Looking back on Larry Brown's tumultuous coaching career
09-29-2015•
Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown has had an illustrious coaching career in basketball at several levels, but it hasn't been without its share of scandal.
On Tuesday, Brown — who is the current head coach at SMU — was hit with a two-year show-cause penalty and a nine-game suspension resulting from a "lack of coaching control" charge during his tenure in Dallas.
SMU is Brown's third college gig and the third time a program he's headed has been sanctioned by the NCAA.
Here's a look back at Brown's tumultous career through the years — the highs and lows, as well as the scandals.
1972-74
Team: Carolina Cougars (ABA)
The Cougars were technically Brown's second-ever head coaching job. He started his career at Davidson College, just north of Charlotte, but never coached a game, instead resigning midway through the summer.
With the Cougars, Brown went on to become the ABA's Coach of the Year during the 1972-73 season and finished his time in the Queen City by leading his team to a 104-64 overall record in two seasons.
1974-79
Team: Denver Nuggets
When the Carolina Cougars ABA franchise decided to relocate to St. Louis in 1974, Larry Brown decided he would relocate too — to Denver that summer. New owners bought the franchise and tagged Brown as the head coach midway through the summer of 1974. The Nuggets franchise began as an ABA team, but midway through his tenure became an NBA franchise.
Brown wasn't exactly enamored with the allure of the Nuggets in the NBA at first, telling reporters in November 1976 "I don't think it's all it's cracked up to be. In some places we've been treated like second-class citizens. I've heard remarks that indicate people think we should be paying our dues this year."
Despite his skepticism, Brown went on to be named ABA Coach of the Year in both the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons and his 1974 team owned the regular-season home winning record (40-2) that stood unbroken until the 1985-86 Celtics team.
He resigned midway through the 1978-79 season after the Nuggets got off to a 28-25 start.
1979-81
Team: UCLA
After resigning from the Nuggets, Brown landed his first NCAA gig with the Bruins following Gary Cunningham's departure. Brown took his first team — one comprised mostly of freshmen — to the 1980 NCAA title game. The Bruins fell, 59-54, and the game was later vacated after the NCAA determined Brown used two ineligible players during UCLA's run. His Bruins made the NCAA Tournament both seasons he was head coach, and he owned a 5-2 tournament record with UCLA.
UCLA was placed on probation in 1981 after the NCAA's findings. Brown claims he left UCLA because the athletic director who hired him — a man named J.D. Morgan — had died, he told Grantland two years ago.
1981-83
Team: New Jersey Nets
Brown retreated back to the NBA for two rather uneventful seasons with the Nets. They finished fourth in the Eastern Conference in his first season and were ousted by the Washington Bullets in the first round of the NBA Playoffs that year. The team fared better in Brown's second year, racking up a 49-33 record, which was the franchise's best mark since the NBA/ABA merger seven years prior.
He resigned as Nets coach in April of the 1983 season, just a few months before the NBA season ended, to take the open Kansas job. He originally tried to keep it a secret that he was considering taking the Kansas job, but the rumors began to swirl. He told reporters at the time of his resignation: "It wasn't supposed to happen this way.''
1983-89
Team: Kansas
Part of what brought Brown to Kansas was his connection with Dean Smith — his former coach while at UNC. ''I think I belong in a place like Kansas,'' Brown said in his Nets resignation press conference. ''I like the community, the atmosphere and, you know, Coach Smith went to Kansas. And you know how much he means to me.''
He was named Coach of the Year in 1988 after his team (which included superstar Danny Manning) won the national championship. Brown left Kansas with a 177–61 overall record, five NCAA Tournament appearances, three Sweet 16s, two Final Four trips and a national championship in his five seasons.
But similar to his time with UCLA, an NCAA investigation after his departure unveiled that Brown had given a plane ticket to a potential transfer player for him to visit his ill grandmother. The NCAA banned Kansas from the 1989 tournament as a result.
1989-92
Team: San Antonio Spurs
As Kansas came to terms with its sanctions, Brown returned to the NBA game, spending three full seasons with the Spurs. The Spurs made the playoffs in the final two of his three full seasons. He departed 38 games into his fourth season.
