National Basketball Association
Nomadic Larry Brown takes another team to playoffs
National Basketball Association

Nomadic Larry Brown takes another team to playoffs

Published Apr. 16, 2010 4:31 a.m. ET

Larry Brown is in the second year of his latest coaching job, so two things must be happening:

- His team is headed to the playoffs.

- There is rampant speculation that he might leave for another job.

It's what the 69-year-old Brown does, and the Charlotte Bobcats are his latest success story. After his one major failure - he never got a second season with the New York Knicks after what he called a ``debacle'' in 2005-06 - Brown has the sixth-year Bobcats playoff-bound for the first time.

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It's happened at every stop in his nomadic career. From the ABA's Carolina Cougars, to Denver, New Jersey, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana, Philadelphia and Detroit, Brown has never gone two straight years without securing a postseason berth.

He's followed the familiar script in Charlotte that made him a Hall of Famer, and the only coach to win both NCAA and NBA titles.

Brown demanded and got changes. Charlotte has made seven trades involving 21 players since the start of last season, including acquiring the sometimes volatile Stephen Jackson. The new parts struggled at first, then the players seemed to accept and grasp Brown's system and his demanding style.

The result: The Bobcats (44-38) are the NBA's stingiest defensive team, opportunistic enough on offense and preparing to face defending Eastern Conference champion Orlando in Charlotte's first taste of the playoffs since the Hornets' last season here in 2002.

``It's like coach Brown is a chef and he just throws all kinds of crazy stuff into that salad,'' said Detroit coach John Kuester, who was an assistant under Brown on the Pistons' 2004 NBA title team. ``And at the end of the day it tastes good.''

The salad is perishable, though. After 10 pro and three college head coaching jobs, Brown is always a threat to leave, and often the departure is messy.

This time there has been talk that maybe Brown could bolt for openings with the 76ers or Clippers after this season. It's served as an unwanted distraction as the Bobcats prepare for Game 1 in Orlando Sunday.

``I really like what I'm doing,'' Brown insisted this week, claiming he won't coach for anybody other than new Bobcats owner Michael Jordan, who hired him in 2008 to end his two-year exile following his 23-59 season in New York.

Calling him a ``great evaluator of talent,'' Jordan has leaned on Brown the past two years to reshape the roster.

``I don't expect Larry to go anywhere,'' Jordan said last month.

Nothing is certain with Brown - except that his teams get better.

``I've worked for a number of coaches,'' Atlanta Hawks coach and former Brown assistant Mike Woodson said, ``and Larry taught me how to coach. I've kind of parlayed that here.''

Brown jokes that when he took over the Bobcats last season he wondered if Philadelphia's NBA-worst 9-73 record in 1972-73 was in jeopardy. The team was stacked with outside shooters and either poor or inexperienced defenders.

Soon the trades began. Only five players - Gerald Wallace, Raymond Felton, Nazr Mohammed, D.J. Augustin and Alexis Ajinca - are still around from that training camp.

``When I got the job, Michael told me he wanted me to coach the kids up. He thought it was the responsibility of us as a staff to make players better,'' Brown said. ``And the second thing, he wanted me to evaluate the players we had.

``We've made changes. You don't hit a home run on everything you do, but I think the team is better now than when we were in Wilmington (at training camp).''

The Bobcats acquired the long, athletic, versatile players that Brown craves, such as Boris Diaw, Tyson Chandler and Tyrus Thomas. He brought in reliable veterans he knows, such as Theo Ratliff and Larry Hughes.

And Brown, who has coached Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury and Rasheed Wallace, wasn't afraid to take in a talented player with a checkered past such as Jackson.

While Brown has sometimes expressed frustration with the quirky Jackson - ``I never know where I am with Stephen,'' he said recently - he's provided Charlotte with a go-to scorer and the confident, playoff-experienced veteran that was missing from the locker room.

``Getting Jackson has added a lot of toughness to them,'' Kuester said. ``Gerald Wallace has played at an All-Star level from the beginning. He has really benefited from coach Brown's style.''

Perhaps nobody has benefited from Brown's constant teaching more than Wallace. A tremendous athlete, Wallace has become one of the league's top defenders and rebounders and is averaging 18.2 points.

``We got out and play the right way,'' explained Wallace, echoing Brown's favorite line and a phrase that adorns the side of Time Warner Cable Arena.

The Bobcats figure to continue to do that as long as Brown sticks around.

``It takes time for them to buy into everything he wants to get accomplished,'' added Kuester. ``Once they do, they become such a tough team to play.''

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