More on Larry Brown
I thought that I was done writing about Larry Brown, but that was before reporters started condemning him because reporters are running unsubstantiated, anonymous rumors about Brown, and the reporters are bashing Brown for being the subject of the rumors. (Gee, that seems fair.) Which puts this in my anonymous-sources-are-evil file.
If reports that Larry Brown was leaving Detroit at the end of the season so "distracted" Pistons players that it cost them game 3, did the same distractions lead them to dominating the Heat in game 4 for the entire 48 minutes? Just curious. I would think, if anything, the thought they might lose Larry Brown would concentrate the mind. IF he goes, and we only have the alleged word of people who aren't honest enough to say who they are, then the Pistons aren't going to get a better coach. And they might (easily) get deeper, but their starting five would be hard to improve upon. They have a chance to repeat. Their chance to win next season is unlikely to be greater.
Larry Brown has long been hated by most sportswriters, many of whom believe, deep down, they could coach as well as the coaches in the league. But Brown has won college and pro championships, and coached 7 of the 30 NBA teams along with college teams, and in every case immediately made the team he coached significantly better. One source of their resentment is that the writers' delusions dissolve when held against Brown's lofty standard. Also, Brown has never been fired. Their seems to be a feeling that in an age where most of the players are free to move in pursuit of a better opportunity, pro basketball coaches should stay where they are until they're fired.
The other modern "geniuses" in the NBA are Pat Riley...but Pat Riley quit coaching the Miami Heat after a disastrous start last season (and if he had coached the team the rest of the year the way he started, he WOULD have gotten fired), but when Stan Gundy took over the team and put them in the playoffs it quickly became apparent that the Heat weren't bad, Pat Riley had just led them badly...and Phil Jackson, who got fired by the Lakers last season after getting swept in the finals by Larry Brown and the Detroit Pistons.
Larry Brown is the best.
People are saying Brown should rule out the GM job at Cleveland (to end the distractions created by either deceitful reporters or contemptible anonymous sources, and it's anyone's guess which), but Larry Brown's health, which he has endangered by coaching all year instead of having operations on a timely basis, may preclude him coaching next year...while he could still do the less physically demanding job of running a franchise. And the Cleveland Cavs job is one of the best in the league as long as they can keep LeBron James. It would be asinine for him to rule out the job before he knows if he'll be able to coach.
10:47:13 AM 
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