Why should we be upset? If it were my money, I'd have to think twice and re-evaluate the situation. Has LB ever won in the NBA finals? NO. Have Pat Riley and Phil Jackson won? Yes. I would rather spend on someone who is a proven winner. Kind of like going to a used car lot and paying $10k for a Pinto when you know they never sold for that much.
Yes Larry Brown has not won an NBA championship. But who was the best coach available? In fact where does Larry Brown rank amongst all active coaches? It's pretty much a given that he was the best coach available and I'd say just about anyone in the league would say he's one of the top 5 coaches in the league today.
hiring a coach is essentially a negotiation. now go back through the Chronicle archives over the last 10 years, look up what sort of things the people Judas Alexander negotiates with have to say about him, then come back and read Batman Jones' inital post in this thread, and you'll know everything you need to know about why this hiring has been cocked up as badly as the firing was. getting hired by Judas means having to work for Judas. and there's not such a long line for that.
I apologize if my comment is an iteration of what has already been said, I'm just to lazy to scramble through all the posts in this thread. I give a hand to anyone who already posted what I'm about to say. Brown choice to take the Detroit job suggests a couple of things: 1. <B>Does not care about winning championships.</B> Lets face it, it's much easier to plow through the East then the West. It is clear; the Rockets are a better team or just as good as any team in the East. Considering the Pistons got dismantled by Nets and almost lost to the Magic, I think it is safe to assume Rockets are the better team. 2. <B>Does not want to take on a challenge</B> I have said this in prior posts before. It is easier to coach in the East than in the West. A team in the East can become substantially better by adding another star player or a great role player. In the west, it's a prerequisite to have talent, it's how you put the talent together and coach the talent which is going to separate the good teams in the west from the elite teams. Conclusion: Browns decision to coach the Pistons, makes me believe he was not the right guy for the Rockets. I had a feeling he was going to take that job or the Washington Job. He wasn't coming out West. So, the Rockets need someone who likes challenges, someone whose goal isn't to win the Leastern Conference and put up a pathetic Eastern Conference Championship Banner. I'm glad to see the real contenders are still available.
oh well, i see another ringless great coach.. even if his team is a finals bound in the east, they cant win a championship against powerhouse teams on the west like the lakers, kings, mavs, spurs, rockets.. i feel so sorry for LB. oh well, money really changes every man's decision.. bring on whoever is left on the coaching list..
thanks, clutch. "yoda man." anyway... like i've been saying all along, "screw brown". of course the f'er has to look out for his family, but the whole "monetary" thing shows where his priorities are. hasn't he seen that movie, "can't buy me love"? well... money can't buy him a championship either... especially in the leastern conference. don't fret people. at the end of five years he'll be the one with egg on his face. congrats on the new job, larry... loser.
I don't believe that there is a coach 'out there' who will 'sell' 2000 season tix -- until he is winning 50+ games in an upbeat, exciting way. Had Brown come or if JVG comes or if Dunleavy (please, NO) comes the ticket sales would have been pretty even. If any coach can 'bring' a desirable player or two, that player will help inflate ticket sales. Mostly after he helps win an additional 10+ games and makes the team more watchable and exciting.
Totally agree. I'm surprised this is becoming a "Brown, who need him thread?" I'm less upset about Brown than I am about Alexander not agressively pursuing his #1 choice and not comprehending what an important decision this will be. The whole "I'll take any of these guys" non-chalance coming from CD and Alexander is disgusting. There are important differences between Brown, Van Gundy and Dunleavy. And now we have to wonder if Les will offer enough money to get any of those guys.
Cleveland allegedly wanted Van Gundy to "guarantee" x number of minutes of playing time to "King James" and that's when he bailed out.
who wouldnt?! that would be disastrous coz if the team wants more than 20 minutes time for james, this team will collapse.. he is a highschool kid who havent got a taste for the "real" basketball.. i mean, james is an awesome player! i believe he will be a name to be reckoned with in due time.. but, its still too early to do that to him.. kobe, kg, amare havent got that kind of treatment..
If thats true I would have too. No way do I make a promise that this 18 year old kid will get something like 30 minutes a game. He's got all the potential but every case is different. He may need a year to get acclimated to the NBA and forcing him to play when he isn't ready is dangerous to his development. If he gets schooled repeatedly but the coach can't take him out even for his own protection you could really damage his confidence. Reminds me of all those movies where they throw a rookie out there and he crashes and burns right away. ONLY in hollywood do they always turn into a true star by the end of the season.
I haven't finished the thread, but this makes too much sense to not add my 2 cents. This is exactly what we should do, and god help us if we end up with Dunleavy or Van Gundy. Man, I am so bummed. MacBeth and Batman and several others have said what I would have tried to. Les SO blew this thing. There are little bits and pieces still flying around. Great article, as always Clutch. Damn, I'm shocked at how things are playing out. If we end up with Van Gundy or Dunleavy, I'm going to feel like we got the scraps off the table you give to the dog. Damn, what a ****-up.
