I'm not so sure about that.

With Brown you always took the bad with the good. I think he is the same "X's" & "O's" guy, but maybe with age and success he has become more full of himself...to the point where the bad now heavily outweighs the good.

The guy won a championship with the Pistons. (I believe he credits himself in his mind...IMO, Sheed was actually the piece that made the team greater than the Carlisle teams) Compare the records before Sheed arrived.

The guy always had an ego, but maybe now it's way out of check. He wins an NBA championship and then gets a ridiculous contract to coach his dream team in a city teeming with media (he loves the spotlight). Did this go to his already big head? Yes, I think it overloaded.

I do believe he HAS changed (for the worse), and is now pretty much intolerable and ineffective. Yeah, I think Isiah stinks as a GM and ownership deserves equal blame. But we are talking about Larry, and if he did what Phil Jackson is doing, I believe a lot of people would be saying what a genius he is and how dumb the Pistons were for letting him go.

I'm with TFD on this one (Did I really say that?). I enjoy watching Larry and the city of New York fail miserably and point the fingers of blame.

Personally, I cannot stand Phil Jackson, either, but I do believe he is an excellent coach...much more effective than Brown.

The best coach in the NBA? Popovich, IMO. He has Brown's knowledge of the game and a fantastic rapport with his players. He keeps them disciplined yet they like and respect the guy. He doesn't point fingers or take credit for his players accomplishments.

I loved Larry's comments last year when Sheed blew the Horry game..."It's my fault, I told him a hundred times, but I should have told him more until he got it, that's a coaches job..." (That's not an exact quote, but it was something like that). Well, wasn't he really saying..."How many times do I need to tell that dumbass what to do?..it ain't my fault". (No, Larry...it was not your fault...but did you really have to make that comment to blame the guy under the guise of protecting him?)

Popovich is Luke Skywalker to Larry's Darth Vader. Larry succumbed to the powers of the Dark side. His strengths are no longer used for good, and are now a destructive force to teams... especially those already weak of mind and talent like the Knicks. The bad has overshadowed the good.

__________________
"Quite simply captain, I examined the problem from all angles, and it was plainly hopeless. Logic informed me that under the circumstances, the only logical action would have to be one of desperation. Logical decision, logically arrived at." -- Spock

It's amazing that the Pistons made the playoffs last year with LB coaching.

You said it, Darth. The above is quintessential lb.4lb.

Here are the actual quotes, from the Finals media availabilty pressers. I don't see once in there where he put it on Sheed or implied that it was all the player's fault.

I'm always big on getting the actual quote and not paraphrasing from memory. It's too easy to unintentionally spin something with personal perception, and when it's just a google search away, why not aim for accuracy.

Q. The defense on the play that they inbounded with nine seconds left, was Sheed supposed to trap on that play? What happened on the play?

COACH LARRY BROWN: I guess there was miscommunication, but ultimately it's on me. You know, we talked about what we wanted to do, and he made a shot, made a great shot.

After it was over, we still had a chance. We're down one, we had 5.5 seconds. But up two with nine seconds to go, you talk about the things all year that you want to accomplish, and unfortunately we had a little miscommunication. You know, if everybody gets it, then you know you don't get in that situation. If everybody doesn't, it ultimately falls on me, so obviously we didn't get it.

Q. Coach, how big of a challenge is it now to go into San Antonio and winning those two games?

COACH LARRY BROWN: I have to get over this one. This was tough. We had a great opportunity. One, it was a heck of a game, and you've got to give them credit. Robert made some huge shots when they needed it. They defended great and did a lot of good things.

It's the kind of game you hate to see anybody lose, so we've got to just bounce back. We haven't won down there in a long time. We've got to figure out a way to realize that we've got to make it a one game series.

Q. Robert Horry so many times in his career has come up big in the playoffs, can you talk about his energy and the spark that he provide for the Spurs team?

COACH LARRY BROWN: Well, he made five out of six threes and made a big drive late. He did everything. He defended well. That's why I think he has five rings. He's a big time player. In moments like that, that's the difference. I have a lot of respect for that team and him, and what he's been able to do throughout his career. You don't play on championship caliber teams unless you have what he has. He's done it with Houston, he's done it with L.A. and now he's done it with San Antonio, and he usually does it at the most important time.

