Larry Brown fired in Charlotte!!!

[DukieInBrasil]

per ESPN http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5947959
Well the Bobcats were terrible, but now that Brown is out perhaps we'll get to see more of Gerald Henderson since the UNC-Duke bias is gone. Who knows if that was for real or not, but if GH's PT goes up significantly I think you might be able to make a legit case for LB having too much anti-Duke bias to be an effective coach. Time will tell of course.
As it stands now, Larry Brown is out and maybe the Bobcats will improve, maybe they'll get worse. In any case let's pull for Gerald!!!

[Olympic Fan]

Larry might be the greating quick-fix coach in basketball history ... and one of the worst long-term coaches. He's Billy Martin without the alcoholism.

Maybe Brown will try his hand at college coaching again. If he's still on the market in spring, a lot of guys might be looking over their shoulders.

Hmmm, another meltdown in Chapel Hill and, I wonder? UNC's last chancellor nixed Brown as a candidate because Moeser had some principles. When we see how the current administration has sold out those principles to field a winning football team, is there any longer any reluctance to bring in a guy who has gotten two programs on probation?

I mean, Roy's probably safe ... still, with Bob Winston running the show, who knows?

[Kedsy]

per ESPN http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5947959
Well the Bobcats were terrible, but now that Brown is out perhaps we'll get to see more of Gerald Henderson since the UNC-Duke bias is gone. Who knows if that was for real or not, but if GH's PT goes up significantly I think you might be able to make a legit case for LB having too much anti-Duke bias to be an effective coach. Time will tell of course.
As it stands now, Larry Brown is out and maybe the Bobcats will improve, maybe they'll get worse. In any case let's pull for Gerald!!!

As I understand it, Gerald has been out much of this season with a bad knee. When he's played he has apparently done little to make anyone outside of a Duke board think he deserves more minutes. The idea that Larry Brown would fail to play his best players because of where they went to school (especially since he was involved in choosing who to draft) is absurd.

What makes it even more absurd is that Larry Brown gave Quin Snyder his first coaching job, and also hired Billy King as an assistant coach and brought King with him to Philadelphia to work in the front office there. Would he have done all that if he had a bias?

[77devil]

per ESPN http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5947959
Well the Bobcats were terrible, but now that Brown is out perhaps we'll get to see more of Gerald Henderson since the UNC-Duke bias is gone. Who knows if that was for real or not, but if GH's PT goes up significantly I think you might be able to make a legit case for LB having too much anti-Duke bias to be an effective coach. Time will tell of course.
As it stands now, Larry Brown is out and maybe the Bobcats will improve, maybe they'll get worse. In any case let's pull for Gerald!!!

At 70, and not in the greatest of health, presumably this was Larry's last coaching gig. A truly loathsome character in the basketball world, and perhaps in general, I think he may be Roy's model for throwing players under the bus. Notwithstanding whatever improvement he brings to a program, he seems to almost always depart leaving it tattered. Hope he fades away to Santa Barbara once and for all, but I'm certainly not counting on it.

[Devilsfan]

Talk about the game passing you by! LB is he Joe Pa of basketball. Hey maybe there's a retirement/assisted living facility in Carlotte they could... well never mind. I'll keep it civil. Good luck in your future life LB. Now if MJ can keep out of the day to day affairs maybe we can see G lighting it up again and maybe just maybe there will be a few fans in the seats again.

[hq2]

Not surprising; I think he's about done. He was never one of our favorite Carolina guys, even back in the day (we just dislike him less now). After watching his team play recently, I'm not surprised; they looked absolutely horrible. Totally disorganized, no fight or team attitude or anything. They were awful, and coaching was clearly part of the problem.

[mph]

Talk about the game passing you by! LB is he Joe Pa of basketball. Hey maybe there's a retirement/assisted living facility in Carlotte they could... well never mind. I'll keep it civil. Good luck in your future life LB. Now if MJ can keep out of the day to day affairs maybe we can see G lighting it up again and maybe just maybe there will be a few fans in the seats again.

Joe Pa without character and loyalty is just an old guy.

[sagegrouse]

Larry Brown has been a great coach, I would argue, and a -- um -- unique personality. Looks at his record of success. Look at how often and quickly he changed jobs. He even left the Davidson job for the ABA before the first season even started. This is probably it for LB, so it is fair to review his 40 years as a coach.

Others will have much more to say.

