|
holfresh
Posts: 38679
Alba Posts: 0
Joined: 1/14/2006
Member: #1081
|
February 27, 2006 -- SAN ANTONIO — Larry Brown is no different than his players now. Overpaid, underachieving — stealing Knicks owner James Dolan's money.
Isiah Thomas has assembled some mismatched pieces during his catastrophic reign. But the biggest mismatched piece Thomas added is the head coach.
Mismatched and overmatched.
As the Knicks disgrace the franchise night after night, the blame goes well beyond the personnel Thomas acquired. The Knicks moved at half-speed in surrendering 71 points in the first half against the Wizards Saturday when it was so obvious the players had stopped putting out for Brown.
When the players give up on their coach, it's hard to get them back. Which is why, with 27 games left, including tonight's potential massacre in Alamo City vs. the Spurs, the Knicks are headed to their worst record in franchise history (21-59). They will give Charlotte a legit run for the league's worst record. (Go ahead, Chicago, throw another parade).
It's been nearly eight years since Brown found himself in a losing environment. That was his first season in Philadelphia, when the Sixers were 31-51.
Brown, 65, is older now, the players are younger, different, with less college experience and less love for the game. You wonder if Brown will even want to finish the season.
The concern in late July that Brown would be out of his element in a rebuilding program after his years winning in Philly and Detroit was a bull's-eye. I once scoffed at that theory because of his reputation as basketball's greatest teacher. Given two weeks, Brown could turn the last place team in the East Hampton P.A.L 10-year-old division into a winner.
Brown has practiced his players too hard, demeaned them too often and changed their roles too often. Those are not traits of a great coach. Ultimately, that is why he has lost the locker room, why the young players have regressed instead of gotten better, why they are 15-40, the joke of the NBA, the shame of the city.
"We have too many young players right now," the $40 million defensive genius said as recently as Friday night.
Brown should stop his whine about the Knicks being too young and start doing what he was brought in to do — get the most out of them, make them a team.
The Knicks' core group now isn't as green as Brown wants you to believe. The starting perimeter is Stephon Marbury, 29, Steve Francis, 29, and Quentin Richardson, 26.
The two perimeter players off the bench are Jalen Rose and Jamal Crawford. The starting center, Eddy Curry, has been in the league five years. Brown now starts rookie Channing Frye at power forward, but he's worthy. Last time we proofed them, Malik Rose and Maurice Taylor weren't teenagers.
The veterans have shown no leadership and Brown has been incapable of motivating this group. The players want to run. Brown wants to run set plays.
The players don't seem to care about winning anymore. Two Knicks — without mentioning names — munched down on Chicken McNuggets and McDonald's fries an hour before tip-off Saturday night in Washington.
During the Wizards' rout, a heckler yelled at new Knick Steve Francis, "Hey Stevie, Where are you going next?" Francis turned to the fan and quipped, "To the bank." It took only three days for Francis to feel the emptiness of a lost season.
The Knicks get the defending champions in San Antonio tonight. Last time Brown coached a real game here, it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals, his last as the Pistons coach. After the loss, Brown wondered if he could coach again because of his bladder issue and he underwent surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Then Brown followed the money to New York.
Like Francis, Brown's next stop is the bank. Or perhaps the hospital.
|
2/27/2006 4:49 PM