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HARDCOREKNICKSFAN
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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/sports/basketball/16knicks.html
November 16, 2005
Teams Take the Sizzle Out of Coaching Matchup
By HOWARD BECK
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 15 - Two of the greatest coaches in N.B.A. history will share a sideline again here Wednesday night, but the superlatives and the intrigue will more or less end there.
Larry Brown has his college and pro championships and his Hall of Fame plaque. Phil Jackson has his nine championship rings and his best-selling books. Their careers are not intertwined, but they have intersected often, and in some important places.
If their teams carried any of the swagger or history of the coaches, then Wednesday's game between the Lakers and the Knicks might register a little higher on the relevance scale.
In truth, the Jackson-Brown reunion will probably lose any sense of importance the moment the ball goes up. Jackson's Lakers are 3-4 and have lost three straight games. Brown's Knicks started 0-5 before winning their last two. The teams are rebuilding, missed the playoffs last season and will struggle to make the playoffs in the spring. "I don't take any personal satisfaction with coaching matchups," Brown said Tuesday.
The Lakers are consumed with pressing issues, like how to involve Smush Parker better. The Knicks are trying to figure out what to do with Nate Robinson, the frenetic rookie guard.
"We're both bringing teams along that are young and adapting to a system," Jackson said. "It's an early part of the season."
And it is a long, long way from where Brown and Jackson stood 17 months ago.
In the 2004 finals, Jackson's Lakers were crushed by Brown's Detroit Pistons, 4-1. As Jackson exited the Palace of Auburn Hills that June evening, he was unsure of his coaching future. The Lakers effectively fired him two weeks later, and at the time, Jackson did not know if he would ever coach again - much less return to Los Angeles.
In a turn of events that still qualifies as odd, the Lakers rehired Jackson in June, five months after Rudy Tomjanovich unexpectedly resigned. Had Tomjanovich not quit, and had Jackson not returned elsewhere in the N.B.A., it would have been Brown who helped end his career.
But then, Jackson and Brown have spent a couple of decades moving toward and repelling each other, like atoms trying to occupy the same space.
In 1981, Jackson was a Nets assistant when Brown was hired as the coach. As Jackson tells it, Brown passed him over for a spot on his bench.
"Well, obviously, I was dumb," Brown said in 2001. "But, you know, I only lasted two years there. He probably would have been the head coach of New Jersey and had a terrible career."
Instead, six years later, Jackson joined the Chicago Bulls as an assistant in 1987. He became head coach two years later, won six championships with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, then hopped to the Lakers, winning three more championships with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.
Along the way, Jackson's Bulls beat Brown's Pacers in the 1998 Eastern Conference finals in seven games. In 2001, Jackson's Lakers beat Brown's Philadelphia 76ers in the N.B.A. finals in five games. Brown finally got his revenge in 2004 in Detroit.
Their careers intersected again in the spring. Jackson and Brown were mentioned as top candidates for the Knicks and Lakers jobs. Jackson said he gave only brief consideration to the Knicks job, however, and Brown declined to entertain the idea that their roles might have been reversed.
"There never was an opportunity," Brown said. "I'm happy where I am."
Jackson holds the head-to-head advantage in regular-season meetings (25-13) and in the playoffs (13-10). But given their intersecting paths, one wonders: Had Brown hired Jackson 24 years ago, would Jackson have ever coached Jordan? Would Brown have been spared a few playoff losses? Had Jackson's Lakers beaten Brown's Pistons in 2004, would Jackson have left the game for a year? Had Jackson not returned to the Lakers in June, would Brown have been lured to Los Angeles - where he once coached U.C.L.A. and the Clippers and still owns a home - instead of New York, his hometown?
Either way, each man has major challenges ahead and each is earning more than $10 million a year for his trouble. And each man said he had landed in the right place.
"That's a great job for him," Jackson said of Brown. Asked why, Jackson said: "A lot of money there. A lot of things, a lot of opportunities there for him. And it's home."
Brown said he rarely took interest in coaching matchups, but he did have one exception involving Jackson and the Bulls. "They used to beat us like a drum when I was with Indiana," Brown said. "And I told our team, 'Let's just get him to uncross his legs.' And we succeeded in the last game I coached at Indiana. But I have a lot of respect for what he's done."
The Lakers-Knicks game is being carried by ESPN, presumably because of the coach-vs.-coach subplot. Brown threw water on the entire concept.
"I don't think anybody in our league coaches against the person who sits down at the other end of the bench," he said.
REBOUNDS
In keeping with his tradition, Coach Larry Brown said he would start Trevor Ariza at small forward Wednesday, giving Ariza the spotlight in his hometown. On Sunday, Brown started Matt Barnes, a Sacramento native, against the Kings. ... Seven players attended an optional practice Tuesday. It was only the third day off since the opening of training camp.
Another season, and more adversity to persevere through. We will get the job done, even BETTER than last year.
GO KNICKS!
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11/16/2005 1:22 AM
The jumper is GAWDAWFUL!
