Larry Brown is sick.
Larry Brown is always sick.
The people Michael Jordan had around Charlotte made him “sick.” The Knicks handling of Mike Woodson made him “sick.” The 76ers’ plan made him “sick.”
As a matter of fact, Philadelphia is still causing illness.
Brown, via Jon Marks of Sheridan Hoops:
If Brown were going to straighten out the 76ers, he better do it in five minutes – because that’s all he’d have until leaving for his next job.
Brown was egotistical at his best, including when he coached Philadelphia from 1997-2003. People put up with – and were even charmed by – his style, because he was a heck of a coach. He made his players better, and his teams won.
But the NBA game, in some ways, has passed Brown by. He still has plenty of coaching talent, but his resistance to new methods makes him sound increasingly out of touch. His call for Philadelphia to hire Allen Iverson, not a new cause, only furthers that perception. Iverson was a great player, one of the toughest in NBA history. But there’s little in Iverson’s game or record of professionalism that indicates he’d make a good addition to the front office. The long hours of evaluating talent and scoring through contact from bigger players require different skill sets.
Could Brown quickly make the 76ers better than they are right now? Probably. But so could Sam Hinkie. Hinkie chose not to in order to maximize Philadelphia’s chances of winning a championship down the road. It might have been a good plan. It might have been a bad plan. But it was the plan, and it required playing poorly now. Brown is too narrow-minded to see that or just likes complaining – or both.
And why the not-so-subtle campaigning for running the 76ers? Doesn’t Brown have another job he should be doing instead?
Oh.