Posted by nyk4ever:

I'm sorry but Larry Brown is awesome. I wish things worked out for him, I know I'm in the minority, but I really like the man and think he's an excellent coach. The Bobcats are lucky to have him.

You aren't in the minority many echo the same sentiments.

Phil Jackson can call players names in the press like Space Cadet, P****, Limited, Fragile, and make repeated requests to management to trade the team's most talented player but oh no LB does this and it's blasphemy.

Posted by TrueBlue:

Posted by nyk4ever:

I'm sorry but Larry Brown is awesome. I wish things worked out for him, I know I'm in the minority, but I really like the man and think he's an excellent coach. The Bobcats are lucky to have him.

You aren't in the minority many echo the same sentiments.

Phil Jackson can call players names in the press like Space Cadet, P****, Limited, Fragile, and make repeated requests to management to trade the team's most talented player but oh no LB does this and it's blasphemy.

It certainly seemed like the minority when I was defending him to no-end while he was with the Knicks.

Posted by nyk4ever:

Posted by TrueBlue:

Posted by nyk4ever:

I'm sorry but Larry Brown is awesome. I wish things worked out for him, I know I'm in the minority, but I really like the man and think he's an excellent coach. The Bobcats are lucky to have him.

You aren't in the minority many echo the same sentiments.

Phil Jackson can call players names in the press like Space Cadet, P****, Limited, Fragile, and make repeated requests to management to trade the team's most talented player but oh no LB does this and it's blasphemy.

It certainly seemed like the minority when I was defending him to no-end while he was with the Knicks.

I had your back. We knew who the real culprits were. Not our fault that people took so long to figure out the obvious.

It's hysterical that some people think that the guy with the Hall of Fame resume, was supposed to play the good soldier and acquiesce to the incompetent GM, Team President and Owner instead of trying to get them to realize the error of their ways.

Anything that people feel Brown did wrong was done in a futile attempt to get things moving in the right direction.

Posted by Uptown:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by sebstar:

Posted by islesfan:

Posted by sebstar:

:::laugh::: @ Brown admitting he did a terrible job in NY. Case solved and closed.

At least somebody is willing to take some blame.

The 2 people who deserve the most blame are still associated with the Knicks and refuse to talk to the fans, through the media, much less accept any blame for the past 5 years. Hell, they still think they did a great job and have laid a great foundation for this organization moving forward.

Not the point. Everybody is aware that Zeke was horrible, thats why he doesnt have that job anymore -- and its why he's been humiliated at every turn over the past year. Its the LB stans that almost completely tried to absolve him from any responsibility regarding that 05-06 catastrophe.

There, we have it on tape that LB admitted he sucked. Or is LB a liar? Its clear now that he helped to set the franchise back with his machinations and maneuvers.

When you're working with Idiot Dolan and Incompetent Isiah, there isn't much chance to succeed. So what exactly is Brown to be blamed for? What could he have done differently when he was being sabotaged by Isiah the entire time?

If he didn't have much chance to succeed, and he knew this you seemed to know this, why take the job in the first place?

Brown was the coach during the 05-06 season. He needs to take the blame for the 23 win season and not coaching this team better as he himself admitted numerous times.

As far Isiah sabotaging him the whole time, I dont disagree, but for you to totally exonerate Brown from all that went wrong during that horrible year is not being fair. There is no doubt he was trying to sabotage Isiah aswell.

Because promises were made to him that were either made under false pretense or were complete fabrications, in order to get him to come here. You can also add in the money and Brown's ego that he could come to NY and fix this mess.

Dolan and especially Isiah, desperately needed the credibility that LB brought with him. Isiah was hoping that LB could win with the pieces that he put together, thereby making Isiah look good. Isiah had no intention of making the wholesale changes that LB knew needed to happen during that season. That would only make Isiah look bad since he had already traded 4 first rd picks and committed the Knicks to hundreds of millions in future contracts. That's when Isiah started sabotaging LB in Dolan's eyes. He got on that plane to Memphis and made sure Dolan came away believing that LB was to blame for everything and ruining everything that Isiah had worked so hard for.

Brown has taken blame. More than his share in fact. Dolan and Isiah have refused to accept any, heaping it all on Brown, the fans, the players, the refs...

When Brown realized what Isiah was doing, he tried to fight back and that's where he was wrong. It was a losing battle and completely hopeless. But it did win him his freedom, at a price to his reputation. Now he can move on and go back to being Next Town Brown.

