Brown says he'll coach U.S. if asked

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Larry Brown would love to coach the U.S. men's basketball team at the 2004 Olympics despite the toll it took on him when he was an assistant coach in Sydney.

The U.S. men's senior national team selection committee met Friday to plan ahead for next summer's Olympic qualifying tournament, and Brown was one of four head coach nominees along with Phil Jackson of the Lakers, Pat Riley of Miami and Jerry Sloan of Utah.

"We expect to make an announcement in the next week to 10 days," said Stu Jackson, chairman of the selection committee.

Brown has the most international basketball experience among the four candidates, and the New York Post reported Sunday he is already the leading contender.

"If they asked me to be the coach, it'd be the greatest honor going. If they said they had someone else in mind, I'd respect that as well," Brown said Sunday before Philadelphia's game against Washington.

Brown coached the U.S. team in 1999 when it clinched a spot in the Sydney Olympics by winning a qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico. In 2000, he was an assistant to Rudy Tomjanovich when the U.S. team won a gold medal in Sydney.

Coaching in those competitions took a physical and emotional toll on Brown, who for months after the Olympics complained of physical and mental exhaustion -- even going so far as to take a brief leave of absence from the 76ers during the 2000-01 season.

"That was a combination of things. I was a little sick a year before, and the Olympics in Sydney went until the day before training camp," Brown said. "In Greece, it'll be in July or August."

The qualifying tournament will be held next August. The possible sites are San Juan, Puerto Rico; Toronto; Mexico City; Caracas, Venezuela; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; USA Basketball spokesman Craig Miller said.

"The normal process is that the coach is picked first because that will impact the players that are chosen," Miller said.

Yugoslavia, which won the World Championships, is the only team that has already qualified for the 2004 Olympics.

There will be three spots available from the Americas region, with the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Puerto Rico expected to field the strongest teams.

If Brown is chosen as coach, it could become an issue in terms of Shaquille O'Neal's possible participation.

O'Neal, a member of the 1996 Olympic team and the 1994 World Championship team, said during training camp that he would only play if Jackson was the coach.

Coming off a sixth-place finish last summer at the World Championships, the United States is expected to field a top-caliber team that would likely include several players who skipped the World Championships, including O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Ray Allen and Jason Kidd.

If O'Neal declines to play, the American team would be without the game's most dominant big man.

"I think it's important to have our best players, period," Brown said.

O'Neal and Bryant "are two of the best players in our league, without question, and with the way other teams around the world have improved, we need our best players -- but also high-character guys. And I think they fit the bill," Brown said.

 

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