Larry is up and down with young players, he's certainly alienated many of them. Let's not forget how well Darko and Ariza almost instantly played in Orlando after being beaten down and demoralized by Brown. Orlando which finished winning 16 of 20.

I think I'm getting to the point where I have to question whether the game has passed Larry Brown by.

A) He doesn't use zone defense ever. Almost every good and most bad teams in the league mask their defensive defects with the zone. With the new perimeter rules it's one of the only ways to cut down on perimeter fouls (aka double teaming and trapping premier swing men). Larry stubbornly thinks its not the right way. Hey, the Spurs use a zone and they seem to play the right way.

B) Doesn't like the three point shot. His teams are almost always dead last in 3pt FG attempts. Meanwhile, Detroit took 8 more 3pters a game this year and shocka, their scoring went up. The 3pter is just a fact of the game which Larry ignores. San Antonio, Detroit, Phoenix, Dallas, Miami, all the best teams use the three. it's stupid not to and when you shoot 33% on 3s, it's the equivalent of shooting 50% on a 2. Larry's teams always get outscored at the 3pt line. The only team in the league I could find with a winning record that got outscored at the 3pt line is LAC.

C) Humiliates his players in the media. Find me another good coach in the NBA who does on a regular basis.

[Edited by - crzymdups on 04-27-2006 12:13 AM]

Posted by oohah:


It looked to me like you were giving LB the credit for the development of many "can't miss" pros. When was LB voted the best at developing youth?

The article with the vote I quoted was from the summer of '03 and it said the vote was "recent". I'm also pretty sure there was a similar one last year.

I don't think that was the point. Being fortunate enough to have great players does not make a coach good or bad. It stikes me as erroneous to give any coach, especially at the pro level, the credit for making great players great.

Brown has had success with great players and without:

Brown moved on to the ABA and coached with the Carolina Cougars and then the Denver Rockets, who later became the NBA's Denver Nuggets in 1976, for three and a half seasons from 1975 to 1979. He then moved on to coach for UCLA (1979-80, 1980-81), leading his freshman-dominated 1979-80 team to the NCAA title game before falling to Louisville, 59-54.

After two years with the NBA's New Jersey Nets, Brown began his tenure at the University of Kansas (1983-1988). There he was named "Coach of the Year" for the NCAA in 1988 and "Coach of the Year" for the Big Eight Conference in 1986. Kansas finished first in the Big Eight in 1986, and second in 1984, 1985, and 1987, ultimately leading Kansas to the national championship in 1988, defeating favored conference rival Oklahoma 83-79 in the final. Upon leaving Kansas, Brown had five NCAA Tournament appearances, three Sweet 16 appearances, and two trips to the Final Four.As a collegiate coach, he had a cumulative coaching record of 177-61 (.744) in seven seasons, including a 135-44 (.754) record at Kansas.

Brown moved back to the NBA after his time in Kansas, taking the head coaching job with the San Antonio Spurs, and has since led the Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, and Philadelphia 76ers. The coach won his first NBA Championship during his first year with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one in the NBA Finals. By doing so, Brown became the first man to coach teams to both NCAA and NBA titles.

Brown was also chosen as the head coach for the USA men's basketball team at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Despite criticism for never staying in any one place for very long, Brown is hailed as one of basketball's greatest teachers, and is unparalleled as a rebuilder of teams. The Nets and the Clippers are not only the "second teams" in their metropolitan areas, but have long been regarded as laughingstock franchises. Prior to the 2001 arrival of Jason Kidd, the Nets had made the Playoffs in only 10 of their first 25 seasons in the NBA. Two of those 10 times were in 1982 and 1983, under Brown. The Clippers, in San Diego and Los Angeles combined, have made the Playoffs in only three of their first 27 seasons. The first two of those times were in 1992 and 1993, under Brown. Those were also the second and third of the three times the franchise has finished .500 or better since moving in 1978, after being the Buffalo Braves. Tony Kornheiser, sports columnist for the Washington Post and a fellow Long Island, New York, native, has said, "He took the Clippers to the playoffs! Nobody takes the Clippers to the playoffs!"

In 2005, Allen Iverson said that Larry Brown was without a doubt "the best coach in the world."


[Edited by - BlueSeats on 04-27-2006 02:57 AM]