Isles-

You make some really interesting points, and while I dont necessarily disagree with your premiss, it seems as if you are saying that any of Browns negative actions were actually reactionary as opposed to being agenda driven. Brown has enough baggage in the towns he left behind to make the argument that he was out to uundermine Isiah from day one.

I think when he realized that Dolan was in bed with Isiah and he couldn't wedge them apart, that is when he went into his old tricks of trying to get himself fired so he could recoup his money.

Ian Thomsen (Inside the NBA) SI.com
"Larry Brown will not be back in Detroit. Count on it. By saying that he wants to return as coach of the Pistons, pending his health concerns, Brown is essentially forcing the team to fire him so that he can continue to collect the three years and $15 million remaining on his contract. If Brown is fired he will be able to claim -- disingenuously -- that he didn't bail out on the Eastern champions. But Brown demonstrated earlier that he doesn't want to come back, and the Pistons need reliable leadership in order to win another championship while their team is still at peak form.

Was he a primary reason the Pistons lost? Of course not. Nor was he a distraction -- Detroit has the most professional group of players in the league. But when the defending champs needed the last bit of motivation, when they were seeking the extra push of self-belief to see them through the final half of Game 7, they couldn't get it from their coach because when they looked in his eyes they saw someone halfway out the door. An unimpeachable source within the Pistons maintains that Brown's shenanigans cost him his ability to motivate his players on a personal level. They simply didn't believe in him any longer."


Browns shenanigans have been well documented, though not brought up much here, but I added this article to show how much Brown has sabotaged, his own former team, owner Bill Davidson (who didn't even invite Brown back to the 50th aniversary for the Pistons while the team he coached was there), his own team during the finals, former players etc. Brown is just as guilty of trying to sabotage Isiah has Isiah is of sabotaging him.


[Edited by - Uptown on 04-30-2008 8:53 PM]

[Edited by - Uptown on 04-30-2008 8:55 PM]

WTF? I'm watching the Hawks/Celtics, they showed Herb Brown who is an asst. for the Hawks. I didn't know he was Larry's brother.

Posted by Uptown:

Isles-

You make some really interesting points, and while I dont necessarily disagree with your premiss, it seems as if you are saying that any of Browns negative actions were actually reactionary as opposed to being agenda driven. Brown has enough baggage in the towns he left behind to make the argument that he was out to uundermine Isiah from day one.

I think when he realized that Dolan was in bed with Isiah and he couldn't wedge them apart, that is when he went into his old tricks of trying to get himself fired so he could recoup his money.

Ian Thomsen (Inside the NBA) SI.com
"Larry Brown will not be back in Detroit. Count on it. By saying that he wants to return as coach of the Pistons, pending his health concerns, Brown is essentially forcing the team to fire him so that he can continue to collect the three years and $15 million remaining on his contract. If Brown is fired he will be able to claim -- disingenuously -- that he didn't bail out on the Eastern champions. But Brown demonstrated earlier that he doesn't want to come back, and the Pistons need reliable leadership in order to win another championship while their team is still at peak form.

Was he a primary reason the Pistons lost? Of course not. Nor was he a distraction -- Detroit has the most professional group of players in the league. But when the defending champs needed the last bit of motivation, when they were seeking the extra push of self-belief to see them through the final half of Game 7, they couldn't get it from their coach because when they looked in his eyes they saw someone halfway out the door. An unimpeachable source within the Pistons maintains that Brown's shenanigans cost him his ability to motivate his players on a personal level. They simply didn't believe in him any longer."


Browns shenanigans have been well documented, though not brought up much here, but I added this article to show how much Brown has sabotaged, his own former team, owner Bill Davidson (who didn't even invite Brown back to the 50th aniversary for the Pistons while the team he coached was there), his own team during the finals, former players etc. Brown is just as guilty of trying to sabotage Isiah has Isiah is of sabotaging him.


[Edited by - Uptown on 04-30-2008 8:53 PM]

[Edited by - Uptown on 04-30-2008 8:55 PM]

You know, it's not just Brown. Pitino did the same thing to the Knicks that Brown did to Detroit. Riley and Van Gundy also quit on the Knicks. This is one thing that Walsh has to keep in mind when hiring the next coach.

Posted by buddapaw:

The great Larry Brown

MJ, Bobcats fall for Brown’s tired act

By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports Apr 30, 2:40 am EDT

At this point, watching a Larry Brown introductory news conference is like catching the last days of Sinatra in Vegas.

