To Larry Brown; The word on the wind is that your choice comes down to Houston or Detroit. If this is the case, I write you in the hopes of persuading you to make the best choice. Detroit is a fine organization, and may even be a decent city when the downtown is refurbished, so this should not be construed as a criticism of The Motor City. This is about you, Larry, and about your legacy. I know, I know...it's a little early in the day to be thinking about legacy. After all, you are still on the shy side of retirement age, and there are so many mountains to climb. But that's just it, Larry. You are a mountain climber, always have been. Detroit isn't for you...it's for the likes of Phil Jackson; an easy plumb to pick. It made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, and is about to add a franchise player via the draft. Larry, who couldn't coach that team? Oh, aside from Rick Carlise, clearly. That's another point, Larry. I am a big fan of Mr. Dumars, but look at the the way the last coach left in Houston vs. in Detroit. Ever heard the old adage about future wives: Before you pop the question, make sure you meet the mother, because that's who you'll be with in a few years. Well, I don't know if that's all that true, but it might be even more accurate about job vacancies. Houston suffered through 4 losing seasons before finally gently nudging Rudy T upstairs, at least in part out of concern for his health. Detroit fired a guy who somehow coaxed back to back stellar seasons out of a less than stellar cast. I don't know if it was a bad decision, Larry, but it might give you pause for thought. But we come back to legacy and mountains...The Detroit one is more of a hill, and another guy, Carlisle, has already nearly climed it. It's seen as a soft touch, and Carlisle has already performed a Larry Brown Special there. Best case scenario; you win a few rings, but are seen to have taken an already 50 win team over the top while adding a star player for nothing. Is that really the kind of mountain you want to be your last? But now, Larry, cast your eye a little farther South and West...if the warmer winds don't blur your vision, you will see a Texas sized mountain to climb...oh, that's if the 7-5 future star of the NBA doesn't loom too large in the way. Yeah, Larry...think about Yao. Great guy, great sense of the game, great skills, great size...and Larry, he's dying to learn. Wouldn't that be a breath of fresh air? Not that there aren't other guys to mould in Houston...Steve Francis is a bit like your last pet project, but without much of the excess baggage, and oh, he loves practice. A regular gym rat...he just needs the right hand at the helm, Larry, and that's you. The guy Shaq says is going to be The Man when he retires, a gentler, kinder Iverson, and the chance to leave a real imprint on the game rather than just take the last step for an organization already just about there. Both teams have huge upsides, Larry, but one of them seesm like it would be a lot more fun, a lot more of a challenge, and would leave the game with little doubt about your legacy. Ted Williams went out with a homer, and left few in doubt about his standing among the great hitters of history. Would it have been as big a moment, or as indicative of his stature if he'd hit it in batting practice? Take the bigger challenge, Larry, with the bigger upside. Leave the easy touches to the kind of coaches who need them. Kindest Wishes; A Basketball Fan.
Someone please forward this to Larry Brown! Well I don't know. Joe Dumars fired a very very very good coach. Why would he fire that very very very coach? Of course...to get Larry Brown. That's the only guy he wants. Joe and Larry must have discussed...not tampering. Joe Dumars wants Larry Brown. They must have agreed on something. If Larry Brown comes here.....then the Pistons are screwed! Larry is going to Detroit.
Dear Larry, Guess what ? We just found out a better coach is available. He beat your team in the playoffs this year. Bye.
haha if it werent for ESPN professional journalism, all wed know is brown is still making his decision. hes an awesome coach and who knows? he still might pick houston... gotta have faith that the guys upstairs can get it done.
You do realize it was the AP that first reported that Larry accepted the Detroit job. ESPN was the first to refuted that saying it was incorrect.
I'm not so sure Larry Brown is a "mountain climber" by choice. Has he ever passed up a "soft touch" for a more challenging job? I'm not sure, I'm just asking. It won't surprise me when they annouce he's taking the Detroit job, because why wouldn't he? If he really wants a shot at a ring, why not go to a team that he should be able to take to the finals every year and hope for the western conference teams to beat each other up and take the east lightly? I'm sure that MANY other coaches would love to be like Phil Jackson, it's just that not everyone can just get the "plum" jobs like that. Larry has worked his whole career towards being able to do something like this, and now that he's built up his name enough, he's going to take what he thinks is the easier job and try to get his ring. This whole "waiting until Monday to decide" is bs, if you ask me, I think it's just to lessen public outrage over the handling of the Carlisle situtation. I was for Brown, but now I'm for Carlisle, even if Brown wanted to come. I think that, of ALL the prospects (including brown), Carlisle is the best fit. So as has already been said, Man, f*** Larry. Let's hire Carlisle.
