Brown Brings These Knicks to a New Low

By HARVEY ARATON
Published: April 18, 2006

THE worst season in the history of the franchise is expected to conclude with Larry Brown coaching tomorrow night in New Jersey, the Knicks said yesterday before they closed their home schedule against the Charlotte Bobcats. Just not in those words.

That is my contention, however, taking into full consideration a few horrendous years in the mid-1980's under another Brown, Hubie, as well as a recent conversation with Richie Guerin, the star of the early 1960's era widely regarded to be the Knicks' most inept.

"Listen, I played for the Knicks for seven years, made the playoffs once and usually we were out of it a lot earlier than the end of the season," Guerin said yesterday in a telephone interview from his home in West Palm Beach, Fla. "But I never had to deal with the things they had going on this year. I never had to question the effort of my teammates."

That's because, as Guerin conceded, indifference or insubordination usually earned players working on one-year contracts a nine-to-five commute.

"Those big, guaranteed contracts changed everything," Guerin said. "But, of course, if I were playing now, I'd want one, too."

It's never easy to measure misery, from one period to another, and I would be the first to agree that those bad Hubie Brown teams as the Knicks transitioned from Bernard King to Patrick Ewing didn't inspire campfire recitals of kumbaya.

But at least Hubie can argue, as he does to this day, that his 47-victory Eastern Conference semifinalist team in 1984 was devastated by injuries, and forced to play subsequent seasons with a gimpy-kneed Ewing and people named Eddie Lee (Wilkins) and The Animal (Ken Bannister).

At least Guerin can remind us that while his ancient Knicks of 1962-63 won 21 games, fewer than this year, their four-team division had no other sub-.500 opponents and they had to play each of them, including Bill Russell's Celtics, 12 times.

Larry Brown's Knicks have been operating in an expanded, talent-diluted N.B.A. and in an Eastern Conference that could field four playoff teams with losing records.

Factor in the highest payroll in league history ($125 million), the expectations created by the signing of Brown to a $50 million deal, the intramural feuding between players and coach, the general organizational mayhem and what you get is the lowest point since the Knicks first dribbled onto a court in Toronto on Nov. 1, 1946. The worst Knicks team of all that quit on its coach long before he was wheeled out on a gurney last week in Cleveland.

You want to put this all on the players, call Stephon Marbury an incorrigible loser, Eddy Curry an overweight malingerer, go ahead. You want to call for Isiah Thomas's administrative scalp, so be it. Just know this: a lot of people in the Knicks' organization besides James Dolan and Thomas have been more baffled this season by Brown.

They wonder why he couldn't settle on a rotation after the first couple of months, or communicate more with players instead of hammering them in the newspapers. They ask why the young Knicks' minutes were wildly inconsistent, why Curry didn't get the ball more, didn't get better, which was the whole point of hiring a teacher like Brown and what this season was supposedly about.

Baby steps forward. Instead, from the beginning, Brown was mystifyingly intolerant of the flaws he had to know he was inheriting. Time and again, he let his emotions get the better of him, couldn't leave bad enough alone, and made an unfortunate situation much worse.

Think it was easy for Phil Jackson to watch his beloved triangle offense turned into Kobe Bryant's own geometric showcase? After Bryant indulged for 81 points, Jackson admitted that he wouldn't necessarily have drawn up a victory that way, but what was he going to do? Hadn't Jackson signed up to coach Team Kobe? He went with the flow, moved his lesser Lakers around Bryant like the moons around Jupiter, and will ride him as far into the playoffs as he can.

Jackson played the only hand he had, while Brown shuffled and shuffled and finally announced the tainted cards would mostly be discarded by next season. As if the market for the Knicks' baggage is not ultimately going to yield the same overpaid players who underachieved elsewhere, if that baggage is movable at all.

Makes you wonder: is Brown willing to listen to those who have been begging him all season to better understand the combustible dynamics of this franchise and the city it serves? Is he capable of change? As a favor to himself and his family, Brown should consider negotiating a buyout if he can't stop making every day judgment day. Because the only thing clear about next season is that no one — least of all Brown — has the stomach to go through a disaster like this one again.

