ESPN: Thanks, Larry, for the worst season in Knicks history

[conqueso]

Did a search to see if someone had posted this, and couldn't find it, so here it is:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?id=2397622

By Ken Shouler
ESPN.com

Take it from a lifelong Knicks fan: This edition is the sorriest ever. And the reason is Larry Brown.

The last Knicks championship was 33 years ago ... 33 -- that was the number of Patrick Ewing's jersey and Cazzie Russell's jersey. That was six presidents ago. In the spring of 1973, the World Trade Center officially opened. The Watergate hearings had just begun.

It has been a long time between sips of champagne. This year has made it seem intolerably longer.

Before his hiring, Brown was anointed as the Socrates of the sidelines, capable of divining the inner mysteries of 12-man harmony. He said coaching the Knicks was his "dream job" and that former Knicks coach Red Holzman was once his "hero."

No rational person expected the 2006 Knicks to play at the divine level of Holzman's 1970 and 1973 championship teams. After all, six Hall of Famers emerged from those two squads.

But Brown signed for a price that could have paid for New York's previous 20 coaches combined, to navigate the Knicks' floundering ship in the direction of the team's golden age.

He has not merely failed in that effort. He has failed utterly and to a degree no one could have imagined. Worse, he has done so without dignity or grace or accountability. His performance throughout this season has been petty and mean-spirited.

Brown has employed 39 different starting lineups. No one, not even his own players, can divine his kaleidoscopic pattern of lineups and subs utions. If you can figure it out, please get in touch with me for your next assignment: to explain the sound of one-handed clapping.

New York won 33 games last season, and talk before this season centered on how Brown probably needed to add just 10 wins to get New York into a postseason tournament that welcomes more than half the teams in the league. As it turns out, he wouldn't have needed 10. But it's a moot point -- the Knicks are on pace to finish 21-61. Did the Knicks hire Brown to subtract a dozen wins?

What else has gone wrong?

Well, he has dogged Stephon Marbury, his best player, running him down in the press on a regular basis. The Marbury slamming started at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and continued last August -- just a month after Brown was hired -- when he asserted that Allan Houston was New York's "best player" last year.

Oh, really? The same Allan Houston who missed 62 games and averaged 11 points last year was better than Marbury, who played every game and posted 21 points and eight assists a night? Explain that one. Moreover, explain why you would say that aloud.

To be sure, Marbury is an easy target. His detractors rattle off his failures in Minnesota, Phoenix and New Jersey as readily as they bring up Brown's record of improving his teams.

Larry Brown has attained cult status as a thinking man's coach. He coached the 2004 Pistons to a le. He has made many teams better than he found them. The other side of bettering them is leaving them: He has coached nine ABA and NBA teams in 22 years.

But his handling of Marbury and the rest of the Knicks demonstrates his willingness to scapegoat his players. It seems that Brown believes he is responsible when his teams win, but not when they lose.

"I've made every team I ever coached better," he said. "Every one. Look, I've been coaching how many years? I never left a team in worse shape than I got it. Not one. Now think about that. Think about me and think about the guy who's talking. I never left a team in worse shape. Never asked anything of my players any different than I'm doing right now. Think about that. Think about that. So the bottom line is, I want us to rebound, defend, share the ball, play hard. That's all. If you can't do that, if that's not important enough to you, it's not on me. It's not on me."

It's not on me. It's on Marbury, the guy who leads the team in minutes, scoring, assists and steals -- one of two players in NBA history to average 20 points and eight assists for his career. (Oscar Robertson is the other.)

When teams play worse, it's not Brown's fault. He had very similar critiques of the Pistons when he coached in Detroit. For instance: "We have to play a lot harder, we have to be a lot more aggressive, we have to share the ball better, rebound the ball better. I think those are things that you talk about every game, though. I say this over and over again. I write on the board before every game, play hard, play unselfishly, play smart, try to defend and have fun."

According to Brown, he wins games but doesn't lose them.

To reinforce his points, Brown criticizes his players relentlessly, both publicly and privately.

