Woj: Brown headed to N.Y.?
Thursday, June 23, 2005
By ADRIAN WOJNAROWSKI
SPORTS COLUMNIST
When the original plans for Larry Brown's hustle to Cleveland were in the works, one source close to his camp insists, the plot included bringing Philadelphia president Billy King as his general manager and Memphis' John Calipari as coach. Everything would stay on the sly, the Pistons' season would end and the Travelin' Man would be on the move again, leaving the Pistons' bench for $10 million a year and the use of a private jet to commute between his Philadelphia home and Cleveland.
"Once Larry got called out on the whole Cleveland thing, he changed gears with it," the source said, and now, no one is sure where the befuddled Brown plans to turn once Game 7 of the NBA Finals is over tonight in San Antonio. From Detroit to Cleveland to New York, they're waiting on the end of the NBA Finals to see where the next gust of wind blows Brown, because maybe this time it could bring him all the way back to Madison Square Garden.
With the enemies and betrayals left on the long, jagged journey of his nomadic basketball life, Brown never could've made it this far in the business - to an improbable Game 7 against the Spurs - unless the one tangled truth within his web of untruths wasn't so downright indisputable: Brown is the best basketball coach in the world.
All is well in the NBA again. Labor peace has been reached, the teeny boppers will be out of the draft and the league has its first Game 7 in 11 years. Yes, the NBA Finals that America didn't want to watch have turned irresistible. The pressure on Brown to keep his dalliances from messing with the Pistons' rare chemistry faded weeks ago. For Game 7, the pressure is on the purported best player in the sport, Tim Duncan, who is suddenly showing up smaller in these Finals than he did in the Athens Olympics.
The way it goes in sports these days is that as long as you keep winning, you can keep double-crossing your way in and out of commitments and contracts. Brown kept changing his story about everything, but it doesn't matter. Knicks president Isiah Thomas is hanging in the shadows, armed with two of life's most appealing propositions to Brown.
Madison Square Garden.
And Cablevision's cash.
"Larry isn't an executive," one Western Conference official said Wednesday. "He's a coach. And with Larry, anything is possible. I can still see him finding a way to end up with the Knicks."
So can a not-so-doubting Thomas, who doesn't have to sell Brown on his self-confessed "dream job" of coaching the Knicks. Thomas wouldn't be still without a coach unless he was assured a window where he could negotiate with Brown and the Pistons about making Brown the Knicks' coach.
The Akron Beacon Journal ran a story Thursday saying that an Eastern Conference executive told the paper that Brown has promised Thomas he'll visit with him after Game 7. That sure looks like a Cavaliers' front office leak trying to put the public pressure on Brown to honor his commitment of taking over the Cavaliers. Trouble is, you can't shame Brown into anything. He has none.
For Thomas and the Knicks, part of the allure of chasing Brown is that you're never really out of the running with him. It isn't that he's already tired of coaching in Detroit or already bored with running the Cavaliers. As soon as you heard Brown say that the only team he would coach next year would be the Pistons, you knew the Knicks had a shot.
Brown could double-cross the Cavaliers by trying to go to the Knicks, and double-cross the Pistons by deciding to stay on the job. After all, Detroit president Joe Dumars appears ready to hire Flip Saunders to coach the Pistons next season.
Outside of teaching ethics classes, the job that least fits Brown's skill sets would be that of an NBA executive. That job calls for patience, for staying power, for the long view. That job calls for stepping out of the bright lights and into the shadows. Brown is impetuous, unstable and nobody that you offer $10 million a season unless he's going to coach your team.
Only Brown knows whether his medical condition is so serious that the doctors could tell him at season's end that they no longer want him to go through the grind of coaching. After all, that long-anticipated visit to the Mayo Clinic could be part of his exit strategy with the Pistons. All along, that was his ticket out of Detroit without a team needing to compensate Detroit. With the Knicks, it won't be too easy, but then, there's a way. There's always a way with Brown. Never believe much that comes out of Brown's mouth, but believe him when he says, "I'm a coach."
He's the best in the business, and these playoffs are affirming that all over again. Game 7 is tonight and Brown and the Pistons are threatening to steal the most improbable back-to-back championships in modern NBA history. At one point, Cleveland seemed like a good idea and all to him, but he's signed nothing. All Brown gave was his word to the Cavaliers, and what's that worth?
Thomas isn't looking for a father figure, just a championship coach. There isn't any honor chasing Brown from one broken promise to the next, but business is business. These days, the coaching genius of a Dean Smith and Red Holzman doesn't come with that old virtue. Herb Williams is a prince of a man, but who's kidding whom here: It won't be long until Larry Brown is on the loose. Stay in line, Isiah. Stay in line.