Brown is packing - for Vegas

BY FRANK ISOLA
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Larry Brown's days - or is it months? - as Knicks coach may be numbered, but the club is making sure to keep his schedule as busy as possible.

Brown is expected to return to the MSG training facility in Greenburgh today, tomorrow and next week for another round of workouts for college prospects. Also, Brown likely will accompany the Knicks' summer league team to Las Vegas next month, although he will not coach the club made up of rookies, second-year players and veteran free agents. An assistant coach - probably Herb Williams - will run the team during games.

Rather than practice in New York, the Knicks will begin training in Las Vegas on July 2 and will remain in Sin City until the Vegas Summer League concludes on July 13.

That gives Brown and Knicks president Isiah Thomas 12 days of quality time. Maybe they will even start talking. Thomas has given Brown the silent treatment since reports surfaced last month that Garden chairman James Dolan is considering firing Brown and replacing him with Thomas.

Dolan and Thomas have declined to discuss Brown's status. The Knicks have neither confirmed nor denied that Brown will be replaced before the start of next season.

Their treatment of Brown is a far cry from last season when the Knicks rolled out the red carpet for the Hall of Fame coach. Dolan agreed to sign Brown to a $50 million contract over five years.

The Knicks were so thrilled to have landed him that Dolan agreed to ink Brown's three assistants to four-year contracts. Assistants normally receive a one- or two-year contract, but Dolan went out of his way to placate Brown by locking up Phil Ford, Dave Hanners and Brendan O'Connor for four years.

People close to Dolan say that he feels betrayed by Brown because the coach endorsed the trades for Jalen Rose and Steve Francis only to sour on both players soon after they arrived in New York.

Brown's relationship with Thomas began to deteriorate early in the season and got worse when the coach began to publicly criticize the players Thomas acquired. During an end-of-the-year meeting, Thomas told Brown he felt the coach had not done a good job, which only infuriated Brown.

Last week, Brown and Thomas attended the pre-draft camp in Orlando but never spoke. The Knicks were upset that Brown left the camp one day early, saying his early departure was not authorized.

However, Brown was one hour early to every morning and evening session. Also, not every coach attends the pre-draft camp. Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich did not attend while other coaches also left early.

ummmm, so is he the coach or not?

yep...At the beginning the press was all over dolan, but it seems they are beginning to give a more even handed account of both sides foibles.

Hey man, I have a feeling that LB will be back too. Give him another year and see if he can finish what he started, but to me, something just seems to be left hanging if we just let him go after a year.

Again, I am not a Larry Brown lover. In fact, I didn't even give a hoot when we signed him last Summer b/c I was still worried about the roster and still was angry about signing Jerome James.

But he needs to finish what he started. Lets see what the second year players and the Qs and Jamal and even Marbury can do under him in their second years under him. Isiah, do your job this summer and let LB do his and maybe we can clear up this mess a little bit. There's no more starting on clean slates. It's time to sweep up the ones you're on now, and this goes for LB and the players and assistant coaches and Dolan as well.

Posted by newyorknewyork:

What happend to the secret workout without Brown. First its a secret workout. Then they changed the story that Brown just didn't know about the workout and left early.

They went on with a theory about holding the secret workout to bring up how Brown left early when they negociate a buyout. And that may not turn out to be the case. Yet they stated it like it was a fact.

NYNY, when the rumor first started, I thought it was BS started by the media, but what got me was that Dolan, nor Isiah didn't crush the rumors. However, I am starting to think that this may be the case, and they simply don't want to even speak to the media b/c they know they'll take all their words and twist em'. I wonder if Brown was just f'ing around when he said he felt like he was a dead man walking as well. Silly w/o a doubt, but definitely something to consider.

i honestly think this is all publicity for the knicks. what better way to promote the next season for the knicks. i can see isiah and LB laughing at the media cuz theyre all eating this thing up.

Isiah : how bout tomorrow we dont talk to each other
LB: what? we pretend we dont know each other
Isiah: exactly the point
LB: what about Dolan's gig?
Isiah: we'll do that too
LB: i got a better idea. how bout we see each other outside the practice facility while i talk to the media. We'll accidentally bump to each other and you'll swerve ur car to the left and i'll swerve right ok?
Isiah : awesome idea coach!

Posted by rvhoss:

yep, I think Dolan's gag order is just what we needed to stop the constant speculation.

Brown will be back.

If its a gag order....what will make Brown shut up? Brown keeps making smart comments and stuff. If they wasn't going to fire him they should now. Brown is an *******.

Aside from that....if they keep Brown....The Knicks can't start the season with the players they have now. Brown showed that he hated every last one of those players. The minutes and even roles varied on a game to game basis. How many times in so many words did Brown say the players sucked?

I still think that they are gonna fire him and are just waiting till the last possible moment so Brown can't get another coaching job, at least at the start of next season.

Bip, this whole situation makes so little sense, I sincerely do believe now, that Brown will be back and a lot of this is just overhype by the media. Notice most of it is crap by the Post, the least credible Newspaper in the history of the planet. Why Dolan and Isiah haven't addressed this at all is beyond me, but I'm starting to think that they realize that talking to the NY media, no matter what equals trouble.

Now what?

Darius Miles

It would appear that both Isiah and Larry have gag orders. Isiah was very non committal last week in Orlando to say anything. He won't say anything! Just "shrugged" his shoulders.

Making his agent tell the press about the gag order was interesting.

Interesting club we have when the GM and Coach are not talking to anybody about anything.

Maybe we can ask Anucha.