Posted by playa2:

great cover

ROFL! Look at the size ratio of Isiah's and Brown's faces!

Larry Brown: Still go-to guy - for advice

Celtics coach Doc Rivers and Sixers coach Mo Cheeks will seek him out.

By Marc Narducci
Inquirer Staff Writer

UNCASVILLE, Conn. - It began with an innocuous comment that eventually turned into a job offer, one that would have lured 76ers executive vice president Larry Brown away from Philadelphia.
Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers thought he was close to hiring Brown as an assistant before finally being turned down in the summer. He had first broached the subject with Brown in early July.
"We were talking in general, and I threw it out there and hadn't given it any thought to that point," Rivers said last night before the Sixers got their first preseason victory with a 96-78 win over the Celtics at the Mohegan Sun Arena. "When I mentioned it, he stopped talking, which was good."
Brown has declined to comment about the situation, but Rivers was more than happy to shed light on it.
"It was close," he said.
Brown and Rivers talked repeatedly about the job after their initial discussion.
"You know Larry - he will change his mind every 10 minutes," Rivers said. "One day we'd golf and he's doing it, and the next day he wasn't. I gave him time."
Rivers' relationship with Brown began in the 1991-92 season. He was the point guard and Brown the head coach of a Los Angeles Clippers team that made the playoffs.
"We have had a great relationship since he was a coach of mine, which is rare, because most people after they coached me didn't," Rivers said, laughing.
Rivers said he even asked his assistant coaches whether they would have a problem if Brown came aboard. All the assistants were enthusiastic about the idea, he said.
According to Rivers, Brown didn't want to leave the Philadelphia area, where he now lives with his family.
"The whole thing was he was going to leave his wife and kids back home and he has done that before, and at his age and what he has made, he really couldn't justify doing it," Rivers said. "And he was right. But I thought he still might do it because he loves coaching."
It takes a secure head coach to offer a Hall of Fame coach a job as an assistant.
"As a coach, your job is to get whoever you can who can help your team win, and if you are insecure about who you are hiring, you're probably not the right coach," Rivers said.
Just as secure is Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks. While many outside the organization have painted Brown as a coach-in-waiting, Cheeks has sought his advice. "There are things he knows I don't know," Cheeks said. "I seek out things from him and look forward to talking to him because he is a knowledgeable guy."



[Edited by - playa2 on 23-11-2007 13:36]