Larry Brown Guys Quotations

We started out good. We all talked about respecting them with Allen out. We had a seven-point lead and then we just completely wilted. We had a lot of guys that didn't bring it to tonight and they had a lot of people that brought it.

We tried but we just we have some deficiencies that hopefully Jalen will help alleviate. I think he'll take a lot of pressure off the perimeter people and make the big guys bigger.

We really have too many young guys right now. You look at Riley's team, he didn't have to worry about the ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th guy worrying about playing. He had eight guys that he played. I don't even think he looked at the other seven. If we're going to be good, you've got to get down to a rotation similar to that and develop your young kids the right way.

When you're a coach and you see guys trying and you don't get a win, you want badly for something good to happen, ... I sensed after the game they really felt good about it, they were excited about it. That was fun to see.

Pop told me he had about four guys almost tripped over cords. We had a couple of guys almost stumble off the platform, and somebody got mad at me because I was in the way of a cable.

I don't get caught up with wins and losses. I get caught up with guys trying to do the right thing, respecting their teammates, and playing with effort. It's disappointing to lose and not be rewarded for that as a team. But from my perspective it's a big step forward.

I don't enjoy this feeling. I feel for those guys in the dressing room. We have to figure out a way to get one.

I'd like to put Stu Jackson and David Stern and some of those guys in that same situation and see how they would have reacted. He helped get things under control.

I looked out there and it looked like a lot of guys just didn't care. That's tough, but you gotta keep finding the people that do (care) and hope you have enough of them.

I look out there and I see guys just running up and down the court.

I look out there and I just think we're running up and down the court. I see guys jumping up in the air and if they don't have something, they try to invent plays. I guess we probably have to walk the ball up the rest of the year and call a play, see if we can keep people from shooting 57% and getting 120 points.

I don't think you guys ever heard me say I wasn't pleased with the way he was playing until the last game. Even with all the other stuff that's going on every other week, I've never said anything except I was pleased with the way he's been playing and way he's trying. The last game, he was not aggressive. He shot the ball seven times. He deferred. I expressed that. That's one game.

I don't think you guys ever heard me say I wasn't pleased with the way he's playing until the last game. I've never, ever said anything except I was pleased with the way he's playing, the way he's trying, and I thought he has been making great progress ... We've played twenty-some games. I don't expect this to happen overnight.

We're playing under control a little bit better and not just running up and down the court. When you've got guys like Jalen and Steve who will make the extra pass, it just seems to open it up for everybody. I feel good about everybody's contribution.

He's a good basketball player. He's going to help our young guys just with his presence.

He's a great official. It's great for the game. He still looks young and he gets up and down the court as well as anybody. The NBA needs guys like him.

The only thing I want is guys who play hard, play unselfishly, try to defend, try to rebound and play with some kind of intelligence. I think that's been an issue forever.

I think when your older guys are your leaders and don't play, sometimes it's hard for young kids to really, truly listen, even though they all have so much respect for him. Now that he is playing, I think his role probably has changed. I think (he leads) more by example.

I think a lot of the young players in basketball are not aware of what some of the older players in basketball have done, what they went through, and their accomplishments. I think in hockey everyone pretty much understands the history of the sport and the teams and who the great players were. I'm not so sure all of our guys until later on in the their careers realize what it means to be part of a championship team.

It gives other guys a chance to play, but you lose a guy who's playing as well as he is, it's tough.

Right now, you're looking for guys that you want to keep. Because this is the most difficult part of a season for a team that is not going anywhere, and you can really tell who cares in situations like this.

I think he's got to make up his mind to continue to improve. We've got to make our teammates better ... I'm confident he'll understand that. But it can't be on one guy. We have a lot of guys that have got to step up. But believe me, this isn't going to be the same team.

It depends on who the guys are. I've heard Michael do it. Because everybody knew he tried to do everything the right way all the time I think they could handle it.

That's been a big problem all year - we haven't had facilitators, guys that move the ball. We need more guys with experience that understand when a guy is open and who can feed the ball to the post.

