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OngBok
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Joined: 5/1/2005
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Thailand
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KnicksExecs: Larry’s tactics strange
BY GREG LOGAN
Newsday Staff Correspondent
June 23, 2006
GREENBURGH, N.Y. - No one on the Knicks publicly questioned Larry Brown's motives last season when he used an NBA-record 42 different starting lineups, but after they finished with a 23-59 record, some wondered if he lost sight of wins and losses because he was consumed with changing the roster Isiah Thomas put together.
Watching from a distance, two top-ranking NBA team executives admitted they were puzzled by some of Brown's moves.
"He got real wacky," one of the executives said of Brown. According to the executive, an agent for one Knicks player told him the player "thought Larry was doing things on purpose to sabotage the team sometimes. Some of the stuff he was doing didn't make any sense."
It was no secret that Brown and point guard Stephon Marbury didn't get along, dating to their differences on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team. But Marbury had plenty of company as the target for Brown's criticism. It quickly became obvious that Brown wanted to make wholesale changes, just as he did with seven other NBA teams that all improved under his direction.
"Larry did not buy into Isiah's philosophy," the first NBA executive said. "He tried to crush Isiah early on, saying, 'This is a terrible team, the players are no good.'
"Then Isiah turned around, and who knows what he said to Dolan behind closed doors. No owner likes to see his players ripped in the media. The value of a franchise is the asset of your players, and Larry killed them."
The second executive said the way Brown used rookie forwards Channing Frye and David Lee was "strange."
Although Brown always has favored veteran performers, the second executive said, "When they were winning, the young kids had a lot to do with it."
Frye was limited to an average of 24.2 minutes per game. "I think Larry was saying you can't win a lot of games if you put this kid in and he's got to guard all the best power forwards in the league," the second executive said. "That's probably true. But he would have gotten better. That's where I was surprised."
Lee started 13 straight games at midseason, including the six consecutive wins in January. Then Brown started him only once in the final 43 games.
"I was surprised because Lee seemed like exactly the kind of guy Larry would like," the second executive said. "That's what made me think there's something funny going on here."
Brown often said he wasn't worried about winning because that would take care of itself if his team concentrated on playing the right way. It doesn't mean he was wrong about the Knicks' flawed roster, but Brown never got the time or the right personnel to turn it around.
Isiah Thomas will lead us back to the playoffs in 2006 !!!
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6/23/2006 1:41 PM
