A Done Deal: Knicks Hire Brown As Head Coach

The Knicks’ deal with Larry Brown is done. Brown’s agent worked out the final details of contract language with team executives yesterday, clearing the way for the Knicks to introduce Brown as the 22nd head coach in franchise history.The team called a noon news conference for today at Madison Square Garden, where the buzz could be coming back after nearly a half-decade of malaise.Less than 10 days after his divorce from the Detroit Pistons was finalized, Brown moved on to a new job where he’ll be trading down in talent but up in salary and sentiment.The Knicks were Brown’s favorite team when he was growing up in Brooklyn, and the eighth stop on his NBA coaching carousel will truly be a “dream job” – just what Brown called it earlier this year. He’ll join a long list of distinguished coaches – including Joe Lapchick, Red Holzman, Pat Riley, and Lenny Wilkens – who have guided one of the NBA’s charter franchises.“We have it just about done. There are a couple of things to tidy up,” agent Joe Glass said early yesterday evening.Within an hour, everything was in place except Brown’s signature on the documents. He was expected to take care of that task this morning.In 22 seasons as a professional coach, Brown has compiled a 987-741 record. The title he won with the Detroit Pistons in 2004 was the only NBA championship of his career.Glass would not comment on reports that the contract would be for five years and between $50 million to $60 million. He said there were no major issues that needed to be worked out in the final contract negotiations Tuesday and yesterday.“I don’t think we took an extra long time. Certainly it hasn’t gone as quickly as some other teams’ negotiations have, but we didn’t have a head start,” Glass said. Brown did not return a call seeking comment yesterday.The buzz surrounding Brown has been steadily building throughout what has turned out to be a whirlwind month for the coach, who will be 65 by the time training camp begins. Brown began July by undergoing surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for a bladder problem, then told the Pistons he was prepared to return for a third season. He and Glass met with Detroit owner Bill Davidson and team president Joe Dumars in a meeting that Brown originally thought had gone well.But Davidson, peeved that Brown had spoken to the Cleveland Cavaliers during the playoffs after calling the Knicks’ position a “dream job” earlier in the season, decided it was time for someone else to try to take the Pistons to the championship round for the third straight year.Like many of Brown’s past employers, Davidson had grown tired of the drama that constantly surrounds the high-maintenance coach. Just hours after the Pistons finished a severance agreement with Brown that paid him $7 million, Knicks president Isiah Thomas picked up the phone and made it known that New York had a serious interest.Meetings with owner James Dolan, interim coach Herb Williams, and Madison Square Garden president Steve Mills followed, and Brown gave his agent the go-ahead to hammer out the contract language that makes the move official.Brown becomes the team’s fourth coach in less than a year, following Williams, Wilkens, and Don Chaney. The Knicks haven’t been to the finals since 1999 under Jeff Van Gundy and haven’t won a title since Holzman coached the team in 1973.Trying to turn the rebuilding Knicks into a winner will be the latest challenge for Brown in a nomadic NBA coaching career that has included stints with six NBA teams. Brown also coached collegiately at Kansas and UCLA, and his first pro coaching job was with the Carolina Cougars of the ABA.Brown was the coach of the 2004 U.S. Olympic team that finished a disappointing third. Part of that roster included Knicks guard Stephon Marbury, who will be reunited with Brown after clashing with him last summer.Marbury has already publicly endorsed the hiring of Brown, and Brown has said he will have no problem coaching the star from Coney Island.

A Done Deal: Knicks Hire Brown As Head Coach

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