Larry Brown resigned as SMU head coach this past July, and has been looking for work ever since. The 76 year old coach may have found it… coaching high school hoops on the east end of Long Island.
Joe Vasile-Cozzo, the AD at East Hampton High School says the former NCAA and NBA champion coach is interested in the boys varsity head coaching vacancy. According to public records, Brown has owned a home in the town for over a decade.
“In fairness to Larry, he has maintained that he’s not sure, but that if he does do it, he wants to be in it 100 percent,” Vasile-Cozzo said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “And I’m like, ‘Whatever works for you, we’re game.’ ”
Vasile-Cozzo said he spoke with Brown on Tuesday morning about the opening, which came about when their recently hired head coach, Jesse Shapiro, resigned abruptly last week. “I said I couldn’t match his salary and we had a good laugh,” the athletic director said.
Brown brought up the possibility of coaching East Hampton High last week during an interview with the Kansas City Star.
“If I do that, I can’t do it halfway,” Brown said. “They told me I can still speak and go to colleges, but I don’t want to cheat the kids. So if I’m going to do it, I’ll do it 100 percent. I’ve got so much I’ve been taught from players [he worked with] and coaches I played for. I just want to share it somehow.”
But will Brown, a long-time college and professional coach
“He wants to fit in,” Vasile-Cozzo said. “Those were his words to me. He wants to fit in.”
East Hampton went 18-3 last season and reached the Suffolk County Class A final. They last won a Suffolk title in 2009, and the last time the school’s varsity basketball program won a state title of any kind was in 1989.
