Athletes - Larry Brown

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	Athletes - Larry Brown

Lawrence Harvey Brown (born September 14, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, United States, to a Jewish family) is currently the head coach of the New York Knicks. He has been a successful college and professional basketball coach since 1975. He has won over 1,000 professional games in the ABA and the NBA and is the only coach in NBA history to lead seven different teams to the playoffs. He is 1,285-853 in his career. He is also the only coach to win both a collegiate National Championship and an NBA Championship.

As a player

Brown, a 5'9" point guard, played at The University of North Carolina under the legendary coach Dean Smith, where he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha, after playing high school basketball in New York. A stellar player for the Tar Heels in the early 1960s, Brown was considered too small to play in the NBA and so began his professional career with the NABL's Akron Wingfoots, where he played for two years (1964-65). During that time Brown was selected for the 1964 Summer Olympics team while leading the Wingfoots to the 1964 AAU National Championship. After a brief stint as an assistant coach at North Carolina, Brown joined the upstart American Basketball Association, playing with the New Orleans Buccaneers (1967-68), Oakland Oaks (1968-69), Washington Caps (1969-70), Virginia Squires (1970-71), and Denver Nuggets (1971-72). Larry Brown is the all-time ABA assists leader.

As a coach

Brown's first head coaching job was at Davidson College in North Carolina. Unfortunately for Wildcat fans, it would only last during the summer offseason and he never coached a game. That one month experience would be a harbinger to Brown's nomadic coaching career.

Brown moved on to the ABA and coached with the Carolina Cougars and then the Denver Rockets, who later became the NBA's Denver Nuggets in 1976, for three and a half seasons from 1975 to 1979. He then moved on to coach for UCLA (1979-80, 1980-81), leading his freshman-dominated 1979-80 team to the NCAA title game before falling to Louisville, 59-54.

After two years with the NBA's New Jersey Nets, Brown began his tenure at the University of Kansas (1983-1988). There he was named "Coach of the Year" for the NCAA in 1988 and "Coach of the Year" for the Big Eight Conference in 1986. Kansas finished first in the Big Eight in 1986, and second in 1984, 1985, and 1987, ultimately leading Kansas to the national championship in 1988, defeating favored conference rival Oklahoma 83-79 in the final. Upon leaving Kansas, Brown had five NCAA Tournament appearances, three Sweet 16 appearances, and two trips to the Final Four. As a collegiate coach, he had a cumulative coaching record of 177-61 (.744) in seven seasons, including a 135-44 (.754) record at Kansas.

Brown moved back to the NBA after his time in Kansas, taking the head coaching job with the San Antonio Spurs, and has since led the Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, and Philadelphia 76ers. The coach won his first NBA Championship during his first year with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one in the NBA Finals. By doing so, Brown became the first man to coach teams to both NCAA and NBA titles.

Brown was also chosen as the head coach for the USA men's basketball team at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Despite criticism for never staying in any one place for very long, Brown is hailed as one of basketball's greatest teachers, and is unparalleled as a rebuilder of teams. The Nets and the Clippers are not only the "second teams" in their metropolitan areas, but have long been regarded as laughingstock franchises. Prior to the 2001 arrival of Jason Kidd, the Nets had made the Playoffs in only 10 of their first 25 seasons in the NBA. Two of those 10 times were in 1982 and 1983, under Brown. The Clippers, in San Diego and Los Angeles combined, have made the Playoffs in only three of their first 27 seasons. The first two of those times were in 1992 and 1993, under Brown. Those were also the second and third of the three times the franchise has finished .500 or better since moving in 1978, after being the Buffalo Braves. Tony Kornheiser, sports columnist for the Washington Post and a fellow Long Island, New York, native, has said, "He took the Clippers to the playoffs! Nobody takes the Clippers to the playoffs!" In 2005, Allen Iverson said that Larry Brown was without a doubt "the best coach in the world."

Despite Brown's prowess in coaching and handling different egos and personalities, Brown has often been criticized for not playing rookies. A famous case is that of Darko Milicic of the Detroit Pistons, who only played about six minutes a game for a combined 71 regular season games in his first two years.This has been the subject of many articles in the media and has given rise to the Internet's "FreeDarko" movement.

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Athletes - Larry Brown

As a player

As a coach

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