Peter Vescey of the New York Post, ladies and gentleman, reminding everyone that while Larry Brown has changed teams very often, he’s only been married 3 times.
Larry Brown’s solution to every problem is change. We’re talking marriage (switched wives three times), head coaching jobs (nine in the pros and two in college, excluding a two-week off-season shift at Davidson), players he has run off rosters (you do the math, I don’t have that much time left), and whatever else might apply.
“I don’t know if Larry’s the guy you want in the trench with you,” snipes a team executive. “When the goin’ gets tough his M.O is to get goin’ and you’re usually the last to know. You look around and he’s liable to have switched trenches and uniforms.”
That’s why it wasn’t remotely surprising that Brown quit the Knicks midway through the third quarter of yet another butt kicking, this time by the exceptionally ordinary Lakers.
This is what the Knicks of James Dolan and Steve Mills and Isiah Thomas and Larry Brown are about these days: They quit when they’re behind.
The Knicks have flushed their pride so far down the sinkhole they’re not even faking energy or effort anymore. They care so little about content and consequences they’ve stopped trying to please their coach. When you’ve lost the last three games by a total of 67 points (not nearly as close as that combined degradation indicates) and nine out of ten you’ve not only quit on Brown, but the fans and each other.
It’s almost impossible to claim the Knicks have quit playing defense during their stagger because there’s no way of telling whether they were ever playing any to begin with.
Vescey goes on to recommend a move for Portland’s Theo Ratliff or Ruben Patterson, to which the Oregonian’s Eric Marenette responds, “Peter Vecsey told us he doesn’t involve himself in rumors, so I guess we can assume when he writes about a potential trade, it has either been talked about or is being talked about. ”