This is in response to Batman Jones' earlier post... Dude, you are WAY off base. You have been blinded by the "Larry Brown is the greatest coach ever" BS. By now the facts should be clear to anyone that LB was not interested in the Rockets, Cleveland or the Wizards - that he only used them as a smokescreen while he was negotiating under the table with Detroit. It's obvious that LB and Detroit had been talking long before last week. Remember, Detroit didn't bother to fire RC until LB "agreed" to come to Detroit. As for the money question, I'm leaning toward the explanation that Rudy T ACTUALLY steeped down on his own as Uncle Les is not the sort of fellow to eat $12 million. With LB's new deal in the $5-$8 million neighborhood, that's an awful lot of lettuce to spend on the coaching position - particularly for a nomad like LB who will be gone in 3-4 years if he doesn't win the NBA Championship.
Hillboy, due respect and all, but it is you who is way off base. On both counts. We know for a fact that Larry Brown was Les' first choice. We know this. This isn't about whether or not he was the best choice -- only that Les failed to seal the deal with HIS first choice. Meanwhile, he blew off Silas and Rivers and others because he truly thought he was going to get him and didn't have to try that hard to do it. He miscalculated and now he's paying for it, plain and simple. On the Rudy thing which is even easier to dismantle, if Rudy truly had stepped down on his own there would have been no need for a buyout. You don't get to quit on a contract and still keep the money. The only reason for a buyout is if he was pushed. Which he was.
No arguement here, however Brown may have had his own ideas about which was the better job. Reportedly a deal was on the table and he didn't take it, the suddeness of the Detroit situation seems a bit too convienent to me. It is possible that Det and Brown were already talking and Brown used the rockets as a negotiating point. Rivers blew off the Rockets, not the other way around. He declined to speak with Les. I don't think there is any question that Rudy was nudged out of the job. But it really was best for both Rudy and the team. This group needed a change and it needed it now. The offense has been stagnant for years and we've got to see if fresh blood can make the change. Its the only way to prove that all the haters are wrong about our guards.
We don't have all the facts yet, perhaps never will. But there're some things about Larry Brown we can pretty much infer from all this mess. 1. Detroit wouldn't have fired Carlisle if they weren't sure they could get Brown. Otherwise, they would be very very very stupid. I don't see them as so stupid. That being the case, they must have talked to Brown and had at least a verbal agreement with him. Thus, we can further infer that: 2. Brown's priority is money. Confirmed by Clutch's source. 3. Brown is a hypocrite. He knowingly got a guy fired, who wouldn't have been fired otherwise, BECAUSE THAT WOULD GET HIM MORE MONEY! And he pretended to still considering the Rockets' job. And he pretended to be so ethical as not to talk with the Wizards when their coach was still on board. I don't care how good a coach he is. I don't want him. Being a fan is not just about winning. Being a fan is also about being a part of a family. The coach is like the parent to the family. I can handle some bad characters among my brothers (players). Having a parent who is a prick is a totally different matter. I thought I'd vented. Now I've REALLY vented. Whew.
Titan: I agree with you about Rudy. On Brown: If he'd been secretly negotiating with Detroit, why did he quit right after Rudy did instead of after Carlisle did? He actually rushed his announcement to coincide with Rudy's rushed announcement. He absolutely was considering the Rockets and I believe he thought it'd be a good fit. I don't find him blameless in it not working out, but I have a hard time believing we couldn't afford to pay him less than Rudy was making. And if that's the case, why are we even interviewing top tier coaches? I sincerely believe -- and everything I've heard backs it up -- that LB didn't even meet with Detroit. They just called up and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Meanwhile, Les was trying to play hardball. On Rivers: I don't have anything to back it up, but I disagree with you. Yes, officially, Rivers blew us off, but why wouldn't he? He had every reason to believe he was fourth on our list and that he probably wasn't going to move up. And he was right. With both him and Silas, Les and CD requested interviews knowing all the while Brown was their goal. Why would he mess with Orlando if he wasn't a serious candidate? Easy: If Brown's priority was money, why wouldn't he stay in Philly? He was making more there. He's taking a paycut to go to Detroit.
I am not really sure that Brown REALLY wanted to come here, perhaps he used us for negotiation purposes. I have a feeling that Dumars was in contact with Brown way early on this. I initially thought that LB really wanted to come here, given the timing of his quitting the 76ers, but I now think that perhaps Dumars contacted him early, can you say tampering? Why else would you fire a guy that has won 50 something games 2 years in a row plus just took a mediocre team to the conference finals? That is way too ballsy a move.
