Larry Brown ponders retirement…or maybe a new start

Yeah IMO I would take Larry Brown over Jeff Van Gundy.Plus Larry Brown has said how much he likes this Houston team.

 

With Brown under contract, the Sixers would have to give permission for him to interview. I am thinking that if he tells Philly he is "retiring", they won't be too eager to release him.

I would be more excited about this news if/when Larry Brown leaves, it is done via a buyout.

 

there's no point in hiring brown. brown is not as good a defensive coach as jeff van gundy. if you're going to consider brown, you might as well consider silas, former new orleans coach.

 

IMO, Larry Brown is as good or better than any coach in the game.

 

Larry Brown is the perfect man to teach Steve and Yao, teach the team fundementals, and implement a real system of play. He is exactly what this team needs. Then, in 4-5 years, he can retire, and Steve and Yao will be mature enough for a Rudy type. Actually, those two may be done early, if Yao burns out from Chinese ball and Steve destroys his body. The time to move is now. We need to get the most out of these guys in a hurry. Rudy isn't going to do it. He'll keep looking for the players to give HIM the answers, rather than the other way around. Les, work the phones. Get Brown now.

 

Brown has alot of respect for Rudy. He also was an assistant to Rudy before. I could see if he wanted a change and a good team to start with he could come and be the head asst. coach. He is a great defensive coach and would bring discipline. When its time to fire Rudy or let him go upstairs, we would already have his replacement who knows the team. This could happen as soon as the halfway point of next season. This could be a smooth transition if the team underachives. It could also pay dividens having two really good head coaches with diff. strongpoints.
I like Brown's track record of taking a bad team and making them better all the way to the finals. Gundy only kept a decent team decent.

 

If Larry Brown is the coach next year and with the roster changes expected this pff-season, I bet the Rockets are no lower than the 6th seed for the playoffs next year. With Van Gundy as the coach, the Rockets will still make the playoffs, maybe a 7 seed.
With Rudy, I am not too sure.

Regardless, all of this is moot. So far, all indications are that Rudy will still be the coach next year.

 

Larry Brown is a great coach.

Look at how he has used Kenny Thomas.

Much better than we did.

Look at his team. All he has is Allen Iverson. The rest of the team is average.

He is one of the best coaches ever.

He knows how to handle stars....and knows how to use Francis like Iverson.

It would be great and miraculous if he quit his job in Philly and joined us. That would be the greatest thing ever.

 

It would definitely be excellent to get a coach who has coached the most succesful converted PG in the league, as well as Rik Smits.

I'd love to see a mixture of Allen Iverson and Reggie Miller sets being called for Francis. Francis is a better shooter than Iverson and much much quicker than Reggie. I think Brown could use him well.

Also, it would be interesting to see how he'd implement Yao Ming into it with all his experience, and the added bonus that we'll be VERY hardworking is just cherry topping.

If Larry Brown were available to us, and Les doesn't go for it, I'd definitely be pissed.

 

What? I think philly is a pretty good defensive team. Maybe they have just good defensive players.

 

which would you rather have? pat riley or larry brown? i'd take pat riley anyday. his teams have always been known for playing tough defense. while larry brown isn't a bad defensive coach; he doesn't have a reputation for being a great defensive coach, which van gundy does(known to have same defensive strategy as riley, his teams have never given up and if i'm not mistaken always made the playoffs even when they sucked, they never gave up, he instills the attitude that you need to play for your pride.). brown's sixers are a decent defensive team because of iverson's speed and ability to steal the ball. but brown isn't really that good at discipline. if i remember correctly, he couldn't even get iverson to practice. another soft coach isn't what the rockets need. van gundy shows heart. when there's a fight with the opposing team, he even participates. and van gundy's teams used to beat brown's pacers to the nba finals all the time.
van gundy's teams also never had any real superstars. if he had the opportunity to coach a team with two of the game's premier stars, i think he could make a real championship impact.

 

Larry Brown is one of the best if not the best.
Please hire him, Les.

 

Larry Brown is one the best coach in the NBA. JVG and Silas are way behind Brown, this is a mismatch.

 

Pat Reily's system is not working in NBA right now, and his pushy work ethic style really stinks. IMO, worst coach in NBA now.

 

Larry Brown is one of the best.
I need two posts to say how good he is!!!!!
He's old.....
But he's great!!!!!
Look at his team.
Eric Snow...who is all right.
Kenny Thomas? Well now he's like 15 rebounds per game crazy.
Derrick Coleman?
And he doesn't even have a center!!! He's undersized...
He has a very nice system and it works...and his team is not that talented.
If he coached the Rockets.......imagine.
But it won't happen. I still believe in Rudy anyways!

