|
fishmike
Posts: 53902
Alba Posts: 1
Joined: 7/19/2002
Member: #298
USA
|
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/phil_taylor/12/28/hot.button/
Larry Brown is stealing money. Not literally, of course. Brown, the New York Knicks' first-year coach, is merely accepting the King Kong-sized paychecks that the team agreed -- foolishly, it now appears -- to give him once he wiggled his way out of the Detroit Pistons job last summer and signed a five-year deal for a reported $50 million with New York. But the only thing swelling as quickly as Brown's bank account is the Knicks' loss total. They have dropped 20 of their first 27 games and they actually seem to be getting worse, which is why every direct deposit Brown receives from the Knicks is an absolute heist.
We see high-priced athletes flop all the time, but rarely -- no, never -- have we seen a coach being paid as much and performing as poorly. No one expected Brown to turn the Knicks into the Pistons overnight; competing for the last playoff spot would have been a reasonable goal. But New York owner James Dolan surely didn't expect 7-20, either. He's not paying Brown $10 million a year for 7-20. He could have gotten that from former coach Herb Williams for about $9 million less.
It's not just that the Knicks are losing, it's how they are losing -- with Brown changing the starting lineup almost nightly and elevating and demoting players from game to game with no apparent rhyme or reason. Brown started Matt Barnes at small forward on opening night, then cut Barnes before the season was 20 games old, replacing him with free agent pickup Qyntel Woods, who was quickly inserted -- briefly, of course, into the starting lineup. Center Jerome James started and played his best game of the season against Seattle, then didn't play at all in the next game, against the Clippers.
It's no wonder the Knicks have been wildly unpredictable and disjointed, because they have no consistent rotation of players. The way Brown is yo-yoing guys in and out of the lineup, you would think he was trying to sabotage the team, not improve it. Granted, he needed time to evaluate players, but that's what training camp is for. After one-third of the season he ought to know what his best team is.
But that's just the problem. Brown has always been a coach who changes his mind as often as most people change their socks. Given free rein by team president Isiah Thomas, some of Brown's worst tendencies have come to the fore -- focusing on his own players' shortcomings instead of their strengths, and falling in love with every roster other than his own. Brown has sung the praises of such nondescript players as Brevin Knight, Earl Watson and Eric Snow, for instance, while acting as though his own point guard, Stephon Marbury, a wonderfully gifted (although flawed) player, is a burden to be endured instead of a talent to be exploited.
The Brown-Marbury relationship is symbolic of Brown's misguided approach. Like Marbury, the Knicks are a team with obvious weaknesses, a team whose production doesn't match its paycheck. But like Marbury, the Knicks are also a much more talented team than Brown gives them credit for. They have one of the few legitimate centers in the league -- Eddy Curry. They have a crop of young, talented, athletic players in Channing Frye, Nate Robinson, Trevor Ariza and the mysteriously forgotten David Lee. They have explosive, natural scorers in Marbury and Jamal Crawford. They have veteran players who are willing to do the dirty work in Antonio Davis and Malik Rose.
That may not be enough to make the Pistons and Spurs tremble, but it's enough to do better than 7-20. A coach who has been anointed as the league's best ought to be able to make a competitive team out of that material.
Brown continually laments that the Knicks are a flawed team. Hello? Larry? We knew that. The Knicks brass expected you to find a way to minimize the flaws, accentuate the strengths and give them something better than 7-20. That's what the $10 million per year is all about. Didn't they mention that to you?
So far, the fans' boos at Madison Square Garden have been aimed more at the players, especially Marbury, than at Brown. But maybe the Knicks fans shouldn't bother to boo Brown at all. Considering the way their high-priced coach is stealing money with his utterly awful performance, they should probably call the cops.
"winning is more fun... then fun is fun" -Thibs
|
Larry Brown needs to start doing the same. Use what you have you old bastid.
12/29/2005 9:40 AM