SubscribeIt’s not A Larry Brown Christmas
Not that it should be anyway…
Larry Brown has stepped down as coach of the Charlotte Bobcats. The 70-year-old Brown is a four-time Coach of the Year (three inn the defunct ABA, one NBA) and has a lifetime record of 1,327-1,011 and was 9-19 for the Bobcats this season.
He was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 and the National JSHoF in 1994.
KK regular Ari sent this e-mail earlier today:
Larry Brown, probably my favorite basketball coach of all time, certainly the guy I’ve followed most closely growing up, is out as Charlotte Bobcats [head coach]. Certainly not stunning given his mercurial history, his penchant to switch teams often, and his perfectionist nature, often blaming himself when things go wrong. Still, it leaves me without a main MOT pro basketball coach to root for, and the feeling that I probably wasted about 200 bucks on the NBA league pass package. Watching Omri Casspi on the struggling Kings only gives you so much joy, lol, and Farmar and the Nets aren’t much better, plus they’re part of the local channels anyway.In any event, Brown wasn’t really going anywhere with the Bobcats. The team is poorly constructed, lacks real building block talent, and lost two of their best players last summer to free agency. Yet at age 70, you wonder if this is the end of the line for Brown, a pretty legendary coach, and the only guy to win both NBA and NCAA championships. I would have liked to see him go out on more of a winning note. Another downer is the fact that he was just 8 wins short of becoming the all-time record holder for most professional basketball wins, if you include his ABA and NBA coaching record…. It’s a real shame Charlotte and Michael Jordan didn’t let him at least stick around for the 8 more wins….I did just read some notes that he actually wants to coach again, so that’s pretty good news. Hopefully, still coaching at his age, you can actually go out with a legit contender. He is very well connected, and I wouldn’t be totally shocked if he surfaces with a number of teams next season for one last run. We’ll see if it happens though, as sometimes age discrimination becomes an unsaid factor, even if you still appear to be in great shape both mentally and physically.
Oh well, bit of a downer to close out the year. I think you get a kick out of following MOT athletes more than the coaches, which I can understand certainly, but I’ve always thought the mental angle of coaching was pretty cool too, and of course, like the athletes, there aren’t a lot of MOTs on the sidelines either. Perhaps a bit of a surprise, given that Jews generally make good teachers. Looks like the number is dwindling too, without Brown, at least for the time being…
Kent Smith/NBAE/Getty Images
Thanks for posting, Ron. Again, hope it’s not the last we hear from LB.