We got beat on dribble penetration and that was huge. They have a bunch of guys that can shoot and pass the ball. When you have Jason (Kidd), it becomes contagious.

When you're losing game after game after game it's tough. It's hard to keep them up. It's hard to get guys to keep competing. It's really tough on the young kids. But you can't stop coaching and trying to get better. You hope you have something positive to talk about.

We had a lot of guys that didn't bring it tonight. And they had a lot of people that brought it. We had a lot of key guys that were just out there.

We had a lot of guys contribute. To win one on the road against a pretty good team is a good feeling. ... People don't win in this building much, so it feels good.

We played pretty darn good after All-Star break. We were about .500 and we set up a culture that enabled us to be pretty good from then on. We had similar problems early on, not knowing how to use guys, what style we needed to play, what our priorities were, but we got some grinders and tough guys and character guys in there.

You hope that you have some veteran guys who will pick them up, and as a coach, I have to keep reminding them of that. But it's difficult.

To have two guys back there, having those kind of talents is unique. And the little kid, he has a chance to be pretty special.

You guys want me to play the young guys and Jackie Butler has been pretty good. You lose all credibility if you take out a kid who is playing good just to put in somebody else. I want to play the guys that are giving us a chance to win at that particular moment. My hope is that Eddy Curry can play 40 minutes every game.

You guys forget everything we worked on for six days, ... Nobody is setting a screen, cutting and we end up with a (bad) shot.

Even though they shot over 60 percent in the first half, we still cut the lead to seven. But once we cut the lead to seven, it's like I never saw a pass after that. They always make the extra pass, sometimes two or three of them. We have a lot of young guys who maybe don't fully understand the importance of the little things.

Big guys can run on the break and get to the offensive board.

I've never talked anything about being a systems coach in my life. I've been a basketball coach, about guys playing the right way. That's always been what I've said. It's amazing to me the guys that have wanted to do it have really prospered.

The thing that always makes me partial to guys like him, all hockey players, is all they ever talk about is team. They room together. They eat together. And he's always been somebody everybody mentions as being such a special leader.

The thing is they got guys that are willing to make a three-year commitment, which I think is tremendous. We had guys that committed and then all of a sudden 9/11 happened, and then there were injuries.

Teams have won with young players playing key roles. A lot of teams draft based on potential, but we have guys here who have played in college for a while. They will respect the minutes they get, not expect them, and they will be given every opportunity to play.

Once we cut the lead to seven, it's like I never saw a pass after that. We have a lot of young guys who maybe don't fully understand the importance of the little things.

The bottom line is we don't have a rotation, we don't know who can play. So it's going to take time. Eventually we're going to have an eight- or nine-man rotation and we'll probably have nine happy guys and five that are unhappy.

Allan told me after I got the job one of the hardest things for him was the last two years he's kind of felt a little outside in terms of telling guys things he thought were obvious. He didn't feel like he was included as much. That's why we were talking about how much he wanted to be ready for the first day of training camp so he could feel like he could be there for us in terms of explaining things and showing kids the right way.

You walk into this place, and none of these guys will jump out at you. But they are a hard-working group ? probably the best group I've ever coached.

You never get five guys doing (the right thing) every time, and that's the only way you can be successful.

This is a team game. I want guys who play hard, try to defend, share the ball and make their teammates better.

This is an audition now. I'm not worried about egos. I'm going to play the guys I think can help us.

A lot of guys didn't bring it tonight. We had a lot of guys who were just out there.

A lot of what you just said is going to determine who's going to play. The guys that are committed to hustle back, make the extra pass, take the good shot, are probably the ones who are going to be out there in the guts of the game, or maybe at the beginning of the game.

They made plays. We didn't make plays. That's been our MO I can't fault the effort. Guys are trying to win. We just had a horrendous fourth quarter and they had a great fourth quarter.

You don't have players on the team that can't play a style that's comfortable for the coach. Isiah and I understand that. He knows the guys I like in the league. It's not easy to make trades. My job is to find out what these guys can do and if they can do the things we think will help us be a good team for the long run.

