Excellent Dan Wetzel column on Larry Brown

Really good job.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Aq4cpokVLKJnhR3i5MN6isQ5nYcB?slug=dw-brownbobcats042908&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

 

The only reason I know that wasn't Starman is the lack of a three-graf tangent on public financing for arenas.

 

That column opened my eyes to how much Larry Brown is making... probably more than most players.

The $18 million buyout from Detroit in what 2004?
Then the $40 million owed from the Knicks last year.

That's $58-million.

Even if he only made $1 million each year with Detroit in two seasons, and another million for one season in New York... that's $61 million. Add in a million to coach Charlotte for a year, that's $62-million.

Add in whatever he was paid to coach the Olympics... and a couple million for his time with Philly...

We're looking at $70 million this decade.

 

Awesome.

This was scorching. I don't follow the NBA much anymore, but I found this enjoyable.

Not only did he burn Brown, he supported it very well.

And Mustang: the column clarified that he had a $40 million buyout with the Knicks but it was arbitrated for $18 million.

 

If I read correctly in Wetzel's column, Brown's deal w/ NY was knocked down to under $20 million.
But I get your point. Dude is Scrooge McDucking his swimming pool, not to mention wiping his ass with hundos.

 

Obviously, Larry Brown is a power hungry megalomaniac. But it should be noted that Red Auerbach could not win with the Knicks team Brown had.

 

True, but it was Larry Brown who couldn't get out of Detroit fast enough to coach them.

 

Fixed

 

Yah, and it should also be noted that:

1) Brown knew damn well what the roster looked like when he took the job, and

2) The roster was significantly shuffled in response to Brown's demands, and

3) When he did not get all the roster moves he demanded, Brown began intentionally playing mismatched/ deficient lineups in order to make management (i.e. Isiah Thomas) look like idiots.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh who gives a shit, the Knicks sucked either way, the substantive difference resulting from Brown's game-tanking was probably 10 games: 23-59 vs. 33-59. When Isiah took over on the bench the next season, the team promptly improved those 10 games, precisely because Isiah was not tanking to make management look bad. He could do that all by himself.

The real disgrace was still Brown's turd-laying in Athens, the worst fucking coaching performance in the history of the game. USA Basketball should have fired his sniveling ass right in the middle of the Games -- told him if he couldn't coach the roster he was given, to pack up his shit and go home.

Of course, much of the media, which fell (and still falls) for Brown's "coach the right way" horseshit (big fucking deal, every successful coach in the history of the game emphasizes rebounding, defense and taking good shots, Mr. Sooper Wizard-Genius), preferred to scapegoat the "selfish, egotistical" young negroes on the team, rather than the dithering drama queen on the bench.