If there is one thing Larry Brown simply loves to do, it is coach basketball. For years he would speculate about one day just coaching some local high school team after stepping back from his longtime career floating between the NBA and college programs. After resigning from his job at SMU last summer, the Brown rumor mill has been somewhat quiet. Until now, perhaps.
Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports reports LIU-Brooklyn reached out to the 76-year old Brown about their recently vacated head coaching position. The school fired Jack Perri from the job after five seasons. A meeting between Brown and the Northeast Conference school could be looming as well, per Rothstein’s report.
Nobody should put it past Brown to seriously consider the offer, because the guy just wants to coach and he will take almost any job offered to him. In fact, the New York Post referenced a rumor that Brown was contemplating being the head coach of East Hampton High School last September. That would fulfill Brown’s dream of coaching high school basketball. The question may be whether there is even a job market out there for Brown any more.
Obviously, Brown is not likely to be getting a high profile job anymore, but the LIU-Brooklyn opportunity seems to fit right in the radar of where Brown’s options would be. Smaller school, less pressure, and more opportunities to focus on developing players over an extended period of time. It’s not like LIU-Brooklyn is a destination for one-and-done options, which must drive Brown crazy. If Brown feels he has enough in him to coach a few more seasons at the college level, he could do some good work as a teacher of the game at a place like LIU-Brooklyn.
Nothing would represent LIU-Brooklyn returning to its scandal-marred basketball roots more than hiring Larry Brown.
— Howard Megdal (@howardmegdal) March 22, 2017
Sources: Larry Brown leaves LIU-Brooklyn in disarray, facing sanctions after feud with AD, boosters to end 2018-19 season https://t.co/MAkwPA9ST4
— Ryan Dunleavy (@rydunleavy) March 23, 2017
The problem is, Brown does bring some baggage with him. He resigned from SMU as the program was being investigated for academic violations, and he has seen his programs at Kansas and UCLA also get into trouble with the NCAA for recruiting violations or the use of an ineligible player. And let’s not forget the last time Brown was coaching in New York. He wasn’t exactly the most well-received coach while with the New York Knicks.
But maybe, just maybe, this could be the job Brown desires to go out with in his coaching career. It will be interesting to see what happens here.
