Larry Brown Played Quotations

I loved the effort. We shared the ball, and it was more fun to watch with them trying like they did. We played hard, and we played unselfishly. I thought we were ready.

I put him in to see if he would play like he belonged. He played like he was insulted.

My whole thing I ask him to do every night is to bring energy. His man played with unbelievable energy. I want him to play like Sammy.

I think to play him and have this thing carry on is really unfair. I want it to be his decision (to come back) when he feels comfortable he can play and not worry about getting hit, because he certainly hasn't played the same way since the injury. He's not aggressive at all. You can really tell the difference because he was playing at such a high level before that.

I think Tony's played him a lot. For the most part he did a tremendous job on him.

It's important both teams get better. If you look at what Boston meant to our league, every game they played was a huge rivalry.

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.

I was thrilled. The young kids have been working hard and it shows. They played together well and they defended well, made some big plays and that's a reward in itself.

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.

He's gotten better each game. Of all the games that he's played this year, this is by far the best.

At times he's played as good as I think he can possibly play. I also think he's not completely convinced that the way I coach is in his best interest. And that's something's that's been a little bit hard for me, and we've talked about it over and over again.

I did it with Rip ( Richard Hamilton ), Eric Snow . How many times do you get to see your team? And he's so current. He played with all those guys.

They were great. I thought we played pretty good the first half. In the fourth quarter, we just went to the young kids. They were phenomenal.

I'm not pleased with the way we played at all. But a win down the stretch is a win. And I'm just happy to be playing.

We've had a lot of those rallies with some of the young players. It was fun. David kept begging out, and I kept looking the other way because he played . But it was good. If you can compete like that every night, that's real important.

They just came out with a lot more passion than we did. They outplayed us and were extremely physical. They're an amazing team and played well.

You're coaching a storied franchise, ... I want to see this franchise respected, being a contender every year, having people come to the Garden and saying, 'Man, they played the right way.'

A lot of things that happen off the court, that I don't think are big deals, here seem to be magnified a thousand percent. It's part of it. But that's why I love being here, because if you ever played the right way, our game will be better for it.

When I was a kid, they had six hockey teams, they had eight to 10 basketball teams. The teams played each other once, twice a week. Maybe we should stack (the schedule) a little in terms of conference games.

He was phenomenal. I kept (Curry) in with four fouls and we made a little run and then boom, he's out of the game. No blocks, six fouls, three turnovers, no assists, two-for-seven from the field and his man played with unbelievable energy.

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.

Jamal played great, even without the (go-ahead) shot. He played hurt, he had no business being out there. He was great.

They scored 30 points every quarter. They executed great. They made shots and we had a hard time guarding them all night. They played great, Calderon was great, he got everyone involved. We were stuck behind all night.

We made some hustle plays that got us back. We played hard. The effort was there, and that was big.

I'm just proud of the young kids. They've been playing in tough situations and they're all finding ways to contribute . . . Why not play the young kids? You have been on my butt all year about that. The bottom line is when they have played, they've played pretty good.

I hope he wants what I want. I hope he wants to win games, make his teammates better. That's the only thing that really matters. I heard he wants to play like Allen. I heard he wants us to play like Phoenix. I don't get caught up in that. I thought he was playing great and if he plays like he played before he got hurt we'll win games next year.

He played like the MVP of the league against us.