 

If we could get Larry Brown this off-season, that would be HUGE. According to this article, he took the LA Clippers to the playoffs! Twice! (I only remember the series against Houston, when they met in the first round, and Hou won 3-2.) Only 3 losing seasons since 1976. Has taken Denver, NJ, LAC, Spurs, Pacers, and Sixers to the playoffs.

http://www.nba.com/coachfile/larry_brown/

While Larry Brown has carved his own special niche in 76ers history in only five short seasons, it was his 30-year "body of work" as a college and professional head coach that earned him enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's Class of 2002. Brown's resume includes three ABA Coach of the Year awards, the 2001 NBA Coach of the Year honor, a trip to the 2001 NBA Finals and a 1988 NCAA championship.

Brown, who has posted a winning record in 26 of his 30 seasons as a professional head coach or collegiate head coach, has compiled a 1,237-819 (.602) career record. In his 19 seasons in the NBA, he has an 831-651 (.561) record. He enters the 2002-03 season needing just two victories to move past Cotton Fitzsimmons (832) into eighth place and 34 victories to pass Jack Ramsay (864) in seventh.

After being hired on May 5, 1997, as the 17th head coach in Philadelphia franchise history, Brown recorded his first victory as head coach of the Sixers on Nov. 12, 1997 in Houston. In his first year, he led the Sixers to a nine-win improvement, tying the seventh best single-season improvement in team history and led the franchise to its most victories in six years. In 1998-99, he guided the Sixers to their first winning season since 1990-91 as well as to the NBA Playoffs, becoming the first coach in NBA history to guide six different franchises to the playoffs. He followed that with a second-consecutive playoff appearance in 1999-2000. Brown, who also serves as the 76ers vice president of basketball operations, signed a multi-year contract with the Sixers on March 24, 2000.

2000-01 was a milestone season for Brown and the Sixers, as the team recorded its best year in nearly two decades. Brown led the 76ers to 56 wins, the most for the franchise since 1984-85 and helped tie him for his best NBA winning percentage (San Antonio, 1989-90, .683) as a coach. On April 6, he passed Gene Shue (784) for ninth place on the all-time NBA coaching victory chart. On the same night, the Sixers clinched the Atlantic Division crown for the first time since 1989-90. The next game on April 9, he led Philadelphia to the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Individually, the 2000-01 campaign was certainly one of Brown's best: he was named the NBA's Coach of the Year and made a trip to the NBA Finals, the first such accomplishments in his then 18 years as an NBA coach.

Additional honors for Brown in 2001 included being named the NBA's IBM Coach of the Month for November, his third such honor (February 1994 with Indiana and March 1992 with the LA Clippers). He was the Eastern Conference head coach in the 2001 All-Star Game and guided the East All-Stars to a come-from-behind win, while Allen Iverson was named the game's MVP award. Brown was also selected as a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Hustle and defense are trademarks of a Larry Brown-coached team. Traditionally, his teams are unselfish and come to compete every night. In the NBA, he has finished first in his division six times (1976-77 and 1977-78 with Denver; 1989-90 and 1990-91 with San Antonio; 1994-95 with Indiana; and 2000-01 with Philadelphia).

Prior to joining the Sixers, the 61-year-old Brown spent four seasons as head coach of the Indiana Pacers, (1993 to 1997) compiling a record of 190-138 (.579). The Pacers' all-time winningest NBA coach, he took the team to the playoffs three times, including the Eastern Conference Finals twice. Before joining Indiana, Brown was the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs. He took the Spurs to the postseason twice (1990 and 1991) and the Clippers twice (1992 and 1993).

Brown spent four seasons in the ABA, earning Coach of the Year honors three times. After two seasons each with Carolina and Denver, Brown returned to the college ranks in 1979 as head coach at UCLA. The Bruins went to the national championship game in Brown's first year as coach. After a two-year stint as coach of the New Jersey Nets (1981-83), Brown would spend the next five years as head coach at the University of Kansas, where he won the national championship in 1988.

As a coach, Brown draws on his playing days where he was a member of the 1964 gold medal U.S. Olympic basketball team. In the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, Brown added another honor to his resume as an assistant coach on the gold medal Team USA. He is the only U.S. male to both play and coach in the Olympics. The three-time ABA All-Star holds the ABA record with 23 assists in a game and was the Most Valuable Player of the ABA All-Star Game in 1968.

Brown and his wife, Shelly, reside in Suburban Philadelphia with their daughter, Madison (5), and son, L.J. (8). The avid golfer also has three daughters, Kristen, Alli and Melissa. LA Clippers LA Clippers