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McK1
Posts: 26527
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Joined: 7/16/2005
Member: #964
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Limbo Larry feelin' 'humiliated' Isiah & Knicks remain silent BY FRANK ISOLA DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER ORLANDO - Isiah Thomas and Larry Brown were doing a lot of talking yesterday with everyone except the media and each other.
Thomas, the Knicks president, continues to give Brown the silent treatment as the NBA's longest-running soap opera drags on. A person close to Brown says that the Hall of Fame head coach "feels humiliated" by the fact that the club requested his presence at the NBA pre-draft camp without clarifying his job status.
Brown is expected to be removed as head coach at some point between now and the start of training camp with Thomas replacing him on the sidelines. Brown's coaching friends have spent the past two days asking the Hall of Famer about his future, but Brown has no answers and the Knicks aren't talking.
Brown apologized to reporters for not talking, but his older brother, Herb, did speak out about the bizarre circumstances at Madison Square Garden. Calling his brother a great coach, Herb Brown said: "I know that if people let him do his job he's going to do a great job."
"There is no doubt in my mind that if he's permitted to do his job, he will succeed in doing what they hired him to do in the first place," said Brown, an assistant with the Atlanta Hawks. "And he will turn the fortunes of the franchise around."
Larry Brown and Thomas haven't been on speaking terms for weeks. Thomas and Garden chairman James Dolan are blaming Brown for the team's 23-59 record and are upset that he publicly criticized the players. A source close to Brown says that the coach feels somewhat betrayed by Thomas for turning his back on him, since it was Brown who reached out to Thomas three years ago when Larry Bird fired Thomas as Pacers head coach. But the animosity between the club and Brown is growing. Brown's three assistant coaches - Phil Ford, Dave Hammers and Brendan O'Connor - were not asked by the Knicks to watch the workouts at Disney's Wide World of Sports. The three coaches, who are expected to be fired once Brown is let go, are missing an opportunity to network for another job.
The Knicks brought along their scouting staff plus one public-relations official and one front office assistant while Herb Williams was the only assistant coach invited here.
Williams sat next to Brown - who arrived about an hour early - during yesterday's workouts. Thomas, seated several hundred feet from Brown, spent much of the morning session talking to Darrell Walker, whom he once hired as Toronto Raptors head coach.
Brown may return to New York today. He is not expected to meet with Thomas anytime in the near future, and when asked yesterday if he had spoken to Thomas, Brown replied: "I didn't look for him."
the stop underrating David Lee movement
1. FIRE MIKE 2. HIRE MULLIN 3. PAY AVERY 4. FREE NATE!!!
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