"Never in all my years have I seen a coach run down his best player in the press like Brown," one veteran NBA writer said.

"I covered him for six years in Philadelphia and he did it all the time," said another, unsurprised at his antics this year.

To get some perspective on the Knicks' disastrous season and Brown's handling of his team, I talked to the player I consider the greatest Knick of all, Walt Frazier, a longtime color commentator for Knicks games. What does Frazier think about Brown's tactic of playing canary to the media? Did Red Holzman settle scores in print?

"Red would get in your face," Frazier said, laughing. "But not in the press."

Bob McAdoo, now a Miami assistant coach, played for Jack Ramsay on the Buffalo Braves during 1973-76 and for Riley with two Laker le teams in 1982 and 1985. Did either of those coaches upbraid players in the press?

"Oh no," McAdoo replied. "Everything was in-house, behind closed doors. The fans never knew the inner workings of the team."

Why did those coaches hold their fire in the media?

"What good could come out of that?" McAdoo added. "Why attack your top players? They are prideful and they're not going to take an attack from anyone."

I asked Frazier more specifically about Brown's contention that Marbury is the problem.

"Stephon is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't [according to Brown]," said Frazier. "If he scores, he's selfish. If he doesn't, he's not playing up to his potential.

"They have to get along," Frazier said. "Marbury wants to win. He came up to me on the plane and pointed to my [1973 championship] ring and said, 'I want what you have.' Besides, the guy has skills; he can get to the basket against anyone."

Frazier ought to know. Consider the greatest day in team history, May 8, 1970. New York played Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Lakers -- who had Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain -- with Reed, their center and league MVP, badly injured. Frazier filled the void, recording 36 points, 19 assists and seven rebounds in a 113-99 victory.

"Red always instructed us to hit the open man," Frazier said. "That night I was the open man."

This season sullies that '69-70 season and some of the other greatest memories from Knicks history -- the 1973 championship squad and its legendary team play; the overachieving '84 Knicks, led by coach Hubie Brown and superstar Bernard King; the physical, ferocious '94 squad coached by Pat Riley; and the team of seven seasons ago, which made a surprise dash to the Finals.

Across nearly 50 years, the coaches of the best Knicks teams -- Joe Lapchick, Red Holzman, Hubie Brown, Pat Riley, Jeff Van Gundy -- sucked every ounce of talent and effort from their troops. They didn't always win it all, but they emptied the tank in the attempt. When they lost, they lost without disgrace.

Even when the Knicks were truly bad, the scent of those years didn't rival the unbearable stench of this one. This season is singular, dubiously singular, in turning losing into disgraceful losing. o, Larry.

