leemajors
06-04-2005, 01:56 AM
Just Gimme Some Truth
Insider
Walton
By Bill Walton
ESPN Insider
Archive
Related Video:
NBA fines Wallace and Karl ESPN Motion
I wanted so badly for this Eastern Conference final to be a great series, hopefully one of the best of all time. I love this game and I know how important this all is when everything is on the line here and I came with good intentions.
But Larry Brown has shown his true colors, letting the disease of conceit create an untenable mess that I can't see a way out of for him. This is officially a disaster of epic proportions.
When this story first started simmering early this week, we were all waiting for the next Mark Felt and the new Deep Throat to shine the light in the darkest of corners. Amazingly, we didn't have to wait anywhere near 30 years for this one. Brown took care of that when he stuck his own foot deep down in his throat.
Shame on Larry Brown. Rest assured I have no rooting interest whatsoever here, other than for a great game and I find myself mad as can be, unable to let it go.
This scam is the Jeff Van Gundy story on steroids. The difference being that Van Gundy called in the question of the integrity of the league and the honesty of the refs and is rewarded with a contract extension, while Brown quits on his team in the middle of the Eastern Conference championship game and is given the state of Ohio and the future of the NBA.
Brown's selfishness and his greedy addiction to his own personal agenda has left an indelible stain on everything and his egregious actions have completely overshadowed a potentially great series. Now, Brown is taking the low road by blaming the media and laying it on the messenger as if this is all somehow our fault.
He is doing things on a continuing basis that he would never tolerate from his own players. All we ever hear from this guy is about doing things the "right way." Please, Larry, explain to me how this can be the "right way."
He is coaching one team and running another and in a business that reeks of conflicts of interest, this is the ultimate conflict of interest. One of the major roles of a good coach is to set the moral tone, for lesser, younger and inexperienced team members to follow.
But when I watch Larry Brown today in the huddles, at his press conferences, anything and everything, really all I see is fakery. A good coach with quality values and the best interest of the team at heart has the difficult task of asking his players to do things that are risky and not always in their best interest. He has abrogated that position of authority.
If I played for him and he did to me what he has done to his Detroit Pistons, I would lose complete faith and confidence in him as both a coach and a person. The next time he called the team together before the game for his last minute pre-game speech in the locker room, I would just get up and walk out asking him on my way out the door why I should ever listen to anything he has to say anymore.
How can they ever trust anything he does again? How can you believe anything he ever says again?
He has done the worst thing that anyone can do to a group dynamic, he has made himself the story and it's not even a good story at that. The Brown apologists will now start coming out of the woodwork. They will start spinning blame, responsibility and accountability on someone or something else, but the truth is this whole mess is as bad as it gets.
Those same enablers will claim that the Pistons gave the Cavaliers the right to talk to Brown and that this is all a non-story. The Pistons sure seem to be saying to Cleveland, that if you want him you can have him and none too soon.
His actions show that he cares about nothing but himself and if he doesn't care about his own team, why should we care about anything that's going on here?
The owner, Mr. Davidson, is one of the classiest owners in NBA history. He deserves so much better than this and what about the Piston fans, the ones who really make this all work?
I'm amazed that he's allowed to stay on as a member of the Pistons particularly in light of all the "right way" preaching that we heard this summer at the Athens Olympics about giving him players who want to be there as part of a real team. It sure seems that he's the one who has to go.
My other question is: Where is LeBron James in all of this? Why hasn't he spoken up? Is he in on this or is there some sort of a post-Olympic hangover for LeBron about not getting a lot of playing time because of his coach who was so insistent on his players doing things the right way.
Somewhere, Dean Smith and the many distinguished North Carolina alumni are shaking their heads in disgust. This is the kind of thing you would expect from George Karl, but not Larry Brown. This is a guy who seemingly every other phrase out of his mouth is to please, do it the right way. Please, gag me with a spoon!
Now there's the question of the new Cleveland coach who is reportedly there because of Brown. I'm sure that Mike Brown is terrific in all things, but he has never coached an NBA game in his life and while everybody has to get their start somewhere, the Cavaliers have one chance to keep LeBron and they're going with a rookie coach?
This whole debacle cannot be about money for him because along with Don Nelson and Pat Riley, nobody has made a bigger fortune coaching in the NBA than Brown.
This whole story is so bad, that Rasheed Wallace now looks like the rational one of the bunch.
Bill Walton, an NBA analyst for ESPN, is a regular contributor to Insider.
harsh words from mr walton.