1992-93
Team: Los Angeles Clippers
Brown took over the Clippers after leaving the Spurs early in the 1992 season. He spent two relatively unremarkable seasons with the Clippers, aside from leading both of his Los Angeles team to the playoffs back-to-back. He resigned following the 1993 season despite the two years left on his contract.
1993-97
Team: Indiana Pacers
Brown's tendency to bounce from place to place began to catch up with him when he arrived in Indiana. After one of his first practices of the 1993 season, Brown publicly addressed his "nomadic" past. "I would have preferred to stay in one place 25 or 30 years like (Dean) Smith and have a relationship with all my kids. But it hasn't worked out that way. The first team I coached moved after my second year," he told the Chicago Tribune that October.
"One year there are 13, 14 coaching changes and I'm in San Antonio and get fired for the first time in my life, but it's `Larry left again.' I'm proud of what I do, and I bust my tail. The thing I want most is for everyone to say, `He made us better when he was here and left us better than when he came.' "
Despite the initial strife, Brown's tenure with the Pacers began with a bang. He led Indiana to three consecutive winning seasons and took the Pacers to the playoffs three times — even making the Eastern Conference Finals two of those seasons.
Indiana finished the 1996-97 season with a 39-43 record — only the second losing record of his career — and Brown departed for Philadelphia.
1997-2003
Team: Philadelphia 76ers
When he left Indiana, Brown took on a new role in addition to his head coaching duties: VP of basketball operations. In his six seasons as head coach, the Sixers made the playoffs five consecutive years, including the team's 2001 run to the NBA Finals. Brown picked up Coach of the Year honors that same year.
Perhaps one of the most well-documented parts of Brown's tenure in Philadelphia was his oft-tumultuous relationship with star point guard Allen Iverson who was named the 1997 Rookie of the Year and went on to become the franchise's most important player of the decade and an 11-time NBA All-Star. The two became an inexorable part of Philadelphia basketball lore despite not winning a championship in their time together.
2003-05
Team: Detroit Pistons
Brown took over the Pistons at the beginning of the 2003-04 season and promptly led them to the 2004 NBA Championship with a 54-28 overall record. Just reaching the playoffs that season marked an incredible accomplishment for the journeyman head coach. He became the first coach in NBA history to lead seven different franchises to the NBA playoffs.
While with Detroit, Brown accepted the role of head coach of the U.S. Olympic basketball team, but the team fell flat, returning from Atlanta with a bronze medal.
Brown and the Pistons agreed to part ways after what the New York Times called "tense negotiations" in the summer of 2005.
2005-06
Team: New York Knicks
Brown's tenure with the Knicks was a trainwreck. Despite leading the team to a franchise-worst 59 losses, Brown became the highest-paid coach in NBA history. He was owed $41 million when he was fired after one year with the team, and eventually settled in court for $18.5 million.
2008-10
Team: Charlotte Bobcats
After a disastrous end to his time with the Knicks, Brown went underground for a few years. He returned to basketball in 2008 with the Bobcats, who became his ninth NBA franchise. The 2008-09 season was another losing season for Brown, but the team managed to follow it up with a 44-38 season in his second year and the franchise's first playoff berth. His third season as coach began with an abysmal 9-19 start and Brown reportedly became increasingly frustrated with his staff and players. After a third game in a 10-day span where the Bobcats lost by 31 or more points, Brown had had enough and owner Michael Jordan announced the following day that they had parted ways.
2012-present
Team: Southern Methodist University
After SMU failed miserably during its 2012 coaching search in which several big names turned down the job, the school decided to hire Brown, then 71. He hadn't coached a college basketball game in more than two decades, but SMU needed a body so he got the job.
SMU finished tied third in the American Athletic Conference in his first season at the helm. His second season ended with a 27-10 mark and he was named a finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year award while winning the USBWA Coach of the Year award in SMU's district. Many felt that the Mustangs — who were named the NIT's No. 1 seed — were snubbed by the 2013-14 selection committee and left on the outside looking in for that year's NCAA Tournament.
In his most recent season, Brown led SMU to the American Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles, and the Mustangs were 27-7 overall.
In the wake of the NCAA's sanctions against SMU, Brown, 75, will be forced to sit out nine of SMU's 2015-16 games, as well as serve a two-year show-cause penalty.
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