| Thursday, July 26
By Jeffrey Denberg
Special to ESPN.com |
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Allen Iverson calls in with a headache, blows off a game-day practice. Iverson is suspended for one game and the 76ers lose in Miami. Iverson returns and the Sixers win three straight heading into Wednesday night's showdown with Toronto. Once again, we see why Larry Brown is the best coach in the business.
There are a few ways to measure coaching greatness. One is championships. Another is longevity, another the ability to make a difference.
|  | | Allen Iverson is no angel, but Brown has been able to control him. |
And the NBA has its great coaches.
Phil Jackson is a brilliant psychologist, who surrounds himself with old masters who teach system.
Pat Riley is a prison warden of a coach. He rules by fear.
Larry Brown is a teacher -- and that's the very definition of coach.
Al Menendez, the venerable scout with the Pacers, said working for Brown was his most unique experience. "You'd come in with scouting report on the next opponent and Larry wouldn't ask you any of the usual questions. All he'd want to know is whether there was anything the other guy was running that he could plug into his system. He'd look at the report, see something he liked and go out and install it right away. Then he'd use it against that team."
Sometimes Brown can be a nag. He drove Reggie Miller crazy because he wanted Miller to take the ball to the basket. Miller didn't want to change and Brown wouldn't leave him alone. Eventually, the coach earned a token victory.
Over the years he changed a lot of players. That's why he has won 1,127 games in two pro leagues and with two colleges. He averaged nearly 55 wins a year in the ABA, took UCLA to the national championship game, won the title with Kansas. He went 64-53 with the Clippers, in itself enough credential for the Hall of Fame. He and David Robinson saved the Spurs. He took on a Philadelphia team that had won 40 games combined in his previous two seasons and needed a year to get the Sixers into the playoffs.
But Brown's crowning achievement may be his ability to harness the rebellious, hip-hop Iverson.
Sixers owner Pat Croce knows that and he wants Brown to stay around. He's got Larry the Wanderer signed for two more years, but wants him to sign an extension.
Brown says he wants to finish his career in Philadelphia and he probably meant it when he said it. "That's my intention, I want to be here. I intend to be here if they want me here. I like my players, the people I work for and with; why would I want to leave?"
Why indeed. Brown's attorney and the Sixers are negotiating. Iverson says he wants his coach to stay.
Apparently, the only sticking point is Brown's refusal to delete the five-day out window he has at the end of each season. You can understand that. Larry might want to rebuild some high school team.
Around the League
No one should be surprised that Isaiah Rider was turned in for using marijuana. He has a misdemeanor record for possession in Portland. He's such a talented individual he turned a coke can into a pipe.
The public would never have learned about his latest escapade -- allegations that he smoked in an Orlando hotel room 12 to 16 hours before a game in which he shot 4-for-18. But Rider commandeered a microphone after the Hawks announced they would waive him last Friday. In a rambling discourse, he blamed teammates for turning him in to NBA security, saying nobody smelled anything.
That equates to a statement he made promoting his own intelligence after training camp. "They caught those guys (with marijuana in their systems)," he said. "Well, they didn't catch me."
So, once again Rider is his own worst enemy, such a staunch adversary he needs no other.
Rider clears waivers Wednesday. Maybe some team picks him up, maybe not. But he is finished as a big-money player. As his friend Gary Payton told writers in Seattle, "If he can't play for Lenny Wilkens then he's gonna have a tough time."
Still, some team will try him at a reduced price. I hope it's Miami because I want to see Rider and Riley together. I want to see Riley deal with a guy who says, "I have a problem with time" and figures that excuses everything, who sabotages the offense by holding the ball, who told teammate Dikembe Mutombo, "my boys can take you out," who was traded from Minnesota to Portland because Kevin McHale feared he would damage Kevin Garnett, and whose many problems in Portland were mostly covered up last season by a team that was more interested in winning.
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Ike Austin went from most improved on a contender to 12th man on bad Washington team in only three years. Although the Wizards owe Austin $11 million on the two remaining years of his contract, Darrell Walker told him he is essentially finished as a player with that team.
"I respected that," Austin said. The question now is what you do with an expensive player on a capped-out team when nobody wants him.
That begs the question of useless players under contract. Is Austin the most overpaid player in the league, who isn't out due to injury? Loy Vaught? Ervin Johnson of the Bucks? Jim McIlvaine?
For my money, it's none of the above. Shawn Kemp is the award winner here. Overweight and under-committed.
After Chuck Daly left New Jersey in 1994 he admitted that Derrick Coleman drove him out of coaching. Funny the affect Derrick has on people.
Monday night Coleman slugged Toni Kukoc in the right eye and was ejected from a game the Hornets needed and couldn't win without him. It was the latest in a series of breakdowns for a team that doesn't need more problems. Two weeks ago Elden Campbell blew off a practice and a few days ago Dale Ellis said he couldn't wait for the season to end. The Hornets responded by placing him on the injured list.
It doesn't take long in this league for things to turn sour.
That Doc Rivers would invite a fine ($7,500) for saying things like the referees "had no balls" when it comes to Vince Carter, tells you how much he's grown financially. When Rivers was a young player, he once shed tears after spending the last of his training camp per diem -- three weeks into the season.
Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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