Insider
Walton
By Bill Walton
ESPN Insider
Archive
Related Video:
NBA fines Wallace and Karl ESPN Motion
I wanted so badly for this Eastern Conference final to be a great series, hopefully one of the best of all time. I love this game and I know how important this all is when everything is on the line here and I came with good intentions.
But Larry Brown has shown his true colors, letting the disease of conceit create an untenable mess that I can't see a way out of for him. This is officially a disaster of epic proportions.
When this story first started simmering early this week, we were all waiting for the next Mark Felt and the new Deep Throat to shine the light in the darkest of corners. Amazingly, we didn't have to wait anywhere near 30 years for this one. Brown took care of that when he stuck his own foot deep down in his throat.
Shame on Larry Brown. Rest assured I have no rooting interest whatsoever here, other than for a great game and I find myself mad as can be, unable to let it go.
This scam is the Jeff Van Gundy story on steroids. The difference being that Van Gundy called in the question of the integrity of the league and the honesty of the refs and is rewarded with a contract extension, while Brown quits on his team in the middle of the Eastern Conference championship game and is given the state of Ohio and the future of the NBA.
Brown's selfishness and his greedy addiction to his own personal agenda has left an indelible stain on everything and his egregious actions have completely overshadowed a potentially great series. Now, Brown is taking the low road by blaming the media and laying it on the messenger as if this is all somehow our fault.
He is doing things on a continuing basis that he would never tolerate from his own players. All we ever hear from this guy is about doing things the "right way." Please, Larry, explain to me how this can be the "right way."
He is coaching one team and running another and in a business that reeks of conflicts of interest, this is the ultimate conflict of interest. One of the major roles of a good coach is to set the moral tone, for lesser, younger and inexperienced team members to follow.
But when I watch Larry Brown today in the huddles, at his press conferences, anything and everything, really all I see is fakery. A good coach with quality values and the best interest of the team at heart has the difficult task of asking his players to do things that are risky and not always in their best interest. He has abrogated that position of authority.
If I played for him and he did to me what he has done to his Detroit Pistons, I would lose complete faith and confidence in him as both a coach and a person. The next time he called the team together before the game for his last minute pre-game speech in the locker room, I would just get up and walk out asking him on my way out the door why I should ever listen to anything he has to say anymore.
How can they ever trust anything he does again? How can you believe anything he ever says again?
He has done the worst thing that anyone can do to a group dynamic, he has made himself the story and it's not even a good story at that. The Brown apologists will now start coming out of the woodwork. They will start spinning blame, responsibility and accountability on someone or something else, but the truth is this whole mess is as bad as it gets.
Those same enablers will claim that the Pistons gave the Cavaliers the right to talk to Brown and that this is all a non-story. The Pistons sure seem to be saying to Cleveland, that if you want him you can have him and none too soon.
His actions show that he cares about nothing but himself and if he doesn't care about his own team, why should we care about anything that's going on here?
The owner, Mr. Davidson, is one of the classiest owners in NBA history. He deserves so much better than this and what about the Piston fans, the ones who really make this all work?
I'm amazed that he's allowed to stay on as a member of the Pistons particularly in light of all the "right way" preaching that we heard this summer at the Athens Olympics about giving him players who want to be there as part of a real team. It sure seems that he's the one who has to go.
My other question is: Where is LeBron James in all of this? Why hasn't he spoken up? Is he in on this or is there some sort of a post-Olympic hangover for LeBron about not getting a lot of playing time because of his coach who was so insistent on his players doing things the right way.
Somewhere, Dean Smith and the many distinguished North Carolina alumni are shaking their heads in disgust. This is the kind of thing you would expect from George Karl, but not Larry Brown. This is a guy who seemingly every other phrase out of his mouth is to please, do it the right way. Please, gag me with a spoon!
Now there's the question of the new Cleveland coach who is reportedly there because of Brown. I'm sure that Mike Brown is terrific in all things, but he has never coached an NBA game in his life and while everybody has to get their start somewhere, the Cavaliers have one chance to keep LeBron and they're going with a rookie coach?
This whole debacle cannot be about money for him because along with Don Nelson and Pat Riley, nobody has made a bigger fortune coaching in the NBA than Brown.
This whole story is so bad, that Rasheed Wallace now looks like the rational one of the bunch.
Bill Walton, an NBA analyst for ESPN, is a regular contributor to Insider.
harsh words from mr walton.