Q. At what point during the tight game when you watched Robert Horry hit one three and then the other do you start stressing to your players, don't leave him alone?

COACH LARRY BROWN: We did that two months ago. You know, you're up two with nine seconds to go, all you're thinking of is, no three point shots. Worst thing that can happen to you is a lay up, you've still got two time outs.

We've talked about it all the time. A couple of them he made with a hand up, but two we just left him. I have no explanation, but in big games, guys are trying their best. He still had to make the shots. Regardless, he still had to make them.

Again, somebody asked me something a while back about the fact that we didn't have any close games, what will happen if you get in it and if your team has been prepared for situations like that, and my response is, you do that from day one. You know, every practice you go over situations like that. It's not something that can all of a sudden because it's a 30 point game, go to a close game. You go over those things every single day. You talk about it. We always talk about late clock, switching late clock, and never trapping because you know the shot ultimately is going to come up.

But again, sometimes things like that happen. But he still had to make the shot, and you've got to give him credit for that. My background, down two, I'm damned if I let my guy take a three. I'm telling them nine seconds, we'll take it to the rim, get fouled, get a chance to offensive rebound. That's how dumb I am.

__________________
Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

I didn't "unintentionally" put a spin on anything. What bothers me is an unintentionally condescending attitude.

That is my perception of what he meant by what he said. I am not aware of any forum rules:

(1) prohibiting paraphrasing a quote from memory.

(2) Giving an OPINION on what somebody really meant by a quote.

I stand by what I said. I do not believe the actual quote you researched changes the spirit of my interpretation of what Brown said. What was the purpose of Brown's comments? Everyone knew it wasn't Brown's fault. But he is so insecure he just had to get that dig. Why didn't he just say, "yeah, he made a big mistake...but you know, it shouldn't have come down to that. I should have used the bench. It's really my fault, not his." ??? If he wanted to protect his players he would have said that.

But I guess you can fool some of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time...but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."...sorry, I'm not going to google it to get the exact words...I'm sure most people get my drift.

__________________
"Quite simply captain, I examined the problem from all angles, and it was plainly hopeless. Logic informed me that under the circumstances, the only logical action would have to be one of desperation. Logical decision, logically arrived at." -- Spock

Argument to the contrary:

http://www.truehoop.com/2005-playoff...breakdown.html

http://www.truehoop.com/2005-playoff...d-rasheed.html

You know, I purposely bold unintentional to make it clear that I don't think you did it with ill purpose (aware of fragile forum egoes), and you start crying about someone refuting your statement. You can't have it both ways.

If you're going to put an opinion out there, be prepared to get an opposing one, or asked for/provided with factual information. When you paraphrase, you take the risk of being inaccurate.

There are no forum rules for that. My point was that the actual quotes to make your case are readily available, and I thought your paraphrasing was pretty one sided and biased. Hence, why I posted the actual quotes so folks can draw their own conclusions.

And that's your prerogative.

How can you read that and see that he is throwing Sheed under the bus? He's doing everything he can to credit Horry with making a big play rather than his guys for coming up lame.

Don't gloss over this...

I'm sure they do. You're probably in popular company with the number of people who would like to discredit EVERYTHING he did in Detroit, that none of it was to his credit, or that he had any positive influence on the players. That the 2004 championship was in spite of him and not because of him. Again, that's your prerogative.

__________________
Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

I normally steer clear of these because I realize my opinion is in the minority, and Larry certainly did not do ANYTHING when he exited the Pistons organization to give me a leg to stand on with regards to his character.

Just the same, it's how I feel and like any good story, there is more than one side and plenty of debate.

From TrueHoop

http://www.truehoop.com/new-york-kni...-whitsitt.html

Larry's definitely not blameless, but he's not the biggest or only problem in NY.

__________________
Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

Sorry for disagreeing with you...I didn't mean to disturb the retirement home atmosphere of this forum. You can go back to sleep now. I have to be off to work in a few minutes, but thanks for the fun time.

Thank you for finding that LanierFan. You are a scholar and a gentleman.