Steve Popper

People get ready... because Larry should stay

Apr 19, 2006

The promises have come sternly enough that you believe them. Maybe.

With the Knicks season coming to a relatively peaceful ending, Larry Brown will be back next season. His agent, Joe Glass, as well as another person close to him, insisted that the Knicks coach will be back for year two of his tenure in New York, despite the illness that sidelined him for the last three games and despite the troubles that have permeated the franchise nearly all year long.

It seems almost cruel to lift Brown out of his sickbed to man the bench for the final game of the season, making him face his team one more frustrating time. But to think that things will be better if he never comes back to the bench is short-sighted.

But before you figure out that it never will, think about what Brown is and what the Knicks are.

He is a hall-of-fame coach, not one who rode the coattails of a hall-of-fame player to a glossy record. He is a coach’s coach, a tactician who prepares his teams, not for one game, but for a season, a career. He has done it in every stop along the way in his career – and yes, there have been many.

Why didn’t it work in New York this year? The easy reason is that he didn’t have what every coach needs – the best player on the team to buy in, to work harder than any other player and thus to force the rest of the team to fall in line.

The best player didn’t buy in at the start, bringing a rocky history with Brown to New York. And it’s pretty apparent he still hasn’t bought in, promising to play his way, rather than as Brown would preach, the right way.

But the mismatched roster and the leader with no leadership skills shouldn’t push Brown out of town. There might a better fit of a coach for this roster, but there is not a better coach. So the logical choice is to keep the best coach and revamp the roster to accommodate him.

Brown is not faultless in this roster, giving his blessing to deals from the time he joined the organization – maybe believing that he could make the pieces fit. But he certainly should have another shot at that.

Figure it this way. Brown already has the ear of Channing Frye, David Lee, Jamal Crawford, Quentin Richardson and Malik Rose. Eddy Curry had better realize that this is the best chance for his career to move from an underachieving player with great potential to a great player. Whatever combination of Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and the rest of the roster survives the off-season efforts of Isiah Thomas to amend the troubles will need to be players that are willing to play Brown’s way – and yes, that means Marbury, not Starbury.

Other players in other cities have managed to be stars in Brown’s system – all-stars. But they also played defense, played hard and smart. That is something that every Knicks player should adhere to and every Knicks fan should demand.

If the performance on the court and the behavior off the court was a revolution against Brown, then why didn’t the players regroup and rally around Herb Williams in the last week? With a five-year, $50 million deal, Brown is coming back if he wants to and he swears that he does.

So the players had better get ready. Coaches are the loophole in the salary cap, an expense that a capped out team can add to give them an advantage, and the Knicks did that. There is no cap on coaches, so if you can get the best, you do. The Knicks did. Now they have to make it work.

The quick change will come via Thomas’s work, bringing in players who not only have talent, but character and leadership. Look at the Mets early surge this season. The team has spent millions of dollars over the last decade trying to catch the Yankees and got it wrong almost every time. But they got it right this time because they got players who not only are star talents, but leaders and tested winners – Carlos Delgado the best example.

The Knicks will be busy this summer and in dumping contracts they may give away more talent than they get back. But they need to keep an eye out for players who will fit and fit in.

Brown should be here. So should players who will be a part of what he’s coaching.

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