Soon to turn 80, former Kansas coach Larry Brown leads active life during pandemic
Larry Brown, who turns 80 on Sept. 14, hops on a stationary bike in his Charlotte, North Carolina apartment, executing a daily exercise routine that helps him pass the time — and stay in shape — during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
“Sometimes I watch a game (while working out). It goes a little faster when I’m watching something,” the former University of Kansas basketball coach said Tuesday afternoon during a cellphone interview with The Star.
“I’ve seen so many NBA games I’ve been lucky enough to coach in that have been replayed (on TV or livestream),” added Brown, a head coach 11 years in college and 30 years in the pros during his Hall of Fame career. He is the only coach to win both a college (KU, 1988) and NBA title (Detroit, 2004).
“I realize how much the game has changed and how little I know about how the game is played now,” Brown said of the NBA game.
Brown — his last coaching job was with a pro team in Turin, Italy during the 2018-19 campaign — says of the modern NBA: “I love the game and I admire the people in it. I don’t like it as much.”
Why?
“You watch the old NBA games and old college games and you don’t see the young kids playing,” said Brown, the only coach to lead eight teams to the NBA playoffs. “Watch the Lakers play Boston or Philly play the Lakers or Detroit (15 years ago). They are all old guys playing. (There are) none of these young kids.
“The game is so different now. Every game is sort of a copycat game. Everybody runs the same stuff. I still believe in rebounding, defending, sharing the ball and getting great shots. Three-point shots have become so prevalent.
“The lack of big people blows my mind — that you can’t find a place for them,” he said of true centers becoming almost extinct in the pro game. “Nobody is thinking if you shoot a layup, get to the rim and get fouled how much that helps you defensively and offensively. Kids don’t run for layups, they run for threes. It’s kind of different.”
Brown, who follows the college game closely, often is invited to watch practices of various teams including those of some of his former pupils: Bill Self (KU), Tad Boyle (Colorado), John Calipari (Kentucky), Mark Turgeon (Maryland) and Danny Manning (Wake Forest).
He acknowledges he watched a lot of college games during the 2019-20 season..
“I’ve seen so much basketball … I didn’t see any one team you could say, ‘That team has got everything it takes to win (NCAA title),’’’ Brown said. “It seemed there were a bunch of teams if you got a good draw, if you start playing your best, all of a sudden you can win it.
“Kansas certainly was as good as anybody. Udoka (Azubuike) got so much better. Dotson (Devon) played so well. The kid they got from Iowa (Isaiah Moss, grad transfer) was such a contributor,” Brown said of the Jayhawks, who went 28-3. “I was hoping Silvio (De Sousa) would be a factor in the (NCAA) tournament, give them depth. Playing in that conference, it prepares you, I think.”
Regarding De Sousa, Brown did not wish to comment about the NCAA’s naming him a representative of the university and alleging impermissable contact with the guardian of De Sousa when the player was being recruited by KU.
The Jayhawks and Bears were expected to be strong contenders for the 2020 NCAA title. However, the tourney was called off because of rising coronavirus concerns.
“We’ll never know. It’s kind of crazy,” Brown said of which team would have clipped the nets in Atlanta.
In the KC and Lawrence area, Brown will forever be known for coaching the 1988 Jayhawks to an NCAA crown. KU’s 83-79 victory over Oklahoma on April 4, 1988 in Kemper Arena recently was shown on CBS Sports HQ and watched by hordes of KU fans who took to Twitter to comment on the title-game victory during the replay.
“I’ve seen it about three times on TV. Some of the guys (his players) text me and I get real excited sometimes,” Brown said. “Sometimes I get embarrassed watching it. I’ll say, ‘What are you doing?’’’
Through the years, he’s been credited for masterful strategy in allowing the Jayhawks to run with high-scoring Oklahoma the first half (50-50 tie at the break), then settle into a halfcourt game that Manning ruled the final 20 minutes.
“We had a pretty good player,” Brown said of Manning, who burned OU for 31 points and 18 rebounds in the championship contest. “It seems everybody we put in contributed.”