Question: Why is Larry Brown the bad guy in this, or jerking us around? According to almost every report, he made it very clear that he was very interested...and we said we'd get back to him. Now I'm not saying that we were jerking him around; before the Detroit situation opened up, we were, from all accounts, his only real consideration. So I suppose it's defensible that we took our time. But you win some, you lose some, and Dumars saw an opportunity and didn't wait. So maybe you say good move Joe D, or bad move Joe D for firing a quality coach...but why is Brown guilty by assosciation? So because we give Brown an interview, he is supposed to wait around while we make up our minds, pass on all other jobs, even as ones ( arguably ) almost as good, or he's a jerk? He's playing us? Where is this information coming from? The only way I think he's a jerk is if he had no interest in us, but used us to leverage other teams...and I don't see how that happened here. At most he turned us down because he prefered another team. People in here are suggesting that they'd prefer other coaches, so does that make us jerks? Are we the only ones allowed to explore/make other choices?
First of all apparently we made an offer to Larry for the job. So it wasn't as if we expected him to wait around. He wasn't waiting on anything, the offer was made. But that doesn't make a Larry jerk, and he might not be. But he could be. Larry Brown is the jerk in this if he had a deal worked out with Detroit and didn't let us know. Larry Brown is the jerk in this if he made the agreement not to coach in the east. Larry Brown is the jerk in this if he knew something might happen with Detroit but used us to hike up the Pistons contract bid. Larry Brown is a jerk in this if he still wants to play for us but got Detroit involved to increase our bid. This is especially true if Joe Dumars eneded up firing Rick Carlisle and Brown knew he was coming to Houston all along. In any of these scenarios Larry Brown is a jerk. Of course, none of them could be true.
before I start, realize that this is nothing personal, I'm just frustrated with what (in my opinion) is a series of events that are screwing with my team. That said.. Wake up, man. Look, I can't speak for others, but the implication is that, when Dumars fired Carlisle, he already had a tacit agreement in place with his replacement. why the hell would he fire him otherwise? He's smarter than that. What this would mean is that Brown agreed to something before Carlisle was fired. At the latest, this would have been Friday, but we all know that there would have to have been substantial talks before any agreements- again, Dumars would be cautious when faced with the prospect of firing carlisle- we've all been over his resume. Brown said he wasn't interested in the Wizards job publicly because of respect for doug collins. Does this mean that he privately talked to Pollin about the job, but was trying to save face in public? It seems like he was talking to Dumars before Carlisle was fired. but that's ok, because it wasn't public, right? Of course, it could be said that Dumars just decided to fire Carlisle and hope for the best. Somehow, I doubt it. So now, assuming that Larry had been talking to Dumars for a while before Carlisle's firing, does this scenario seem totally unreasonable: Dumars: Hey Larry, i fired Rick. Are we ready to sign that contract? Five and a half million per, right? Brown: Actually, Joe, it seems the rockets are really interested in me. did you read ESPN? I'm their number one choice. I'm having second thoughts.. Dumars: Ok, how about we raise the price to 6.5 million a year? Brown: Have I mentioned how much I love Yao Ming? so much upside.. Dumars: Ok, how about 8 million? Brown: Well, I need to think about it over the weekend.. scene.. Of course, this smacks of conspiracy theory. the truth may be somewhere in the middle. All I know is that this whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth, whether that's fair or not.
Well...most think Rudy was fired behind the scenes. So why didn't the Rockets say that they FIRED Rudy and are trying very hard to get Larry Brown??????? Instead....of covering everything up and trying to like....... Well Larry Brown isn't instant championship either. Any of the coaches available would be decent. 1. Rick Carlisle 2. Jeff Van Gundy 3. Paul Silas 4. Mike Dunleavy 5. Mike Fratello 6. Kenny Smith The ones I wish for...Phil Jackson, Gregg Poppovich, Rick Adelman, Don Nelson, or Pat Riley.
