NBA FINALS: PISTONS v SPURS

June 17, 2005

Larry Brown

COACH LARRY BROWN: I don't understand that.

COACH LARRY BROWN: No, absolutely not. That's why sometimes when they talk about superstars -- well, Russell, obviously, is one that we'll all talk about, and Nate Thurmond possibly. But I think in the modern game, it's something that I think is really overlooked. The impact he has on the game has allowed us to win an NBA Championship and be in The Finals. But the funny thing is, I get calls all the time from college coaches and friends of mine, and they are trying to drum into some of their kids, do what you do best and understand about the Bruce Bowens and the Ben Wallaces, and the fact that, here they are playing on championship-caliber teams and have an effect on the game, and making good money. You know, I think Joe recognizes Ben and his contract is coming up. He's going to be rewarded. Those two kids, when you think of their career paths, a lot of people would have given up. I would hope that you guys can champion them and say things like that, and then maybe coaches can have an easier time showing their kids, hey, if you do what you do best every night, you can be successful.

COACH LARRY BROWN: I love Bob Pettit. You know, it's amazing, and I always talk to these players about this, half the guys, if a player played three years ago, they don't even know who the hell they are. So I always point to the rafters when we go into buildings and ask some of the guys, do you remember this guy, do you know who he is. But my thing with a lot of them, they always tell me how good they are, all the young players when I talk to them. I said, "Well, do you realize when I was coming out of college, or just a short time before, we only had 90 NBA players?" I remember when there were nine teams, ten guys on a team when Bob Pettit played, and every single night, they were coming up against a super player. And they played each other so many times, I mean, the familiarity there made it even more difficult. And I said, at the time we had 29 teams, I said, we've got 145 starters in our league. That means 55 of you guys wouldn't even have a job. Do you understand that? And no, they don't even comprehend that. But it's hard to compare one era to the next. Those players back then in my mind really knew how to play, because I don't think they all were quite as athletic. I think they had a great appreciation and respect for the game because obviously the money wasn't great. Most of them had two jobs. And they had to play against a guy every single night that earned the right to play. You know, rookies never played. I think the significance of that and the contribution they made is something we take for granted.

COACH LARRY BROWN: No, no, don't get -- I mean, I'll take any one of them and I'd be a hell of a lot better coach than I am today. But they all had the same thing: They never took a possession off, they made their teammates better, and I think they had an effect on the game on both sides. That's a pretty special group.

COACH LARRY BROWN: Oh, no. This has been phenomenal for me. I mean, I don't have too many left, and I've had tzuris (blessings) my whole life. I'm doing exactly what I want to do. I mean there are some issues that I've had that I've never had to face before, but it seems like every year there's something. But when I consider what goes on and what other people go through, I'm doing exactly what I want to do. I'm hopeful that I can continue to do it, and when I look at my locker room and consider the people I'm around on a daily basis, I'm blessed.

COACH LARRY BROWN: Oh, yeah. I remember the experience I had last year at this time. I mean, everybody was so happy for me personally, you know, and I have a lot of friends or people I've been around and seen the difficulty in getting to this position. Last year was like, you know, I was put way up here. But I don't get caught up in that too much. It's part of our profession. We get far too much credit when things go too good, and you get a lot more criticism when things go bad. But again, and you know me well enough, I have a hard time when I don't think people like me. When I always hear as a coach, well, I'd rather have the guys respect me than like me, that isn't me. I can't look down the bench and if I feel like, you know, I don't have a relationship with the 12th man, it bothers the heck out of me. When he doesn't play, it kills me. So I'll never change in that regard. But I still am doing what I love, and I don't want to see this end.

COACH LARRY BROWN: A lot of times when the bench hasn't done very much, it's because of me. We've shortened our bench since we've gotten into the playoffs. It's just the way it is. You know, the first series, we had a lot of time between games, and even playing every other day, you have more than normal rest. But we have been able to use Lindsey and McDyess and Elden Campbell in the Miami series. Carlos has given us some critical minutes. Even last night, his seven minutes were huge. But obviously the last two games, when you look at what McDyess and Lindsey have done, you kind of realize why this series is 2-2. I have no explanation for that. I think Game 2 really helped McDyess get confidence. Lindsey is going to give you effort every single game. He's always had an impact on the defensive end. Last night, I have no explanation for that. A lot of times he's shooting a jumper and the bench coaches are going, no, no, good shot. But he's changed, you know, he changed this series in what he did the end of the third quarter in Game 3 and the fourth quarter, and McDyess has given us an unbelievable lift.

COACH LARRY BROWN: Yeah, I don't go and say, you guard him or you guard him. I respect my players enough to understand. The only thing I will tell them, in transition, you guard who guards you. Especially as quickly as they advance the ball and transition is such a big part of their offense. You can't guard Timmy with just one guy. They have too many ways to get him the ball. He's too clever in terms of getting position and finding ways to catch the ball. So you need fresh people and different looks, but you have to have length and quickness to guard him, I think. If he's not posting up, he's running into a pick-and-roll, and if you don't have athleticism, you can't get out on people on pick-and-rolls, so we've been fortunate. Then think about it, they have turned the ball over a lot, and we've scored more than we normally do, so our defense has been set a lot, which maybe impacts him and gives us an opportunity to change defenses a little bit. Games 1 and 2, they were just scripting plays. We used to call it "dummy offense," but my players won't allow that, so now you script plays. I think Game 1 and 2, we let them run anything they wanted. The last two ballgames, we've been able to get our defense set and change up a little bit, and that's affected him. But he'll get 30 the next game. I don't think -- and I thought, you know, he had 10 rebounds at halftime, he has a game he gets 16 and 16, you know, and we're all saying, well, what's wrong with Duncan? He makes everybody better.

COACH LARRY BROWN: Well, last night was tough for me because of Pop. You know, we commented to each other, he said, "Now I know how you felt in 1 and 2." One, I have no explanation for what happened. The closest thing to that is I think when I coached San Antonio, we had a series against Portland that we got blown out both games in Portland and then it was a different format, and then we won in San Antonio, got blown out in Portland Game 5 and won in San Antonio, and Game 7 went right down to the last possession. I cannot explain what's happened. Maybe Game 3 I could say, hey, it was a desperate situation for us, and maybe San Antonio could have thought it might have been too easy. But knowing Pop and knowing what they are about, I had no idea we could win Game 4 like we did. I always look at one stat when I look at our league: I look at how many times a team has gotten beat by ten or more points, and they are always the best. They very rarely get blown out. We have always been pretty darned good. And that is an important thing for me as a coach. And to see that stat, and then know we won these two games so easily and we got beat so easily, I have no explanation for it at all.