[NBA] Larry Brown fired as Knick's Head Coach

[j.nudd]

Knicks fire Brown, name Thomas new coach

The New York Knicks fired coach Larry Brown on Thursday, replacing him as coach with president and general manager Isiah Thomas.

Brown's future had been in question since reports surfaced last month that owner James Dolan wanted to buy out his contract. The Knicks finished 23-59, tying the franchise record for losses, in Brown's first season.

On Thursday, Dolan made the switch official.

"Larry has had a long and storied career. We hired him last summer with the expectation that he would be with the Knicks for a long time. Sometimes decisions work and sometimes they don't," Dolan said. "After careful consideration, despite the best intentions from everyone involved, this current structure did not work for us last season and I did not think it was going to improve next season."

Thomas, who joined the Knicks as president and general manager on Dec. 22, 2003, previously served as a head coach with the Indiana Pacers for three seasons from 2000-01 through 2002-03. His Pacers teams were 131-115 record, making the playoffs in each of his three seasons.

"No one in our organization is happy with last season and we all accept responsibility for our performance," Thomas said. "This has been a difficult time for the entire organization and our fans. Today begins the 2006-07 season for the Knicks, and I strongly believe we are on the right track to take major steps in our rebuilding process to achieve our goal of being one of the premier teams in the NBA."

Buying out Brown could cost the team as much as $40 million. Brown signed a deal with the Knicks amid much hoopla last July, taking over what he once called a "dream job."

Brown wanted the team to overhaul the roster that Thomas had assembled and feuded openly with star Stephon Marbury.

The coach perplexed his players and eventually lost their support by constantly switching lineups and rotations, never quite settling on any set combination over the course of the 82-game season. His penchant for making thinly veiled criticisms of his players through the media irked his players nearly as much as it bothered the team's corporate owners at Cablevision.

Despite the players' and management's strangely rosy pronouncements on the day after the season ended, all was certainly not well inside the franchise. One of Brown's final moves that left several key people scratching their heads was his use (or non-use) of Steve Francis and Jalen Rose after they were acquired at midseason.

Brown received a $7 million buyout with the Pistons in July 2005 after Detroit owner Bill Davidson also came to the realization that he'd be better off with a different coach. The divorce of the Pistons and Brown also turned into a bitter breakup.

Source

[Toastyone]

:D Brown's on a roll, coach a year or two and get your contract boughtout for millions :p I actually read in SI a month or so ago that Brown might be fired and Thomas would be the replacement for him...

Edited June 22, 2006 by Toastyone

[I am Reid]

What the hell is wrong with them. They have to be by far the dumbest organization in the NBA. What the hell do they see with Isiah Thomas, he himself, and all him is the reason they suck. He is one of the worst GM's i have ever seen. Someone needs to tell him he's not Joe Dumars. He couldn't ever get the Pacers out of the first round. If anyone should be fired it should be him, and it should have happened 2 years ago.

[Guest]

We Pistons want Larry back :(

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

What the hell is wrong with them. They have to be by far the dumbest organization in the NBA. What the hell do they see with Isiah Thomas, he himself, and all him is the reason they suck. He is one of the worst GM's i have ever seen. Someone needs to tell him he's not Joe Dumars. He couldn't ever get the Pacers out of the first round. If anyone should be fired it should be him, and it should have happened 2 years ago.

As I have posted for years now in this section, The Knicks are my team, and I could not agree more with what you have said.

Isiah needs to go, and as you said he needed to go before he even came quite frankly.

They are a joke, and it is all thanks to a culmination of possibly the worse decisions ever made by a GM. Now he is Head Coach?

Man, it is going to be a very long, and very painful ride, supporting this team...

I personally think he is going to introduce the first All Guards Starting Line Up in NBA history... that is how bad his logic and decision making process is.

I am just dumbfounded...

[L3thal Veteran]

What the hell is wrong with them. They have to be by far the dumbest organization in the NBA. What the hell do they see with Isiah Thomas, he himself, and all him is the reason they suck. He is one of the worst GM's i have ever seen. Someone needs to tell him he's not Joe Dumars. He couldn't ever get the Pacers out of the first round. If anyone should be fired it should be him, and it should have happened 2 years ago.

We finally agree with something. Isiah has completley ruined the future of the Knicks by trading their top picks in the coming drafts for players that are getting quite old and don't fit in quite well. To me, Isiah was trying to set up a team to win in the short term without thinking of the long-term and he failed with that. As a matter of fact, he fails as a GM and coach. If it weren't for his basketball playing career, he would've failed in life as well.