Speaking of Starbury, Peter Vescey puts aside the gossip gloves for a second, and instead has a fairly astute analysis of the situation in New York...
Peter Vescey sketches Larry Brown's characterNOT yet on the job two months and already Larry Brown has revealed his true self. Still, just in case New York's sophisticated fans and picky press aren't giving the Knicks' coach their undivided attention, I offer the following self-evident truths for perusal:
For starters, the frequently told fairy tale about him being hard on point guards has been forever demystified. Brown is hard on everyone, those that play for him, anyway.After each and every loss, sometimes even following a win, you can count on Brown to unravel at least one of his players and glorify an opponent.
“That's Larry in a nutshell,” one of his former prized pupils substantiates. “He loves everyone on the other side and hates everyone on his team, except the last guy on the roster whose hustle and attitude Larry uses as an example to motivate everyone else.”
So far, off the top of my head, Brown has professed love for Eric Snow, Larry Hughes, Baron Davis, Kevin Ollie, George Lynch and Brevin Knight.
Give Brown a little more time and a few more leading questions and Brown is bound to playa hate 99 percent of the payroll, including Allan Houston, in the same manner he's dishonorably mentioned Stephon Marbury, Nate Robinson, Jerome James, Quentin Richardson, Jamaal Crawford and Eddy Curry; I apologize if I've left anyone out.
It's worthy of note that Red Holzman, the man Brown supposedly emulates and idolizes, never spoke unfavorably about one of his players, on or off the record. If they deserved it, Holzman would let them know what he thought of their effort or execution. But once he left the locker room to meet the media, he never came close to uttering a disparaging word about the team or any individual.
Neal Walk once told me how much the players appreciated Holzman's golden silence, no matter how bad things got. As a beat reporter on deadline, I hated his refusal to give up anything moderately meaty or remotely juicy to spice up my space.
But I always respected the hell out of Holzman and disrespect coaches like Brown and Bryon Scott, and many, many others (it's “they” when their team loses and “we” after wins), who try to make themselves look good by divulging what their players did wrong and expounding on it.
“Veterans get weary in a hurry hearing their names dragged through the mud by Brown,” underlines the prized pupil. “Young guys grin or grimace but accept it, until the moment they're established.”
If Holzman were alive, I guarantee you he'd seek out Brown, one Hall of Famer to another, and try to impress upon him how disloyal his nightly exposés make him look.
It's a shame nobody living off Brown has ever been man enough to do it. Either that, or he doesn't want to listen to anybody who tells him something he doesn't want to hear.
Tags: Knicks