This is the not the same situation I walked into in Detroit, ... Those guys all knew how to play. There weren't a lot of things I told them that they haven't heard or done before.

It's a great feeling (that) my mom knew where I was one thousand nights. When you look at this league, at how many guys get jobs and lose jobs, you feel pretty lucky.

It's odd when you see a big-name player (on the market), but I'm not worried about that until I see the guy on our team. I've got to think about how I can make these young guys better.

It matters a lot. We got 18 games left and I didn't see any (selfishness) and I saw guys trying to win, trying to share the ball. I saw them playing hard and that's all we can do from now on. We got to find out who in that locker room is committed to doing that every night. That's the thing that's so important.

It's over, in my mind. My whole focus is that I've got 12 guys that suit up and 15 guys on the team, and we have to try to get better.

It's so special when guys spend their whole career with one team. (Reggie) still looks like he can play to me. I think everybody used to say that physically he wouldn't hold up. He's amazing. He's the best shooter I've ever been around.

Everyone is playing together and trying to make other guys better. Jalen (Rose) and Steve (Francis) were making the extra pass, which opened the court for everyone.

It's imperative that your better players bring it every night. I don't think there's any way to be successful in this league with just young kids. You need veteran leadership. Sometimes it comes from guys who don't play, but for the most part it has to come from the guys that are the key players.

I've had confidence we were going to be better, but I didn't know who to play. I think you get sensitive trying to find out who's going to get minutes each night and you stop coaching. A lot of guys have contributed and are playing at a high level.

I'm going to play guys and see what we have. What better time to evaluate your guys?

I know what we have. You guys know what we have. There's no audition. That audition stuff has been over a long time.

I'm mad, ... But that's my responsibility. I've got to get guys to play the right way. But I see a two-on-one break, and we don't make a pass. Defensively, a guy beats us and there's nobody there to help out.

I hadn't had too many guys that didn't realize you're trying to help them and make them better. You want to be fair. I've never seen a happy team losing. If you're happy and enjoying it you should be doing something else.

I'm hopeful he wants to be here and be part of this. His role won't be the same as when I coached him, but he is such a character guy and has such a presence in the locker room that his value will be amazing ... I was with Tony, and you won't find many guys better than him.

I'm happy for the team that they can go home and enjoy this game and be energized. For me, I'm going to try to find ways to coach better and help these guys. I can feel better because these guys needed something positive.

If you look at every team, the guys that play are going to be happy and the guys that don't play are going to be unhappy,

In the fourth quarter, we were phenomenal. It would've been a crime, as hard as our guys fought back, not to have anything positive to show for it.

I know how much those two guys mean to us but we had some guys that simply didn't compete.

In the past when we blew a lead, there would have been a lot of guys putting their heads down. But the crowd didn't allow us to do that, and we hung on.

I think our guys are generally motivated within themselves, but we have a great deal of pride in our school. We're proud of what the girls have done, and we're proud of what we've done and it's truly a family over here.

I just decided to play the guys I played.

I don't recall the play. We would never foul if we were down three points. I wanted our guys to go for steals.

Because guys are making a lot of money doesn't always equate to wins.

He's way behind where he will be, but he's worked very hard and he's getting better every day. He's nowhere up to the level of conditioning that Channing Frye, David Lee and Jackie Butler and the rest of our young kids are at this time. But I always think that it takes bigger guys longer.

I could understand the league's point of view, but I'd like to put Stu Jackson or David Stern or one of those guys in that situation and see how they would have reacted. I'm amazed at the restraint he had.

I don't worry about what guys make. You worry about the contribution they make to your team. That's the thing that's most important. Because guys are making a lot of money doesn't always equate to wins.

I don't look at it that way. I don't think any of them are guys trying to make a hard foul or a dirty foul. They're trying to set a screen. The issue is, when a guy comes up behind you, you can't see, so you can't change direction, and you're going to probably take a blow.

You can't fault the effort. Guys are trying to win the game. But when you make mistakes during the guts of the game and you don't have time to overcome them, it magnifies the mistakes. We just had a horrendous fourth quarter and they had a great fourth quarter.