Still, despite the final outcome … “I could kick myself in the butt,” Brown said.
He has regret that he was unable to insert injured KU forward Archie Marshall into the game during its waning moments.
Marshall suffered a season-ending knee injury in late December 1987 but was with the team cheering from the bench the final months of the regular-season campaign through the postseason.
“I wanted to play Archie,” Brown said Tuesday, noting he had an opportunity to insert the player to take a bow late.
“When Danny made the free throw to put us up four, I could have put Archie in. I didn’t think about it at the time,” Brown noted. Manning hit two free throws with five seconds to play, giving KU a four-point lead, basically assuring the Jayhawks the NCAA crown.
“After Danny makes the second free throw (to give KU 83-79 advantage), call time out,” Brown said of what he might have done. “They can’t score a four-point play with four seconds to go. Even if (OU’s Ricky) Grace makes a three, let the ball bounce before you take it out and the game is over (since OU had no timeouts left). The clock would have run out if they scored.
“It would have been nice to put Archie in there.”
Of course, Brown did make sure Marshall took the court in full uniform on Marshall’s Senior Night. The forward from Tulsa, Oklahoma played a few seconds at the end of a 75-57 win over Oklahoma State on March 6, 1988 in Allen Fieldhouse.
“Leonard Hamilton was kind enough to make that happen,” Brown said of the Oklahoma State coach. Hamilton agreed to let a hobbled Marshall enter and shoot a safe, unguarded three-pointer with 1:33 left, KU up big.
KU legend Manning scored 31 points that night as well as in the title contest vs OU.
“You watch that (title) game and realize again what a special player he was,” Brown said of Manning, who by the way, is in the College Basketball Hall of Fame but not yet the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts.
“I hope people who may have seen that game again because of the pandemic are reminded what a phenomenal player he was,” Brown said of Manning.
Brown said watching tapes of games such as the ‘88 title contest can be more than nostalgic for himself and other coaches.
“I hear from a ton of coaches,” Brown said, noting his cell phone has lit up a lot the past few weeks. “I tell them this is a great time to learn and to evaluate your team. Watch games. Watch other people coach. Find out if there are things you can implement, but don’t give up your values you believe in.”
Brown said he has been obeying shelter-at-home rules in North Carolina with the support of family members who also live in Charlotte. Brown has additional family members he’s been unable to visit in New York City, which has been hit hard by the virus.
“I’ve got (six) grandkids here. I try to see them every day. I don’t get too close (because of social distancing rules), but it’s always great to look forward to,” Brown said of family time amid the pandemic.
He does not want to contract the virus, especially at the age of 79.
“I’ll be 80. You hear about older people and just watching statistics every morning waking up, it’s tough,” Brown said of the pandemic causing many deaths to individuals in his age group.
Brown — he’s been catching up on his reading while searching “for anything with a ball on TV; there’s no sports to watch” — is confident the pandemic can be conquered. It classifies as one of the most tragic situations in his lifetime.
“I was playing for Goodyear (industrial league team that was forerunner to the NBA and ABA) getting ready to go to North Carolina (to work as assistant coach at UNC) when President Kennedy was shot. That was devastating,” Brown said of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.
“Princess Diana dying (Aug. 31, 1997) … I was really too young to understand what was going on in World War II (1939-45). There was Vietnam (1954-75) which was so sad.
“So many things have happened. I remember when John Lennon was killed (on Dec. 8, 1980). Most recently Kobe,” he added of former NBA phenom Kobe Bryant and eight others dying in a helicopter crash on Jan. 27 in California.
“That was hard for me because so many kids I recruited when I was at SMU (head coach, 2013-16) — so many young players I coached — for them, Kobe was ‘the guy.’ I got to know and admire him and was so excited what he was doing the rest of his life.
Of life today amid the pandemic, he said, “This is completely crazy. You’ve got to be so careful, not only yourself but careful of people you are around. I hope people understand that. We can impact lives in a positive way and certainly a negative way if we don’t do what is right. That’s a concern for me.”
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 10:47 AM.
