Miracles, Manning, Five Fat Guys, and Larry Brown

There are many things to like about Larry Brown, but I want to go over one in particular which I first admired about him; he puts his neck on the line and takes chances rather than go for the conventional route, and just play it safe.

I first saw this in him about 15 years ago, when he was at Kansas. He had the definitine one man team, built around the best player in the country and little else ( only one player got a sniff at being a 1st round draft pick), and went into the tournament ranked something like 18 in the nation, and was not a top seed at all. Now remember this was before early entrants were all the rage, so there were some very deep, talented teams, and the ability to play zone made 1 man teams a virtual assurance of non contender status. This year was no different, and the Jayhawks were not expected to make much noise, despite having Danny Manning.

Now for those of you too young to remember Manning pre-knee injury, he was incredible. At the time he was called a cross between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, but that was not all that accurate, IMO. Understandable, though, because he was something new, something we are now more familiar with; a guy with pf height and almost point guard skills. Today there is a much more readily available comparison; Kevin Garnett, only Manning wasn't as tenacious on defense, but was a much, much better passer/playmaker, just slightly lower than Bird, and among the top 2 or 3 passing big men...ever. He was as complete a package as college basketball had seen in years, and a virtual lock to go no. 1.

So he plays amazing, a couple fo the top teams get knocked off, and Kansas finds itself in the Finals...against Oklahoma. The Sooners were just about as deep and talented a team as you'll ever see in college basketball, as something like 5 or 6 of their top 8 guys went on to be 1st round picks, many of the lottery variety. They had the nation's top point guard, in Mookie Blaylock, the Grant brothers who were among the best forwards in the NCAA, and a cast of others. Like many exceptionally deep, athletic, and talented teams, they played the running game, and they were damned good at it. In fact, if you line up each team's players, the Sooners blew out the Jayhawks at every single spot, all the way down to their bench...except one. The one thing the Sooners didn't have, nor anyone else for that matter, was a big man who could stay with Manning.

So the Finals come, everybody is expecting two things; an interesting matchup of styles,( as Kansas was a total 1/2 court team built around their big man ) and a complete blowout. I can't remember the exact line, but it was close to double figures. Kansas just didn't have the horses, and OU could simply run them off their feet, and zone Manning out of the game in the half court.KU had gotten through the tournament on Manning's ability to beat 2 men, or make incredible passes, but they hadn't faced a team with the number of exceptional athletes that OU had, and it was seen as an inevitability...each would play their game, but OU's superior talent and depth would wear KU down, eventually ending in a 10-15 point game, and a dud of a Finals.

Enter the genius of Larry Brown. Ninety-nine out of a hundred coaches dance with the one that brung them, take their chances, and go down fighting...not Brown. He did the one thing that no one in their right mind expected, and few could believe even as it was happeneing...you guessed it; he ran.

From the opening tip to the final buzzer, Kansas attacked Oklahoma on every possession...They ran off of misses, they ran off of makes...they just plain ran. Announcers were railing against Brown.." What does he think he's doing? He's playing right into Oklahoma's hands." The OU coach later admitted that he hadn't even considered the possibility as realistic, and was quite content to allow the Jayhawks to run themselves out of the game. Think of Minnesota, without Wally or anybody other than Garnett who is any good going up against Dallas or Sacramento in a one game series...and running at them. It was unbelievable. At halftime, in a close game, the analysts were debating how long until Kansas ran out of gas, not if but when, and wondering why Brown had decided to surrender the battle for styles to the Sooners rather than try and dictate a half court tempo more in their favor.

But that was just it...Brown saw two things, one which everyone else did, and one which no one else did. The first was that to try and play the conventional way; Play your game, try and slow it down, etc. was surrendering. There was no way that they could overconme the relative talent disparity, and if they played slow down, the Sooners could use their depth and athleticism to take Manning out of the game. But what he did see, which no one else would have, let alone had the courage to try, was that there was only one chance for kansas. Their strength lay in the fact that Manning was faster than any of OU's big men, and bigger than anyone they had who could stay with him...So if Brown did the unthinkable, and ran at a running team with a 1 man show,m that was the only way he could possibly prevent OU from setting up zones to take Manning out of the play. No way he could have done this for any stretch of games, as he would just wear down, but in a 1 game winner takes all, if manning has the game of his life, it might just work.

