Maurice Cheeks (left) may not last long with Larry Brown waiting in the wings. AP

I have no doubt that, at this point in time, Larry Brown believes the best job for him is directing the fortunes of the Philadelphia 76ers from a chair in the front office, which is what he's doing in his new position as the team's executive vice president. Brown is a basketball genius (I've heard that countless times even from people who don't like him), but that doesn't mean he's immune to human frailties. I know this despite the fact that I'm no genius.

Brown's particular frailties include self-delusion and a desire to be wanted. They go together. If you want Larry Brown and make a nice enough offer, he is congenitally unable to say no. John Daly says no to a cigarette and a cold one more often than Larry Brown says no to a job offer. "Larry never got over being recruited," one person who knows him well once said.

So team president Billy King -- who owes at least part of his career to Brown (when Brown was coaching the Sixers, he persuaded bossman Pat Croce to hire King as an exec) -- recruited Brown to this advisory position, and Brown, predictably, said yes. I have no idea if they talked about the possibility of Brown coaching or the job done by incumbent Maurice Cheeks (whose team stood at 9-24 as of Monday night). It is quite possible that they did not. This is how delusion works.

But make no mistake about it: Larry Brown will be coaching the Philadelphia 76ers, if not sometime this season, then by the beginning of 2007-08. The man is hard-wired to coach, not sit in a chair. Whether or not the mess in Philly is Cheeks' fault, he will be fired -- should be fired by the get-rid-of-the-coach standing precedent of the NBA -- and it simply defies belief that King will look outside for a coach when all he has to do is swivel his head to find a great one.

And I, for one, can't wait for that first game against the Knicks.