At 80, Larry Brown is back in the game of his life.
It was just about 21 years ago that Roy Williams turned down Carolina to remain at Kansas, and Brown might have become the head coach at his alma mater, where he played on Dean Smith’s first two teams and began his coaching career as an assistant to Smith in 1965.
Coaching Allen Iverson and the 76ers at the time, Brown told Smith that if Carolina needed him, he would come back and take over the Tar Heel program for five years until somebody else was ready.
Brown was already in the Hall of Fame and had won the national championship at Kansas in 1988 and would win the NBA title in 2004 at Detroit, the only coach to ever have done both.
But Carolina would not hire the controversial Brown, who had left UCLA and Kansas on probation, and took a chance on former UNC player Matt Doherty.
Brown would go on to coach the Knicks and the old Charlotte Bobcats during his peripatetic career before going to SMU as his last college head job.
After retiring in his mid-70s, Brown stayed close to basketball by watching practices and games and visiting with his vast number of coaching colleagues.
He always maintained that being old meant he had more knowledge than anyone else and could still contribute to some program on either the pro or amateur level.
After talking to Memphis coach Penny Hardaway for a couple of years, Brown finally signed on with his former NBA player and was back on the recruiting trail and in the gym with the sounds and smells he has loved all his life.
Hardaway, who has one of the most talented teams in the country this coming season, says that Brown’s 50 years of coaching can benefit his program for as long as he wants to stay on the bench.
He will be 81 in September, and Brown thinks he can help Hardaway get his Tigers into the NCAA tournament for the first time. Memphis won the NIT last season, and all it needs is a little age and wisdom to take the next step.
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