Larry Brown knows how to teach the winning formula, regardless of what level or team he is coaching at.
He's coached more basketball than some people will see in a lifetime and has been successful in producing winning teams and teaching players the game at every stop along the way. Larry Brown is what is referred to as a basketball lifer.
Some time in the future when his coaching career in the NBA or college ceases to exist, you can bet he will be coaching at some high school, middle school or YMCA league because he just has that kind of passion for the game.
This year's edition of the Charlotte Bobcats is another prime example of how Brown's plan usually works. A stickler for detail and a perfectionist, Brown comes into new situations and goes about renovating it right away. He sees everything and if he doesn't like how it's being done, which is most of the time, he makes changes and is insistent that it is done his way. Brown has an all-encompassing statement about the game and it is a simple one: "Play the right way."
He's hard on players until they realize he just wants them -- and ultimately, the team -- to improve. The only way to have a better team is to improve individual players. The end justifies the means as at times, he can be extremely demanding on his charges. Remember the Mister Robinson's neighbourhood commercials done by Nike in the late 1980s where the admiral, David Robinson poked fun at Brown and not inviting him back to the neighbourhood because "coach Brown yells too much."
"Even though the pro game and college game are two different games, most kids want to improve," said Phil Ford, one of Brown's assistants in Charlotte and famous North Carolina alum. "Most kids want to get better and if you can show a young man that what you are telling him will make him a better player, you're going to get a positive response and he's been able to get through (thanks to that) to young men on the collegiate and pro level."
But what does playing the right way mean in these times where the concern for most players is around "putting up numbers" and making the nightly highlight shows with an attitude of "I'm getting' mine"? Well it's quite simple in its articulation but more difficult to put into practice according to Brown.
"Play hard, we write that on the board," said Brown. "And you have got play unselfishly, you've got to play smart and you've got to have fun, that's what my coaches always told us. We put those four things down and we emphasize two other things, you've got to rebound and defend."
There have been many stops for Brown in his coaching career but in a nutshell he has stressed these principles in every one of the 13 head coaching jobs he has held since 1972.
"I've been so many places and you try to develop a culture but if your teams play hard, play unselfishly, tries to defend and rebound you usually have a chance to be successful," concluded Brown.
These basic tenets that form the basis for Brown's philosophy during a coaching career that has seen him do something that no other coach in the history of the game as ever accomplished. Brown is the only coach to win both an NBA and NCAA title and while many college coaches struggle in the move up to the professional ranks, Brown has made the transition seamlessly on five different occasions.
So rather than go for pure talent at every turn, Brown will take the role player who may have a flaw in his game and work with him to create a better all-around player. And when it comes to star players, every one of them, at times in retrospect, has looked at Brown as a coach who made an impression about teaching them to play the right way. But make no mistake, Brown has deep-rooted feelings for players that work hard and try to do their best to become better players and people.
When asked about his NBA title team that won it all in Detroit during the 2004 season without a true superstar, Brown was quick to smile and quip, "I'll argue with you on that one." But what he did admit was the team stuck to the aforementioned principles for success which helped guide them to the crown.
It has been said here on many occasions that Brown is not happy unless he has something to be unhappy about with his team. He once traded away his point guard Mark Jackson only to reacquire him in a trade a year later.
So in knowing Brown's "MO" you could see the year playing out the way it has for Bobcats. Charlotte struggled early as it took time for Brown's mindset to be engrained in the team. But after a 7-18 start, the Bobcats are 24-20 only a game away from the final playoff spot with 13 games left to play.
Brown has been in the post-season in 17 of his 23 NBA seasons and while player's individual statistics from the ABA have been combined with NBA stats to form an aggregate total since the merger, the same is not true for coaches. If that was the case, Brown would be third on the all-time wins list behind Lenny Wilkens and Don Nelson. As an aside, why shouldn't those wins count, heck if the players stats are included, didn't someone coach those games?
At some point down the road, the now 68-year-old Brown will step away from the spotlight of coaching in a high-profile job. But you can bet as long as there is someone willing to hire him, he will pack up his formula for success and roll into another spot to help some group of players improve as individuals and more importantly as a team as they learn to play the right way.
