Thinking inside the box

West taking chance that Brown's message gets through

Hubie Brown?

As in, the broadcaster Hubie Brown?

The old guy with the funky white hair and grating voice? The guy with the didactic manner and annoying habit of talking like he invented the game? This is Jerry West's choice to rescue the Grizzlies?

"What’s that expression?" Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, a former protégé of the League Logo, said Monday. "Thinking outside the box?"

More like thinking INSIDE the box -- the idiot box. Because that’s about all most Grizzlies players know about Brown, a guy who last held a clipboard on a pro bench way back in 1987. To rookie Drew Gooden (who was 6 years old back then) and his teammates, Hubie’s not some great basketball mind who was a successful coach with the ABA’s Kentucky Colonels and then the NBA’s Hawks and Knicks. He’s a TV talking head, last seen sitting next to Dick Stockton and getting powdered by a makeup girl during layup lines.

"That’s a question every GM asks about every coach he hires," Kupchak said, when asked if he thinks Gen-Xers like Jason Williams and Stromile Swift will respond to a 69-year-old coach who has been out of the game since the Reagan Administration.

"I’m sure the guys are pulling out books right now and looking him up. They’ll see he’s not new to the game, that he’s been coaching many many years and that if Jerry West thinks he’s the right coach for that team, then that’s who’s going to coach, and they’ll listen to him, period."

If the players research hard enough, they’ll learn that Brown was a former Coach of the Year in Atlanta. They’ll also learn that he was a hard-driving taskmaster who often ran afoul of his players. They’ll discover that he had an ego so large that many of his NBA coaching peers couldn’t stand him.

When Brown took over as head coach of the Knicks in '82, the team was coming off a 33-49 record. By the first game, he had jettisoned nine of the team’s 12 players.

"That’s how you send a message!" he later boasted.

The reconstructed Knicks went 44-38 that season and advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals. The next year they were 47-35 and again reached the semis, where they took the eventual champion Celtics to seven games. Never mind that it all collapsed the following season; Brown had done it his way.

Now West is taking a chance that Brown’s message will get through to the Grizzlies. Apparently he has seen enough of his sleepwalking team to realize a major change in attitude is necessary. Brown’s experience, teaching skills and emphasis on discipline might be just what the doctor ordered.

"Our players are gonna be in for a shock," West said. "In a positive way."

West says the Grizzlies will run, press, trap and work hard for 48 minutes -- all staples of Brown-coached teams. They’ll take better care of the ball. With his 40-plus years of experience, Brown will get them to play better defense -- even if it means using zones or unorthodox matchups.

"This is a very innovative man," West said. Clearly, Brown can’t do any worse than former coach Sidney Lowe. It wasn’t entirely his fault, but the Grizzlies showed no spark this season under Lowe. Even bad teams should at least play hard -- especially early in the season -- and Memphis did not do so over the first eight games.

West gave Lowe a vote of confidence recently, but he was never West’s guy. The Grizzlies' players seemed to sense his lame-duck status and just didn’t compete with the same intensity they did a year ago. Brevin Knight and Lorenzen Wright had even hinted recently at a lack of chemistry on the club.

Also, the Grizzlies are very much concerned with ticket sales. They drew an announced crowd of just 10,112 the other night, the lowest since their move to Memphis. They have sold fans on the idea of being much improved -- and they need to keep the turnstiles clicking. Brown gives Memphis a high-profile coach who will generate some buzz in the community. He also should know the team well. Not only has he seen them as a TV broadcaster, but also his son Brendan is a Grizzlies scout.

The big key, however, will be how well the Grizzlies cotton to their new white-haired boss. Pretty soon he’s not going to be just another TV talking head. He’s going to be in their faces every day, dropping F-bombs and telling them about Artis Gilmore's passing out of the double-team.

J-Will, welcome to the Twilight Zone. And, sorry, this time there’s no mute botton on the remote control.

 

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