Kenneth Shouler is the editor of and a writer for "Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia." Send him questions or comments here.

~~~~~~~~

Couple of things about this article that make it noteworthy:

- Kenneth Shoulder compares Stephon Marbury to Oscar Robertson.
- Walt Frazier actually thinks Marbury is motivated to win a le. (!)
- Larry Brown shoved all of the blame for this season on his players ("It's not on me. It's not on me.")
- Shoulder, on the other hand, criticizes Larry with the kind of vitriolic language reserved for people like Hitler and Stalin.

Thoughts?

[IceCold CB1]

I loved LB when he was in detroit, but winning masked a lot of his problems. Hes one of the most selfish coaches in the L. If his name isnt being brought up, go out of his way to make sure people know how great he is. The way he handles team problems is pathetic. Its an unwritten rule that you never discuss team matters with the press, but behind closed doors.
Now, although im a big Isiah fan, i realize that he hasnt constructed a very good team in NY. However, he has upgraded the talent to where they shouldnt be a lottery team. Larrys gone through starting lineup after starting lineup, and hasnt allowed anyone to find continuity. Whenever one of the rooks start to play well, they are benched without a reason. The players are the ones who have to win games, so throwing your players under the bus in front of the media isnt what winning coaches do.

[ducks]

New York Daily News
Fed up Knicks rip into mates
BY FRANK ISOLA
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Wednesday, April 5th, 2006

WASHINGTON - It isn't just Larry Brown who is disgusted by the Knicks' lack of professionalism and pride. Several players expressed similar thoughts during a postgame team meeting that included Brown, Quentin Richardson and Malik Rose, accusing some Knicks of not caring and not competing.
"I played for the Clippers and we were bad, but I don't remember being around anything like this," Richardson said following Washington's 105-90 victory last night. "I never lost games like this. It seems like we don't care."

The Knicks, who dropped their ninth straight game and fell to 19-54, barely challenged the Wizards. They fell behind by 31 early in the fourth quarter and finished the game with 28 turnovers and 30 field goals.

Rose, who won two championships with the San Antonio Spurs, couldn't let another dreadful performance pass without saying something.

"Will it make a difference, I don't know," Rose said. "My gut is, I doubt it to be honest. It's at the point where I have to say something. If it falls on deaf ears so be it."

When asked why his message would fall on deaf ears, Rose added: "Maybe some guys don't want to hear it, some guys don't want to do it. At this point I don't really care. I'm going to do what I can to make this team better. I can't control people's at udes at this point in the year. They're so set in what we've been doing. If you want to do it that way, do it."

Rose, who last week called the season an embarrassment, was visibly upset throughout the game and took his frustration out by kicking the scorer's table. Earlier this season, Richardson wanted to take his frustration out on Stephon Marbury before being restrained by teammates.

"I can't even explain it, man," Richardson said. "I've had a horrible season but I'm going to come out and play hard. You can tell I want to win, you can tell I care about the way we're losing and the whole situation. It just feels bad because you don't feel that the whole team feels that way."

Brown never sounded so embarrassed by his team's performance and at ude, saying, "Somehow you got to find five guys that care enough to compete. You got to hope you have enough pride to compete. I never in my life thought I'd have to be in a position where you're begging guys to play.

"I've never been in anything close to this. It's my responsibility."

A majority of the players, led by Marbury, tuned out Brown long ago. Now, players are acting insubordinate toward him and displaying a lack of respect. Players openly talk back to Brown during games or just ignore him completely.

Nate Robinson's relationship with Brown is deteriorating. After being criticized for taking ill-advised shots, Robinson attempted just one shot in 26 minutes last night. Robinson's defiant behavior was similar to what Marbury did during a game against Orlando in December.

"I told (Nate) it's just as selfish not taking an open shot as it is not passing the ball," Brown said.

Brown went on to call the game "one of the worst" while Steve Francis compared the mood around the team to a funeral. Richardson made a point to defend Brown and place the blame on the players.

"This has been going on the whole season so I don't want to say that coach is losing the team," he said. "I take my hat off to coach and the whole coaching staff. I don't know how they made it this far with us.

"I think a lot of people in that position would say forget it. None of the coaches have done that."

[Darrin]

I loved LB when he was in detroit, but winning masked a lot of his problems. Hes one of the most selfish coaches in the L. If his name isnt being brought up, go out of his way to make sure people know how great he is. The way he handles team problems is pathetic. Its an unwritten rule that you never discuss team matters with the press, but behind closed doors.
Now, although im a big Isiah fan, i realize that he hasnt constructed a very good team in NY. However, he has upgraded the talent to where they shouldnt be a lottery team. Larrys gone through starting lineup after starting lineup, and hasnt allowed anyone to find continuity. Whenever one of the rooks start to play well, they are benched without a reason. The players are the ones who have to win games, so throwing your players under the bus in front of the media isnt what winning coaches do.