And it did. Manning played out of his mind, ( can't remember stats, but they were amazing) and was out in front of the OU big men all day, beating guards in the open court, and seemingly everywhere on the floor. People called it Danny Manning and the Miracles...and credit where it is due. But the thing that stuck out in my mind was the incredible insight of Larry Brown. To see what no one else saw, to do what no one else expected, and to take a chance which, should it fail, would have made him look foolish in the biggest game of the year...that, my friends, was coaching.

That's what Brown does...he sees what his teams strengths are, and he uses them as well as anyone in the game. He's not a Phil Jackson who comes to town with a system, and the players had better adapt. None of the many teams he has coached played all that similarly...San Antonio was 1/2 court, interior lanes, and big man breaks, etc...Indiana was all about phalanxes of picks for Reggie, and inside out with Smits...Philly was all about Iverson beating his man, and everyone else collapsing to the rim. He comes with a consistent philosophy; play hard, play smart, play defense, and play within the system...but the system itself is organic. That is why, IMO, he is the best coach in the game...

He also takes chances, as demonstrated above, and loves nothing more than taking them with challenging situations. People talk about his lack of NBA titles...Well, take a look at the kinds of teams he has gone to...He is, again, the opposite of Phil Jackson; He has historically taken on situations that others though of as no win situations, and won with them. He has never had talent like Kobe and Shaq, Scottie and Michael, or Hakeem and Clyde, etc. The time had had the most collective talent, in Indiana, he got them very deep when they hadnt done much before him. He has three times had one of the best players in the game; Iverson, Robinson, and Manning...He won it all with Manning, got Philly to the Finals, and had something like a 40 game turnaround with Robinson. In his very long career of taking on challenging situations, he has had 4, count em, 4 losing seasons...total.

I think it was Don Nelson who said that Brown could take 5 old fat guys and make them a winning team. While he's never tried that, to my knowledge, he's come pretty close. People often dismiss Phil Jackson's acomplishments because he has been where the talent was...That may or may not be fair, but if there is any truth to that, than surely Brown deserves some recognition for doing the opposite. If you want to do something educational, and feel like digging through records, about Brown, take a look at the records of the teams he takes over before he gets there, and after. If abyone wants to post that here I'd really appreciate it.

Brown is not perfect...but he's as close in a coach as we're ever likely to see. Just to sit back and watch the system he comes up with to best use Steve and Yao itself will be worth the price of admission.

 

I respect your basketball acumen...but are you serious?

 

Oh, geez...How could I forget Stacey King...he finished something like 2nd or 3rd in the NCAA Player of the Year, and was an All-American, and went in the top 5 or 10 in the draft...and Blaylock went in the same range, as did Horace Grant..and Harvet Grant...it was an awesome team. HP might be right about Pinckney beating Georgetown for sheer inbalance of the talent of their top players, but for depth of talent and incompatibility of styles favoring one team this was as big as it gets.

Also I think he had something like 9 or 10 assists, and about 3 or 4 blocks.

So that's 31 points...18 rebounds..say 9 assists...3 blocks...5 steals...in college ( final score was 83-79 )...Not a bad day's work, no? Ranks with Walton as the single most dominat performances in tourney history.

 

Not till he's hired. I'll be thinking about it till then.

 

So we can tell three things from this list...

1) He takes on losing teams...The average season for the team the year before he takes over is 29-52.

2) He makes a positive impact immediately...the average record of the teams the year Brown takes over is 38-45, or an average 9 game improvement...on some very, very bad teams.

3) He has 4 losing seasons in his career...and 2 of them are with these terrible teams, Philly and San Antonio...and the next year he had San Antonio over 50 wins, and he got Philly to the Finals. Lesson: He makes winning happen.