The Knicks wouldn't comment on a New York Daily News report that claimed they hold an insurance policy on Brown's contract. (What company would insure a 65-year-old man with a pre-existing condition?) There is no indication yet that they don't want him back. Even Marbury, the Joker to Brown's Batman, called Brown at home yesterday, to, as Marbury put it, "send him my condolences."

Maybe he heard that Brown would be back to coach this team again next season. Or maybe just tomorrow night in New Jersey, if only to finish the worst season in Knicks history on the bench, instead of on a gurney in Cleveland.

E-mail: hjaraton@nytimes.com

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

great article!!! very very good indeed!!!

speak the truth!! the truth will set you free!!

BROOKLYN!!!!!!!



[Edited by - enyspree on 04-18-2006 02:33 AM]

FINALLY SOMEONE SPEAKS THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!

And I agree with what Fish said AND would like to add that a different coach could have accomplished that THIS season as well.

The season is a mess....

The players have to be professional and deal with what coach does and says but coach has to be professional too and I don't think Brown has clue on how to be professional.

Guys need roles, they don't just fill them if they are not there. Coaching effort? Yeah thats the coaches resposibility.The coach has to put guys in position to sucseed.

Ben Wallace made a stupid comment about the Knicks needing role players. STFU!!!! The coach establishes who the role players are. Who tells Malik to post up and try to score? Who encourages Mo Taylor to hold the ball for 5 seconds then take a contested shot? Who dumps it into Curry and dares him to score? Who forgets to make the team go back to Curry? Who neglected to used Channing Frye's jumpshot more often this year? Channing should have averaged at least 20 pts per by going off screens all day.

I have been saying all this stuff since the 5 game losing streak. It's unexceptable that Brown did not stick with a steady line-up. Brown needed to make the role players. Tell guys what to do and where to be. He trashes the team and he is the one that is responsible for telling them there roles.

Now the team is in limbo! Do the Knicks try to trade all the players now to appease Larry? How do we know Larry is gonna sucseed if he has different players? Do we find a different coach? I say yes because you get a different coach in here that plays a style that fits the team. The interview has to be about how can you make these players win? Then th eGM can then work out the tweaks!!!!!



Now that a guy from the NY Times writes it now people will wake the hell up.

Posted by fishmike:

Posted by Killa4luv:

FINALLY SOMEONE SPEAKS THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!

And I agree with what Fish said AND would like to add that a different coach could have accomplished that THIS season as well.

yea man... I meant that getting a new coach and 40 wins is a BAD thing. I wasnt really being sarcastic, because I'm sure Lenny could have massaged 40 wins out of this group. Then what? There is a problem here and LB's antics, bizaare as they are have brought that problem to the forefront.

Exactly. Lenny got better than .500 ball out of these guys until the team splintered around Marbury on jan 1, 2005. Then the bottom dropped out, we went 2-15 for the worst month in franchise history, and we've had nothing to stand on since. Humpty Dumpty is broken and can't be put back together again. We've got to build this thing anew, the right way this time.

Is Brown the right guys for that? I don't know, but the tenants he preaches: defense, rebounding, effort, and sharing the ball sure are. If we can get someone better than him to instill them I'm all for it, but until then we should roll with Larry.

Posted by martin:

thanks Pres

No problem, martin. Times Select has some good features, although as most probably know they all used to be free. I figured people would want to read this one because it raised important questions about Brown that many of us have been asking, but most of the media seems to have ignored.

Everyone is guilty in some way and should take a look at themselves in the mirror. Brown clearly has a better track record and, as some have suggested, maybe there is a method to his madness. However, one wonders if his method is actually going to work. Thus far very few players have responded (Malik & Q and lastly Crawford being the only vets to have bought in), and as Araton mentions, in the process many of our players values have diminished.

