North Carolina Come On And Raise Up April 30, 2008
Posted by Neil in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farHe’s back! Larry Brown, the greatest mercenary in basketball coaching history is ready for stop #9 in his legendary and colorful NBA coaching career. Combine that with collegiate jobs at two of the blue bloods in college hoops at UCLA and Kansas among other places, and the vagabond has seen more of the country than even the paparazzi has seen of Britney or Paris’ forbidden regions.
Two other coaches in NBA history have coached 6 teams (Lenny Wilkens and Kevin Loughery), but Brown’s resume is as promiscuous as the most active nightlife workers in the Red Light District of Amsterdam. At first glance, the marriage between Brown and the Bobcats is one that was ordained by James Neismith himself in hoops heaven. Brown, a disciple of Dean Smith at North Carolina (albeit Brown is the most weathered apple to fall off Smith’s legendary coaching tree), gets to return to the Tar Heel State to make professional basketball relevant there for the first time since the early 90’s when ‘Zo was the baddest big man on the block, and Larry Johnson’s Grandma was on the forefront of sports fans nationwide.
While college basketball will always rain supreme in a state inhabited by Roy Williams’ (or Tyler Hansbrough’s) North Carolina, Coach K’s (please don’t ask me to spell it, I can, but don’t really want to) Blue Devils, and the forgotten but capable trio of NC State, Wake Forest (boy did they teach Tim Duncan to act, what Oscar winners do they have teaching drama there), and Davidson (at least until Steph Curry takes his range to the Association), Larry Brown has North Carolina bantering about professional basketball.
The Bobcats are a young and fairly talented team with the likes of Emeka Okafor, “Everybody Loves” Raymond Felton, JRich, and Gerald Wallace. This is a team that can certainly compete with the Toronto’s, Philly’s, and Atlanta’s of the world for playoff positioning in the next few seasons. Larry Brown loves a challenge and he has one in Charlotte. However, I think his real challenge will be working with the prodigal son of the state, the best man to ever lace them up, MJ.
I have no doubt that Larry Brown will mold the young Bobcats into a playoff team in year 1 or at worst 2. The problem for Brown is his wanton disdain for fully finishing a product that he has manufactured and developed. Yes, he won a championship with Detroit. However, he can never stay with an organization for more than 3 years without being courted by a more attractive (or lucerative) option, always abandoning his reclamation project while usually still in the R&D phase.
Compounding Brown’s inclination for coaching promiscuity will be what I predict to be a contentious relationship between one of the biggest coaching egos in modern professional sports in Brown, and the biggest ego we have seen in North American sports over the past two decades in Jordan. While everything might begin copisetic for the former Tar Heels, a power struggle may ensue with both men trying to justify their lofty heights on top of the NBA pecking order. While Jordan has proven to be the best ever on the court, his managerial career in the front office has been every bit as checkered as his reputation on the felt in a casino or in the bedroom with yet another luscious jersey chaser that may have stumbled up to him.
My prediction is that Brown does what he always does. He will turn the Bobcats into a solid Eastern Conference team and allow for this franchise to boast their chest with some modicum of respectability for the first time in their short existence. He will not be one and done like he was with my Knickerbockers. However, once he gets a chance to work with MJ and roll up his sleeves with him, he will run into the realization that he is clearly the #2 show in town and someone with the egotostical makeup that Brown possesses will not be able to handle it. While MJ shouldn’t be allowed to have the keys to the Bobcats car any more than John Daly or Carmelo Anthony should to theirs, he is untouchable in his home state. Larry Brown is merely a part-time conductor on the train that MJ continues to derail. Larry may be able to keep the locomotive on the tracks for a few miles, but eventually he will get off at the next attractive stop and Michael will allow for the train to fall into the abyss.
Larry, my advice to you as always is to rent not buy. NBA Team #10 is only one phone call and a couple of years away!
