NBA: Another Go-Around for ‘Next Town’ Larry Brown?

Larry Brown’s work with the Indiana Pacers is commemorated inside a display in Indianapolis’ downtown Warehouse District near Bankers Life Field House. (Flickr.com photo by JMR_Photography)

With nearly half the teams in the NBA either already having replaced their coach or looking for their next guy, it’s not a complete shock that Larry Brown’s name has surfaced in the rumor mill yet again.

According to the Detroit Free Press, there is interest in the 72-year-old Brown from the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and a third team, possibly the Los Angeles Clippers. For all three teams, it would be a second tour for Brown, who coached the then-New Jersey Nets from 1981-83, the Clippers from 1992-93 and the 76ers from 1997-2003.

However, CSNPhilly.com reported on Wednesday, June 5, that Brown is happy in his current job, but might be interested in running an NBA team.

Brown is back in the college ranks, having just completed his first season at Southern Methodist University. The Mustangs were 15-17 under Brown last season, but according to Rivals.com, SMU is bringing in the 14th-best recruiting class in the entire nation, led by five-star shooting guard Keith Frazier out of Kimball High School in Dallas. Landing a top-20 talent a major recruiting coup for Brown and SMU, whose last NCAA tournament appearance was in 1993.

Brown is the very definition of a basketball lifer and he’s always been an aggressive sort, as evidenced from this fight with Duke’s Art Heyman while Brown was a player at North Carolina in 1961.

He was an All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection as a senior in 1963 and was drafted by the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets. But at 5’9”, Brown was deemed too small for the NBAA and he played AAU ball before getting an opportunity with the New Orleans Buccaneers in the American Basketball Association.

Brown played five years in the ABA with the Bucs, Oakland Oaks, Washington Capitols, Virginia Squires and Denver Rockets, leading the league in assists in each of his first three seasons and quarterbacking the Oaks—led by Rick Barry and Doug Moe offensively—to the 1969 ABA title.

His coaching career started immediately after his retirement. Leaving the game as a player following the 1971-72 season because of hip problems, the Carolina Cougars snapped up the 32-year-old Brown to be their head coach. Brown led the Cougars to a 57-27 record and the Eastern Division title, earning ABA Coach of the Year honors.

After one more season in Carolina, Brown left to take over the newly renamed Denver Nuggets in 1974 and won 125 games in his two ABA seasons with the Nuggets, earning two more Coach of the Year trophies along the way.

Brown stayed with the Nuggets when they transitioned to the NBA in 1976 and remained in Denver until resigning in February 1979 with Denver holding a 28-25 record.

Shortly thereafter, Brown resurfaced at UCLA, where he led the Bruins to the 1980 Final Four, an appearance that was later vacated by the NCAA.

After one more season in Westwood, Brown returned to the NBA with the New Jersey Nets. After leading New Jersey to their first two winning seasons after joining the NBA, Brown resigned with six games remaining in the 1982-83 season to take the head coaching job at Kansas.

He spent five years in Lawrence, winning a national title in 1988 and reaching the Final Four in 1986, before returning to the NBA a third time, this time with the San Antonio Spurs.

In January 1992, he asked the Spurs to fire him .. and they obliged. A month later, he turned up as coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, where he led the team to the playoffs twice in one full season and part of a second.

But he left the Clips in the summer of 1993 for the Indiana Pacers—giving Brown the distinction as the only coach to lead all four of the former ABA franchises in the NBA. Brown spent an eternity (for him) in Indiana, four seasons, and twice took the Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals.

In 1997, Brown either resigned or was fired—there are conflicting stories even 16 years later—after a 39-43 season for the Pacers, but he wasn’t out of work long, joining the Philadelphia 76ers as coach and general manager.

The GM gig lasted just one season, but Brown was coach in Philadelphia for six seasons—the longest stint of his coaching career—and was highlighted by an appearance in the 2001 NBA Finals.

From there, it was off to Detroit in 2003. Brown replaced Rick Carlisle and led the Pistons to the NBA championship in 2004—making Brown the only coach to win both NCAA tournament and NBA titles.

But by the end of the 2004-05 season, with the Pistons making another run at the Finals, Brown was job shopping and wound up with the New York Knicks.

His lone season in his hometown was a disaster as the Knicks went 23-59 and he was let go at year’s end.

After a two-year break from coaching, Brown resurfaced in 2008 with the Charlotte Bobcats. He led Charlotte to its only playoff appearance in 2010, but resigned 28 games into the 2010-11 season over differences with management over player decisions.

Brown talked about his coaching career with NBA.com in April 2012.

It’s been a long, strange coaching trip for Larry Brown. Does he end up back on an NBA sideline? At age 72, my first instinct would be to say it’s unlikely … but with Larry Brown, one can never be too sure.

After all, no one thought he’d take on a rebuilding project such as SMU at this stage of his career, either.