I think it's anyone's guess what this organization is going to do over the summer because there is an abundance of evidence to support many of the arguments floating around (Brown leaves, Marbury traded, Francis traded, all stay, Isiah steps down, Isiah adds more salary cap, looks to move below the cap, keeps the draft picks, trades them, etc.) that you could convince me you are right. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

[Edited by - PresIke on 04-18-2006 12:33 PM]

I'm not a big Larry Brown fan as everyone here knows but I do respect his knowledge of the game enough to know he can get the job done...At the start of next season he gets my total support as he did at the beginning of the past season...The slates are clean again...Right now I'm not sure there is anyone more qualified than Larry Brown to right this ship...Lets face it, I want to see my favorite team on earth win...Larry and Steph feud aside, Larry Brown can turn this around...I just think he needs to be a bit more flexible in his thinking...I do think he should stick to his philosophy of ball distribution, defense, rebounding and he needs to begin preaching effort....He needs to be a little more respectful to his players to get them to buy into what he is teaching...I would bet anything if Larry came to camp and show all the players he is willing to bend, have a more restraint is the press, show he is willing to push the ball a little more, I have no doubt that all players will buy into his entire program....I think we give this group another year together with more dialogue within the organization on how to improve this team...Net, net Larry needs to bend a bit, players needs to listen and if we can hammer out an agreement over the summer that has us on the same page, we give this group another chance.....



[Edited by - holfresh on 04-18-2006 12:57 PM]

this isn't the post, it isn't the daily news.

it's the new york times. All the news that's fit to print.

If you don't take what the New York Times has to say, then you really are blind to what has gone on this year and just decide to take sides.

We have a ton of role players, Larry is just trying to make our stars role players and vice versa and it kept blowing up in his face.

We ALL would have loved 40 wins this year, it's not mediocrity, it's seeing who we got...right now, we have no idea who we got, all Larry can say is that the entire team sucks.

You win 40 games, you can see who contributed to the wins and fill your needs (ala bulls and everyother team), but how can we fill the needs if Larry keeps us in a situation where we have needs everywhere.

Is Crawford a starting point guard? Don't know. Can Marbs play the 2? Don't know. Can lee play power forward? Don't know. Can Lee play small forward? Don't know.

Is nate a SG or a PG? don't know.

Not settling on a roster is the root of everything...watching yesterdays game, I noticed a statement:
"it's the next to last game of the season and it looks as if none of the players have played together"

The fact is, they hadn't.

Posted by djsunyc:

"People told me I was a bust," Billups said by phone. "They told me I'd end up in the CBA or overseas."

Billups is a terrific 3-point shooter, free-throw shooter, and end-game shooter, a holy trinity covering for his venial field-goal percentage sins. Billups is a strong defender, passer and ballhandler. He has the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the NBA.

More than anything, Billups is the antidote to Stephon Marbury, the anti-Starbury, a winner with or without Larry Brown. Now he surveys the pathetic Knicks, ravaged by the turf war fought between an ailing Brown and a wailing Marbury, and recalls the requisite compromises in the making of a champ.

"I was willing to sacrifice," Billups said. "Larry was a legendary coach, and I hadn't won anything yet. So I said, 'I'll listen to him. Give him 100 percent and see if it works out.' We had some tough times, some meetings in his office where we aired out our feelings. But it never got personal, and I learned a lot from Larry."

Dumars said, "Chauncey never blamed anyone else for his situation, and I loved his disposition, the fact he never brought attention to himself."

I don't give a **** what Chanuncey or Ben Wallace or whoever has to say.....all I know is what I see and what we all have seen.

All this share the ball, play defense, extra passing....you know what? that's how everyone plays winnign basketball!!!! Every coach is gonna preach the same thing. The legendary Larry failed.....his team gave up on him and that's the way it goes. It happens to the best of them and in this case it did....

Now we all have to think trade, trade, trade in order to make Brown do his job.

All these guys can play the game....it takes the right coach to get a group of guys playing together and on the same page.....Larry did not do that.

I don't want to hear the argument about the players are stupid and selfish and whatever....the coach is supposed to handle that. Before this season they weren't playing like this. They were losing but these guys were trying hard and playing hard. This year they got alot better talent wise so why did the Knicks put out one of the worst records in franchise history?!?!?!