It’s over for Larry Brown with the New York Knicks, which is hardly news after even Brown termed himself “dead man walking” during more than a month of estrangement from Knicks’ management. It also may be over for Brown as an NBA coach.
The Knicks fired Brown on Thursday after one season of stunning controversy that only became more bizarre in a postseason during which Brown and Knicks management, including team President Isiah Thomas, stopped speaking to each other.
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Thomas, who coached the Indiana Pacers for three seasons–from 2000-01 through 2002-03–will remain team president and become the Knicks’ fifth coach in the last three years.
For Knicks owner James Dolan, things just didn’t work out with Brown.
“Sometimes decisions work and sometimes they don’t,” Dolan said. “Despite the best intentions from everyone involved, this current structure did not work for us last season and I did not think it was going to improve next season.
“We understand that fans were not happy with the performance of the team last season, and neither were we. We are committed to making major improvements toward our goal of producing a [winner].”
Though the move long had been expected, it still is shocking. A year ago, Brown was regarded as arguably the best coach in the NBA. But with a 23-victory season, the second worst in the league, and open disputes between Brown and his players, it became the ugliest season in his 34-year coaching career and in Knicks’ history.
It’s a brownout that darkens Larry Brown’s electric coaching career.
Not only is this the first time in more than three decades coaching in the NBA, the long-defunct ABA and college that one of his teams didn’t have a winning record overall, but it is the third consecutive year in which Brown has run afoul of the top players in the NBA and team and league management.
Top players, like LeBron James, made it clear in making commitments to USA Basketball for the 2008 Olympics that they wouldn’t do so under the conditions imposed when Brown was coach in 2004.
The Pistons were said to be on the verge of near mutiny as they strained toward a seventh game of the NBA Finals in 2005.
Brown was dismissed after the season, and owner Bill Davidson said Brown made the season too much about himself.
Then there were the open hostilities with Knicks players, especially Stephon Marbury, and team management. This after Brown had declared–in the middle of his last season with the Pistons–that coming to New York would be his dream job.
It became a nightmare for the Hall of Famer, who is regarded as one of the great coaching minds in pro basketball history, and it could get even uglier because the Knicks fired Brown for “cause,” meaning they don’t intend to pay the remainder of his $40 million contract.
The result is expected to go to arbitration before NBA Commissioner David Stern, with whom Brown was at odds during the 2004 Olympics.
The speculation is Brown eventually will accept a buyout, as he did with the Pistons, for about $7 million for this season. That means with his $10 million salary for 2005-06, combined with his settlement with Detroit and probable one with New York, Brown may gross $30 million for the season.
What’s next is anyone’s guess.
“I don’t see Larry wanting to get out after something like this,” one of Brown’s friends said. “He’s not going to want this to be the last memory of him.”
Still, there is a question where Brown could land with few current coaching vacancies and Brown already having coached eight NBA teams. There is also speculation that he would be blackballed by players and owners who recently have had bad experiences with him.
Another friend said it’s not like Brown forgot how to coach with 1,010 NBA victories, 229 in the ABA, the 2001 NBA Coach of the Year award and championships in the NBA and NCAA. He remains perhaps the game’s best at making adjustments and had an enviable record of turning around teams. The friend said Brown, given his horde of cash from buyouts, could return to a low-achieving team at a small salary, perhaps $1 million, to rescue his reputation.
There is speculation Brown could go to Charlotte, where fellow North Carolina grad Michael Jordan now has a piece of the franchise. Brown has family in the area, and coach Bernie Bickerstaff is said to be going into his final season.
His leaving New York probably is not good news for the Bulls, who hold the right to swap top draft picks with the Knicks next season.
Retaining Brown was likely to produce additional disastrous results with the Knicks not able to make significant personnel changes.
“No one in our organization is happy with last season, and we all accept responsibility for our performance,” said Thomas, who once was so close to Brown that after Thomas was fired from the Pacers, Brown asked Thomas to be with him at Pistons training camp that season.
“But I strongly believe we are on the right track [now] to take major steps in our rebuilding process to be one of the premier teams in the NBA. Larry Brown is a great coach, but for various reasons, bringing him to the Knicks did not turn out the way we had hoped. We wish him the best in the future.”
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If the dispute reaches a public venue or court it could become even nastier because the Knicks are expected to say Brown violated his contract by openly condemning players, talking to the media at times the organization forbid it and speaking with other teams about deals without the Knicks’ permission.
The Knicks were upset that Brown pushed for trades for Jalen Rose and Steve Francis and then rejected the players, a pattern that has been familiar for Brown. Brown also sought wholesale roster changes.
The Knicks say Brown should have known the roster he was accepting.
Brown supporters note that everywhere Brown has been he has pushed for personnel changes and the Knicks had to know his reputation in hiring Brown.
Still, no one knew a firing was possible within a year.
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