The one thing I have learned about Larry Brown is that he needs to have an enemy to fight with, to play out the entire player-coach dynamic. He started being called "the best coach in basketball" after his time in Philadelphia. Before that, he was known as a great mind, but hard to deal with, and his name was said in the same breath as a Mike Fratello or Doug Collins.

He had the perfect player in Allen Iverson because he knew very little about working the media, and he played into cultural stereotypes of the wrong kind of athlete. Brown got a lot of credit for the way Iverson played, and very little flack for letting Jerry Stackhouse, Larry Hughes, and Tim Thomas fail under his watch.

When he got to Detroit, there was no such foil. People seem to have read into the public comments by Chauncey Billups to mean that the coach was working his miracles again; an assumption that Chauncey never knew how to be a point guard and had no inclination towards the position. Billups could easily have sunk to the Iverson-Marbury war-of-words. But that's not Chauncey. The guy was a willing student, and that meant the coach manipulating the players through negative comments in the media couldn't work with the Pistons, and that's why he wasn't comfortable here. A pattern has emerged for me in interpreting his behavior. That's why, for the first time since leaving San Antonio, Brown had a PR storm in the 2005 Conference Finals. He had a solid nucleus, guys that got along, a savvy GM, an owner willing to spend, and the team won the biggest of games. Leaving that meant that Brown was more committed to moving than to finding, searching for the right situation.

There's no question that the overall talent level in New York is higher than when Isiah Thomas took the job. However, they have very few low-maintanence players. Everyone has an ego that needs to be massaged, including their coach. And that's the reason the the Knicks are failing: hubris.

Listen to the fight that Brown and Marbury had in the media. One is claiming that the player is the best at his position in the game, the other is claiming that he has a better resume than his star player. Mature, huh?

Then there's the talent that doesn't compliment one another. When your point guard is shoot-first, every single player alongside should be an above-average passer for their position. Team ball movement should be a major point of emphasis.

When your franchise big-man can't rebound, then you need to surround him with guys who can, the best at their position. When the star player has a huuuge ego, the guys around him need to be more humble. None of these things can be said about the Knicks.

We can blame Brown all we want, but he hasn't changed what he wants to do, Thomas just has given him a drawer full of knives when all he needs is a fork. Every move this offseason outside drafting Channing Frye and David Lee has made the Knicks smaller, weaker defensively, and harder to manage in terms of the locker room. Could Brown get more out of this group? I really doubt it. Expectations were too high for this team.

[DarkReign]

^ Jesus! Write for a magazine already! Youre wasting talent at whatever it is you do for a living.

Seriously. Great post.

[TDMVPDPOY]

i dont think brown d up the team, more like IT bring in these foolish overrated me myself and i type of players. Jalen rose was a good move, but the rest of the other players they got through FA b4 and durin the season were bad moves. KNICKS shouldve traded frye for KG when they had the chance.......

[Dario]

Knowing how to make a bond with players for them to trust you and work harder for you is THE thing which separates good coach from great coach. Criticizing players in the press aint going to make things better in the locker room. Brown is just stupid, old and stuburn guy, who is making millions and don't give a about anybody but himself.

[Trainwreck2100]

Without New York's suckage, where would the Nets get their fans?

[Extra Stout]

Brown is an effective coach in the right situation. But he has failed miserably as coach of the Knicks.

His failure to motivate his team is his responsibility.

But I certainly put more blame on Stephon Marbury. He is the absolute worst "good" player in the history of basketball. Think about it -- he puts up 21 and 8 year after year, yet makes his teams suck so bad that he has inspired a whole new approach to basketball statistics to explain it. He is the absolute epitome of the selfish, stats-first stereotype.

And then, of course, there's Isiah, whose incompetence has become cliche.

My take on the situation is that Stephon is so utterly uncoachable, and the Knicks organization so dysfunctional, that not even Larry Brown can turn them around.

[Spurminator]

Yep.

Stephon is the League LVP. If the Knicks could somehow manage a trade for Antoine Walker, they would arguably have the 3 Least Valuable Players of the last ten years all on one team.

[Sec24Row7]

We'll see what Larry can get done next year.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Yep.

Stephon is the League LVP. If the Knicks could somehow manage a trade for Antoine Walker, they would arguably have the 3 Least Valuable Players of the last ten years all on one team.

That's what I was thinking.

No one could win with Marbury and the Franchise as their backcourt. If they can add Walker and Spreewell, and maybe throw in a Keith Van Horn that team will be all set.