Start with his frequent job changes. His friend Tony Kornheiser (LB was his camp counsellor) says, "After a couple of years, he hates all his players, and they all hate him." Such is the difference between being great at coaching up a team and building a great program. Obviously UNC knows all this and refused to hire him when he wanted to return.

In 39 years he had 13 different head coaching gigs, covering 37 of those years. I would bet that is utterly and totally unprecedented. Who's in second place? Someone with five or six? But he kept getting hired because his teams won.

• Davidson College (1972)
• Carolina Cougars (1972–1974)
• Denver Nuggets (1974–1979)
• UCLA (1979–1981)
• New Jersey Nets (1981–1983)
• University of Kansas (1983–1988)
• San Antonio Spurs (1988–1992)
• Los Angeles Clippers (1992–1993)
• Indiana Pacers (1993–1997)
• Philadelphia 76ers (1997–2003)
• Detroit Pistons (2003–2005)
• New York Knicks (2005–2006)
• Charlotte Bobcats (2008–2010

Was he a great coach?

Here is his list of merit badges:

• 3× ABA Coach of the Year (1973, 1975–1976)
• 1× NBA Coach of the Year (2001)
• 1× NCAA Champion (1988 as coach)
• 1× Naismith College Coach of the Year (1988)
• 1× NBA Champion (2004 as coach)

Not bad. I'll leave it others to sort out the W-L records.

Can anyone stand him? I have no idea, but he comes off as prickly and even cranky. But I will say that recently Laettner was quoted as saying that in the NBA he never played for a coach that would have enabled him to reach his potential, "Like Pat Riley or Larry Brown" might have.

And it is certainly fair to give him a hard time on this Board.

sagegrouse

[kong123]

As I understand it, Gerald has been out much of this season with a bad knee. When he's played he has apparently done little to make anyone outside of a Duke board think he deserves more minutes. The idea that Larry Brown would fail to play his best players because of where they went to school (especially since he was involved in choosing who to draft) is absurd.

What makes it even more absurd is that Larry Brown gave Quin Snyder his first coaching job, and also hired Billy King as an assistant coach and brought King with him to Philadelphia to work in the front office there. Would he have done all that if he had a bias?

please, you are making too much sense.

[Jim3k]

Not surprising; I think he's about done. He was never one of our favorite Carolina guys, even back in the day (we just dislike him less now). After watching his team play recently, I'm not surprised; they looked absolutely horrible. Totally disorganized, no fight or team attitude or anything. They were awful, and coaching was clearly part of the problem.

Despite Sage's grudging respect for Brown (something I sorta share), those of us who were there for the Heyman-Brown set-to would never agree that we dislike him less, now. Heyman simply bear-hugged Brown to prevent a layup -- a very soft, if annoying, foul. Brown swung on him. (The Youtube clip, which I won't link, omits the initial moments of the fight as that portion of the film was snipped and given to the league to analyze and never spliced back.) Of course the two had history going back to high school in Long Island, but there was never a legitimate purpose in throwing a punch in that game. The incident earned Art a suspension by the league that didn't do much for the Devils' season. So -- no --we don't dislike him less. We simply dislike him -- good coaching, bad coaching, no coaching -- we just don't like him -. He may have allowed Quin to marry into his family; he may have had a great relationship with Billy King. Makes no difference to the fans who were there. He intentionally tried to injure our star and schoolmate. We don't forget.

[SoCalDukeFan]

What makes it even more absurd is that Larry Brown gave Quin Snyder his first coaching job

At the time I think Quinn was married a daughter of Larry's. Maybe some family bias.

SoCal

[DukieInBrasil]

As I understand it, Gerald has been out much of this season with a bad knee. When he's played he has apparently done little to make anyone outside of a Duke board think he deserves more minutes. The idea that Larry Brown would fail to play his best players because of where they went to school (especially since he was involved in choosing who to draft) is absurd.

What makes it even more absurd is that Larry Brown gave Quin Snyder his first coaching job, and also hired Billy King as an assistant coach and brought King with him to Philadelphia to work in the front office there. Would he have done all that if he had a bias?

I was being a bit hyperbolic on purpose, just to give LB a hard time. Ever since G came back from his knee-related hiatus, he hasn't done anything to deserve more PT. At times it has seemed like G was deserving of more opportunities and at other times not. I remember when JJ was getting started in Orlando and he went through essentially the same thing for the first 2+ years there, before really getting extended opportunities. Hopefully, G can round that corner too.

