by Ken Shouler of ESPN - I think Memo, DMC, Delfino and a few other Pistons can relate to this.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?id=2397622

Buddhafan,

__________________
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

Man was he dreamin'!

Nothing makes me happier than knowing NY fan is suffering.
Oh, and I love the plentiful NY media bellyacheing and crying out loud.
Cry you noisey, nosey, lifeless, mercenaries. Cry like a hungry baby.
And...
SUFFER !

"I've made every team I ever coached better, every one. Look, I've been coaching how many years? I never left a team in worse shape than I got it. Not one. Now think about that. Think about me and think about the guy who's talking. I never left a team in worse shape. Never asked anything of my players any different than I'm doing right now. Think about that. Think about that. So the bottom line is, I want us to rebound, defend, share the ball, play hard. That's all. If you can't do that, if that's not important enough to you, it's not on me. It's not on me."
Larry Brown

NY Knicks 2003/2004 – 39 up, 43 down 0.476 winning percentage
NY Knicks 2004/2005 – 33 up, 49 down 0.402 winning percentage
NY Knicks 2005/2006 (YTD) – 19 up, 54 down 0.260 winning percentage

And today Larry wonders aloud in the press if he will be fired. The one thing that does seem clear is that something has to change in the streets of Gotham. Larry, Isiah, Dolan, and the Knicks players – probably need to get rid of any two in order to get the franchise back on the right path. And given that Chairmen or Governors (or whatever Dolan’s title is) rarely fire themselves, suddenly Larry’s odds don’t look too good.

I don’t know that I ever understood exactly why Larry was sent packing from Detroit. Loyalty, disloyalty, style, personality, airing too much laundry in the press, and most importantly the direction of the team all rolled together to create a mess that Joe D and Mr. Davis chose a clear path through. If the Pistons had won the last six minutes of game seven, would Larry have stayed? I’m guessing so, but I’m also guessing the decision had been made well before the players took the court that day.

I always liked Larry, warts, bad plumbing, and all, though I surely didn’t have to play for him. If nothing else, I always felt his heart was in the right place, and that means a lot. But I guess hubris makes chumps of us all, and Larry sure wasn’t hiding behind the door when the good Lord gave it out. I’d like to think that he went to the Knicks for reasons other than pride, that he didn’t let himself be ruled by that part of him who felt betrayed and that prideful part that wouldn’t let him step back and evaluate his position in life and in his career. I’d like to think that, but I’m not really sure I can believe it.

I think Larry took the no win job because he was afraid of being seen as a failure, afraid of life without the basketball adrenaline drug. In some weird way it makes him all the more human and all the more understandable. If the axe does fall again, I hope Larry won’t make the same pride guided mistake and leap into a new no win situation. But I wouldn’t bet money.

Is it time for feel sorry for Larry? Not because he was a pawn, but because he acted for all the wrong reasons, but still acted. We could use us a good Greek playwright, for surely this is the stuff of tragedy.

__________________
"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

I think the article misses the point. Larry Brown has not had some dramatic change of coaching style or personality. He is the same guy he has always been. The same guy that battled with AI, the same guy that coached his way into the Hall of Fame with his cantankerous methods....

Are the Knick fans saying they didn't know what they were getting? They were duped? The clash with Starbury came as a surprise? Is there anyone in the free world who has ever watched an NBA game that didn't know that LB and MArbury would clash? No...I didn't think so..

So how does this mess fall on LB. He did exactly what he always does...no surprises. Ho health issues to speak of...but somehow there is an outrage because he did exactly what he was hired to do? Hmmmm.

Should the guy who hired him and put together this mess of a team maybe take a bit of the blame? Or is it easier to lay it on the doddering old dinosaur?

@dba - I like Larry as well. For his flaws probably more than his strengths. He's one of the few "characters" left in the NBA, a league that has been sanitized and homogenized for the Sprite/Nike generation.

I suppose that is why I like Ron Artest too. The league needs villains and weirdos. It needs flavour.

Unfortunately, the media is so relentless (particularly on the internet) that when they demonize someone, they don't build his reputation as a foil, they destroy him as a human being. It's sad. Because all we are left with is Dennis Rodman outside the HOF and LeBron James in our faces 24/7 before he has played (let alone won) a playoff game.

__________________
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

The reality is that if a team is not ready for Larry Brown's brand of basketball they will fail. Larry needs control of the organization or to be paired with someone that shares his thoughts on player evaluations. The theatrics with the media have always been part of the package, The Larry Brown Recipe. Here are the directions:

1. Larry introduces new system
2. Larry brings in players/molds players to support system
3. Wins increase
4. Larry theatrics take toll on team
5. Team begins to underachieve
6. Larry bolts
7. Cycle continues

So what has this chicken tasting like wood (Sugar Hill reference ) ? The season in New York has been a complete disaster. Its what happens when steps 1 and 2 don't get executed successfully. And now we wonder if it is the players or Larry's inability to adapt those players to his system? Personally, I think the Knicks woes are more of a reflection of the bizzare collection of talent Zeke has assembled versus Larry's inablity to adapt his system to the players on the roster. Unfortunately step 4 is settling in before the wins have had an opportunity to accumulate. ...the end result will be that someone gets fired.

As I read more and more of Larry's in-press comments I am beginning to see that we probably got all we were going to get from LB. Bill Davidson got it right again. Zeke sucks as a GM and it was best that we severed the ties with LB when we did. Otherwise, maintaining our starting five and maintaining a winning, healthy team first philosophy would have been a challenge for years to come. You can't promote the "Pistons basketball" team first philosophy when you have a head coach that constantly promotes his agenda in front of whats best for the team.

Thank God this is no longer our problem.

__________________
Got Jokes?

Our first house in Chicago was a beautiful gut rehab of a 19th century townhouse. Really pretty, with a great layout, everything was wonderful for a couple of years. The longer we lived there, the more we saw things that the contractor didn’t do all that well (in some cases did really badly), the more cracks in the basement walls, etc. (I’ll avoid the obvious plumbing analogies.) Pretty soon we were more worried about what was going to go wrong than we were enjoying living in the house. It’s hard to describe the sense of relief when we sold it for a nice chunk of change and moved on.

Bittersweet, you know, sad to see it go, but really happy for having moved on.

__________________
"But first, are you experienced? Or have you you ever been experienced? Well, I have."
Jimi

Not feeling sorry for Larry. Not for a minute. Now he's angling for another team to choose between a public display of love (i.e., dumping players and/or firing Thomas) and buying him out for a heinous amount of money. God, I wish my inner turmoil paid so well.

He had one of maybe two situations in the NBA where his brittle, neurotic act could be accommodated by highly professional players and just the right kind of management, and it wasn't enough. If he's not man enough to stick it out in New York, let him leave the Knick money on the table and actually go coach kids.