's practice facility.
"No one wants this to drag on," Shelly Brown said. "I know everyone's on the same page."
The Knicks would be Brown's eighth NBA coaching job, and his hiring would come just a week after he parted ways with the Detroit Pistons after two seasons -- both of which ended with trips to the NBA Finals.
Trying to turn the rebuilding Knicks into a winner would be the latest challenge for Brown in a nomadic NBA coaching career that has included stints with the Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio Spurs, New Jersey Nets and Denver Nuggets. Brown also coached collegiately at Kansas and UCLA, and his first professional coaching job was with the Carolina Cougars of the ABA.
Brown was the coach of the 2004 U.S. Olympic team that finished a disappointing third. Part of that roster included Knicks guard Stephon Marbury, who would be reunited with Brown.
New York reportedly is willing to offer Brown a five-year contract worth between $50 million and $60 million, and the task of negotiating the details will fall to the 80-year old Glass, Brown's longtime agent.
"If I get involved, it'll be a go," Glass said Monday.
Reminded of that comment Tuesday, Glass said: "I'm involved, but I've been involved on some way, shape or form for quite some time now."
Still unclear is what role Williams would have with the Knicks under Brown, and which of New York's current assistant coaches might remain with the club. There also is a question of whether any of Brown's assistants who also lost their jobs in Detroit, including Gar Heard and Dave Hanners, might be added to Dolan's considerable payroll.
Williams' head coaching contract expires Sunday, but his assistant coaching contract has another year left. His dinner with Brown came one day after Dolan and Thomas spent more than two hours visiting Brown at his home in East Hampton, N.Y.
"Situations are always going to work out," Williams told WNBC-TV while playing in a golf tournament Monday in suburban New York. "You know, a job is a job. You have to approach it that way, you know, that's what you get paid to do, so you step in and you do the job. You don't think about anything else."
Williams has been a fixture in the Knicks organization for most of the past decade and is regarded as one of the franchise's most trusted and loyal employees. He had a good rapport with the players while coaching the final 43 games of last season after Lenny Wilkens was forced to resign.
Coming to a team that finished 33-49 last season and missed the playoffs for the third time in four years, Brown would be coaching a roster that Thomas has overhauled during his 19 months as team president.
Brown took over the 76ers in 1997 after they went 22-60 the year before. He coaxed another nine victories out of them in his first season in Philadelphia, got them into the playoffs the following season and made it to the NBA Finals by his fourth year.
In Detroit, Brown won the NBA championship in his first year coaching the Pistons, guiding them to 54 regular-season victories after they had won 50 the prior season under Rick Carlisle.
When Brown took over the Indiana Pacers in 1993, they improved by six victories.
When he took control of the Los Angeles Clippers midway through the 1991-92 season, they were below .500. But he guided them to a 23-12 record over the rest of the season to give the franchise its first playoff berth in 15 years.
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7/26/2005 2:09 PM