[Jaymf7]

It has been widely reported that Brown is particularly tough on younger players. G's limited playing time was not due to a Duke bias, but rather as result of (i) his inexperience, (ii) Charlotte's numerous other (better at this stage) wing players, and most importantly (iii) his poor play when he got PT. Indeed, G's PER rating (Hollinger's all-in-one stat) is a 5.1 -- one of the absolute worst in the league.

That said, with change in the air in Charlotte they may decide to play him more to see what he has to offer. Perhaps with a chance to get in a rhythm he can develop like Redick and others have.

[Johnboy]

This seems like a great opportunity for FITS to do a little commentary about the Carolina/Dean Smith "family" - former Dean player Michael Jordan fired his fellow former Dean player Larry Brown. Some family!

[ScreechTDX1847]

per ESPN http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5947959
Well the Bobcats were terrible, but now that Brown is out perhaps we'll get to see more of Gerald Henderson since the UNC-Duke bias is gone. Who knows if that was for real or not, but if GH's PT goes up significantly I think you might be able to make a legit case for LB having too much anti-Duke bias to be an effective coach. Time will tell of course.
As it stands now, Larry Brown is out and maybe the Bobcats will improve, maybe they'll get worse. In any case let's pull for Gerald!!!

Larry Brown is the person who wanted Gerald in Charlotte in the first place.

[gotoguy]

Larry Brown has been a great coach, I would argue, and a -- um -- unique personality. Looks at his record of success. Look at how often and quickly he changed jobs. He even left the Davidson job for the ABA before the first season even started. This is probably it for LB, so it is fair to review his 40 years as a coach.

Others will have much more to say.

Start with his frequent job changes. His friend Tony Kornheiser (LB was his camp counsellor) says, "After a couple of years, he hates all his players, and they all hate him." Such is the difference between being great at coaching up a team and building a great program. Obviously UNC knows all this and refused to hire him when he wanted to return.

In 39 years he had 13 different head coaching gigs, covering 37 of those years. I would bet that is utterly and totally unprecedented. Who's in second place? Someone with five or six? But he kept getting hired because his teams won.

• Davidson College (1972)
• Carolina Cougars (1972–1974)
• Denver Nuggets (1974–1979)
• UCLA (1979–1981)
• New Jersey Nets (1981–1983)
• University of Kansas (1983–1988)
• San Antonio Spurs (1988–1992)
• Los Angeles Clippers (1992–1993)
• Indiana Pacers (1993–1997)
• Philadelphia 76ers (1997–2003)
• Detroit Pistons (2003–2005)
• New York Knicks (2005–2006)
• Charlotte Bobcats (2008–2010

Was he a great coach?

Here is his list of merit badges:

• 3× ABA Coach of the Year (1973, 1975–1976)
• 1× NBA Coach of the Year (2001)
• 1× NCAA Champion (1988 as coach)
• 1× Naismith College Coach of the Year (1988)
• 1× NBA Champion (2004 as coach)

Not bad. I'll leave it others to sort out the W-L records.

Can anyone stand him? I have no idea, but he comes off as prickly and even cranky. But I will say that recently Laettner was quoted as saying that in the NBA he never played for a coach that would have enabled him to reach his potential, "Like Pat Riley or Larry Brown" might have.

And it is certainly fair to give him a hard time on this Board.

sagegrouse

I seem to recall LB once coaching an ABA game wearing blue denim overalls with the shoulder straps and a flannel shirt or was that Doug Moe?

[SupaDave]

At 70, and not in the greatest of health, presumably this was Larry's last coaching gig. A truly loathsome character in the basketball world, and perhaps in general, I think he may be Roy's model for throwing players under the bus. Notwithstanding whatever improvement he brings to a program, he seems to almost always depart leaving it tattered. Hope he fades away to Santa Barbara once and for all, but I'm certainly not counting on it.

I bumped into Larry Brown last week at the Ritz-Carlton (ATL) and he looked fit and relaxed. I don't think we've heard the last of him.

[Reilly]

His agent said he'd coach again ... not that it's up to his agent. Always an interesting factoid that his daughter married Quin Snyder. Can you imagine the coverage such a union would get nowadays w/ the internet? Back then, it was just an offhand mention, no papparazzi etc...

[Devilsfan]

Watch for him on the AAU circuit.

[SupaDave]

Watch for him on the AAU circuit.

And what should we be looking for?