There’s really nothing left to see; nothing but an old legend hanging on, so desperate for the lifestyle and applause that he’ll play the songs he knows he can’t deliver, all for a fawning audience so desperate and delusional it willingly will suspend belief.

The Charlotte Bobcats threw Brown his 14th new hire news conference – counting USA Basketball and assuming he had one for his one-month, no-game stint at Davidson College back in the day. Michael Jordan played the hopelessly naïve audience this time, refusing to believe the reviews of Brown’s last few bombed performances.

It was all very familiar and nice. Larry even brought his best monotone.

“How are you going to say no to Michael?” he said Tuesday.

That Ashley Dupre has said no to fewer men didn’t matter. LB’s first day always is the one for smiles and lies.

Let’s just pretend he needed some arm-twisting, for old times’ sake. As long as we get to the part where Larry is hailed as a great “teacher” for “the kids”?

“I think his teaching skills are going to be the biggest asset these young kids have,” Jordan said.

Not that Brown has done anything with a young group since the Clippers, which was, what, five teams ago? Or that he generally despises rookies.
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Or that he spent an entire Olympics whining about America’s young players, feeding stereotypes about a lack of fundamentals to his media apologists back in the States. And those useless young players who no one could ever win with? LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudamire and, ah, Emeka Okafor.

That’s OK, can we wave a cigarette lighter and get the one about how Larry is just a humble old coach who hopes he can get everyone to inbound the ball?

“I don’t feel like I’m a genius,” the egoless coach said.

Of course, two jobs ago, in Detroit, he got fired not for a lack of wins – two trips to the Finals, one title – but because, ah, he felt like he was a genius.

“There was too much Larry Brown and not enough Pistons,” said generally understated owner Bill Davidson, who hated Brown so much that he was willing to pay $18 million if Brown would just go away (they negotiated a settlement).

Davidson went on to call Brown “not a good person.”

That would be a remarkable buyout story except for the time it took LB just one year to infuriate the Knicks so much that they fired him, despite owing Brown $40 million. (The NBA arbitrated that one to $18 million.) Let’s not count whatever USA Basketball wished it could have paid him to cut his ugly American act short at the Athens Olympics.

Say this for Larry Brown: If he isn’t a genius, then how do you describe his innate ability to get billionaires to pay him millions to not work? Let alone get another one, this time Bob Johnson, to declare he was “extremely proud and fortunate” to have hired him to a four-year, destined to be bought out, contract?

Well, the good news is Brown is done feuding with front offices and will concentrate on that legendary “teaching.” Sure, Jordan is an absentee executive prone to historic blunders, but because they both went to North Carolina and played for Dean Smith (did Larry mention that?), it’s cool.

No more complaining in the papers, no more benching prospects in a pout. Whatever MJ says, right?

“I’m going to let Michael know my thoughts about the players,” Brown said. “We came from the same kind of background. I think it will be easy to understand what we both like.”

Maybe Coach Smith can arbitrate. Michael can call in from the back nine.

Larry got a bunch of his favorite tunes into the rotation. There was his love of practice. There was how he never worked a day in his life. There was how, sure, he’s been a bit nomadic, but this is the city and the team he really always has dreamed of.

“There’s no place else I’d rather be than with the Charlotte Bobcats organization,” he said.

This is home. Except for New York, which was home.

About the only LB standard we didn’t get Monday was that he really wishes he could coach high school ball somewhere, you know, where the game is pure and he can really “teach” those “kids.”

It’s tough getting a high school job, apparently. Maybe next time.

All in all it was a fine performance for the Charlotte fans. They were once the best in the NBA, loud and loyal. Then they got screwed 15 different ways by ridiculousness and indifference, and now all they can do is dream this won’t be a disaster.

Sure the Bobcats just hired a high-maintenance coach with champagne tastes who isn’t fond of young players and has a recent history of inspiring hatred. And yes, this is a dysfunctional, six-pack budget franchise with inexperienced talent. But, ah, did we mention he went to Carolina?

“Welcome, Larry,” Jordan said. “Thank you for taking the opportunity to come to Charlotte, and we’re looking forward to some great things.”

Like the bitter buyout in, say, 11 months?

That was so biased it made it seem like Brown has had as much success as Isiah has as an executive and coach instead of being a Hall of Famer that has left most franchises better than they were when he arrived.

All you had to do was read the part about the Knicks to realize that the article was a giant waste of time.