18
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2004
BROWN: Defense wins championships
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rebound — Ben Wallace led all players with 22 rebounds.
Most importantly, he emphasizes defense in an NBA era where the focus is more offensive and individual statistics earn bigger contracts than good defensive numbers. The Pistons held Kobe Bryant to under 40 percent shooting for the series.
In 1988, Brown did the same thing with the Kansas Jayhawks. With a starting five that included Mark Randall, Mike Maddox, Kevin Pritchard, Chris Piper and Danny Manning, he coached fundamentals and defense.
On his way to both championships, Brown took teams with few stars and made them champions. Brown showed that he could coach raw players into polished stars. His two MVPs, Danny Manning and Chauncey Billups, are prime examples.
Manning was relatively unknown going into the 1988 season, but walked away as the Wooden Award winner for best college player and MVP of the 1988 championship game.
Billups was named the 2004 NBA Finals MVP. He averaged 21 points and 5.2 assists in the finals, proving to be a perfect example of a Larry Browncoached player.
"We don't play as a bunch of individuals," Brown told The Detroit Free Press. "We're a basketball team." Brown convinced Billups that playmaking and ball-sharing would lead to more victories than individual statistics.
At 63, Brown is the oldest coach ever to win an NBA championship. He also may have had to wait the longest -- he has coached for seven different teams during a 22-year career in the NBA.
He began coaching in 1972, winning the American Basketball Association championship in his first season with the Carolina Cougars.
Brown played college basketball at the University of North Carolina from 1961 to 1963.
He won another ABA championship with the Denver franchise during the 1974-75 season. He stayed with Denver when it joined the NBA in 1976, leaving in 1979 to coach collegially at UCLA.
In his first season, the Bruins were runners-up in the NCAA Tournament.
The following year, Brown was back in the NBA, this time with the New Jersey Nets.
In 1988, Brown left KU to coach the San Antonio Spurs, where he coached for four seasons before leaving midway through the 1991-92 season to coach the L.A. Clippers.
In 1993, he moved to the Indiana Pacers and earned his 1,000th career victory as the Pacers head coach.
In 1997, he moved to the Philadelphia 76ers, and in the 2000-01 season, Brown led the 76ers to their best record in two decades. This season was his first in Detroit.
The Nets made the playoffs in his first two seasons, but Brown chose to return to the collegiate level at the University of Kansas the following year. The Jayhawks went 129-44 when Brown was the coach from 1984 to 89.
More astounding than the number of teams Brown has coached is the number of franchises he has led to the playoffs. Brown was the first coach to lead six different NBA franchises to the playoffs.
In November 2002, Brown was named head coach of the United States' 2004 Olympic Basketball team. A gold medal during this summer's games would solidify a trio of coaching championships. Brown did win a gold medal in 1964 as a member of the United States Basketball Team.
People question whether or not Brown would return to the Pistons if the USA Team wins the gold medal this summer. However, Brown has never stayed with a team for only one season. If he follows this trend, Brown will be back for at least one more season.
- Edited by Erik Johnson
CAMP: Basketball keeps participants busy day and night
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Participants only stop to eat lunch and dinner and to watch an afternoon scrimmage.
Self invites speakers to the camp to talk to the boys about their basketball futures.
Some of the speakers are current basketball players and coaches, but others are people Self has selected.
J. R. Giddens and assistant coach Tim Jankovich spoke to campers on Monday, and Hinrich is expected to speak today.
Self encouraged the boys to take advantage of the speakers and listen to their advice.
He asked the boys to raise their hand if they wanted to eventually start for their high school team, play basketball in college or make it to the NBA.
Almost all the boys raised their hands.
"It's not going to happen if you wish it," he said. "You have to work hard and listen to the people that push you."
- Edited by Joe Burke