Whoa!
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060516/COLUMNIST03/605160317/1108/SPORTS01

Investing in Brown pays, but only for Brown
By IAN O'CONNOR
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: May 16, 2006)


If they must, the Knicks will write a $40 million check to convince Larry Brown to run a wind sprint out of their miserable lives. They will throw David Blaine an extra five mil if he can stuff Brown inside some hermetically sealed booth and make him vanish faster than the logic behind Stephon Marbury's choices on a three-on-one break.

To understand how this relationship has been irreparably harmed over one inglorious season is to know how it was forged in the first place. Isiah Thomas never asked his former backcourt partner, Joe Dumars, about the peaks and valleys and valleys and valleys of working with Brown before hiring him to save the Knicks.

Thomas didn't want to hear the discouraging news from his old friend in Detroit. He was under ownership orders to hire Brown or Phil Jackson, and Jackson checked himself back into Kobe Bryant's game.

Brown had to be his man. Thomas could only hope against hope the two of them would somehow win a championship before they wheeled on each other, guns blazing, and waged a fight to the corporate death that would make previous battle royales inside the Garden — Ernie Grunfeld vs. Jeff Van Gundy, Neil Smith vs. Mike Keenan, Al Bianchi vs. Rick Pitino — look like neighborly coffee-and-danish chats at a church social.

On the eve of this season, I asked Thomas if he was willing to endure an ugly public separation from Brown as long as the divorce followed the Knicks' first title since 1973. "Yes, most definitely," he said. "You sell your soul."

You don't sell it for a 23-59 return. But the absurd record hasn't compelled Thomas to seek Brown's removal one year deep into a five-year, $50 million deal. No, Brown's conduct unbecoming a coach — the same tasteless act played out in Athens and Detroit — has reduced his New York homecoming and dream job to a one-and-done disaster that has greatly diminished his Hall of Fame career.

At the 2004 Summer Games, Brown roasted his players and the executives who picked them, even though he had as much to do with assembling the team as anyone. During last year's Finals, Brown spent some of Detroit's practice time negotiating with the Cavaliers. This year, Brown won another medal in his favorite Olympic demonstration sport — rhythmic gymnastics — by blessing every personnel move Thomas made before ridiculing them in print 15 minutes later.

Bill Davidson, Pistons owner, would say Brown was "not a good person." David Stern, NBA commissioner, would pass Brown in Athens without speaking to him. James Dolan, Knicks owner, would grow mortified over Brown's petty media feud with Marbury and his endless rants about the roster.

Now Dolan will have to shell out far more than the $7 million Davidson gave Brown on exit. In a perfect world, the Knicks would get away with offering Brown $13 million of his $40 million balance — including this year's salary, that would be $23 million worth of high robbery, or one million for every victory.

This is hardly a perfect world. Brown will go seduce another sucker or two — Joe and Gavin Maloof, come on down! — and rent a fleet of armored trucks to carry his buyout package to the next stop.

The Knicks? Thomas is busy huddling with his scouts in Hilton Head, unwilling to address this latest crisis on his watch. After an uneven sideline performance with the Pacers, Isiah is expected to coach his $125 million payroll next year — assuming he beats the rap on the sexual harassment suit filed by a terminated female executive. Thomas would likely prefer to hire one of his favorites, Billy Donovan, but even a clueless money machine like Dolan has limits. Isiah will be the last coach Isiah gets to hire.

Salary-capped and luxury-taxed into oblivion, the Knicks have to find an outside-the-box thinker to land the players who will win games long after Thomas himself is gone. Jerry Krause hired Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc and all sorts of helpful Jordanaires during the six-title run in Chicago, and he's now scouting for the Mets, of all first-place teams, spending 39 straight days charting arm angles in the Texas League.

"I love working for Omar Minaya and the Mets," Krause said yesterday. He declined to discuss his potential interest in repairing the Knicks, but did say that he still loved Eddy Curry, that he would listen to an offer to run an NBA team, and that his wife did grow up in the Bronx.

Something to save for a hot summer day. For now, this much is clear: Like Randy Johnson, Larry Brown has lost his fastball. The Knicks will swing at anything if it means hitting him out of the park.




[Edited by - pharzeone on 05-16-2006 6:21 PM]