My LB watching days might not be over.
Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 9:18 pmHah!!
0:12 PM
By Cailin Riley
Hall of Fame NBA coach Larry Brown confirmed Monday that he is interested in the boys varsity basketball head coaching vacancy at East Hampton, and said he is currently considering taking the position while weighing offers from several other pro and college teams across the country.
“I’m trying to decide right now,” Brown—who owns a home in East Hampton—said on Monday afternoon. “I’m obviously interested in coaching and teaching, but I don’t want to make a commitment unless I can do it 100 percent.”
The Bonackers, of course, would obviously be interested in hiring him. The position became available after Jesse Shapiro, 35, tendered his resignation less than three months after accepting the position, which opened after former head coach Bill McKee retired. Shapiro, a 2000 East Hampton graduate who lives in New York City, told East Hampton Athletic Director Joe Vasile-Cozzo that he couldn’t make the commitment because he was having too much difficulty finding full-time employment on the East End.
On Sunday, Vasile-Cozzo said he was still in the process of interviewing candidates for the job, and declined to say who those candidates were, but addressed the rumors regarding Brown.
“I am a huge fan of Larry Brown, and anything we can do to help him come here to East Hampton, we’d be glad to do,” Vasile-Cozzo said. “Any school district that has the opportunity to work with a legend like that would look at it as a real opportunity for their kids.”
Speaking to Kansas City Star reporter Gary Bedore days after his 76th birthday, former NBA coach Larry Brown said in an article published on September 15 that he was interested in the head coaching vacancy at East Hampton.
Brown is the only coach to win both an NCAA and NBA championship, leading the University of Kansas to the title in 1988, while winning an NBA crown with the Detroit Pistons in 2004. He also coached the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks, and recently resigned his head coaching position at SMU in Texas after going 94-39 in four seasons. Brown was a standout point guard at the University of North Carolina, playing under legendary coaches Dean Smith and Frank McGuire, before going on to play in the ABA, and he won an Olympic gold medal as a point guard for Team USA in 1964.
Brown said he helped out at a clinic in East Hampton during the summer and saw some of the Bonac players in action.
“I’m really interested in helping out the kids,” he said. “I love it out here, and if I decide to stay out here full time, and I can give it my full commitment, I’d be more than happy to help. Right now it’s a little too soon to be able to give that kind of commitment.”
Brown said he’s been fielding plenty of calls and requests for help from hoops coaches all across the country, including big name Division I programs and pro teams that would love to benefit from his expertise. And Brown says he’s more than eager to give it, adding that he doesn’t think he could “handle being idle.”
“I was so lucky I played for all the best coaches and got to coach with some of the best coaches and coached some of the best players, and I have a lot I’ve learned that I’d like to share,” he said. “So that’s my goal right now, to find out how I can do that.”
Brown and his family have spent summers in East Hampton for several years, giving him a familiarity with the area, and he said that while they typically aren’t found here after Labor Day weekend, he’s experienced the offseason and likes it.
“I’m real close with [Atlantic Golf Club head pro] Rick Hartmann, and he’s always telling me how special it is,” Brown said. “I got to spend a little time here [in the offseason] during the NBA lockout in 1999, and I could sense it’s a lot different, in a good way for me. So I’m not opposed to doing it. I just don’t want to make a commitment to kids and not fulfill it 100 percent.”
Brown has never coached a high school team, but said the level of competition isn’t necessarily a deciding factor for him.
“My goal, when I went to college, I always dreamed about being an American history teacher and coaching baseball, basketball and football at the high school level,” he said. “Sometimes different things happen, but it was always in the back of my mind that that was going to be my career path.
“All the guys I’ve coached, whether in college or the pros, I haven’t found many that didn’t want to learn or didn’t care,” he continued. “That’s what keeps me going. I know what Ed Petrie did here, and I’m aware of Bridgehampton and their tradition. My whole thing is if a ball is bouncing and there’s a couple baskets, and someone wants to be taught, I’m all in.”
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0:12 PM
By Cailin Riley
Hall of Fame NBA coach Larry Brown confirmed Monday that he is interested in the boys varsity basketball head coaching vacancy at East Hampton, and said he is currently considering taking the position while weighing offers from several other pro and college teams across the country.
“I’m trying to decide right now,” Brown—who owns a home in East Hampton—said on Monday afternoon. “I’m obviously interested in coaching and teaching, but I don’t want to make a commitment unless I can do it 100 percent.”
The Bonackers, of course, would obviously be interested in hiring him. The position became available after Jesse Shapiro, 35, tendered his resignation less than three months after accepting the position, which opened after former head coach Bill McKee retired. Shapiro, a 2000 East Hampton graduate who lives in New York City, told East Hampton Athletic Director Joe Vasile-Cozzo that he couldn’t make the commitment because he was having too much difficulty finding full-time employment on the East End.
On Sunday, Vasile-Cozzo said he was still in the process of interviewing candidates for the job, and declined to say who those candidates were, but addressed the rumors regarding Brown.
“I am a huge fan of Larry Brown, and anything we can do to help him come here to East Hampton, we’d be glad to do,” Vasile-Cozzo said. “Any school district that has the opportunity to work with a legend like that would look at it as a real opportunity for their kids.”
Speaking to Kansas City Star reporter Gary Bedore days after his 76th birthday, former NBA coach Larry Brown said in an article published on September 15 that he was interested in the head coaching vacancy at East Hampton.
Brown is the only coach to win both an NCAA and NBA championship, leading the University of Kansas to the title in 1988, while winning an NBA crown with the Detroit Pistons in 2004. He also coached the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks, and recently resigned his head coaching position at SMU in Texas after going 94-39 in four seasons. Brown was a standout point guard at the University of North Carolina, playing under legendary coaches Dean Smith and Frank McGuire, before going on to play in the ABA, and he won an Olympic gold medal as a point guard for Team USA in 1964.
Brown said he helped out at a clinic in East Hampton during the summer and saw some of the Bonac players in action.
“I’m really interested in helping out the kids,” he said. “I love it out here, and if I decide to stay out here full time, and I can give it my full commitment, I’d be more than happy to help. Right now it’s a little too soon to be able to give that kind of commitment.”
Brown said he’s been fielding plenty of calls and requests for help from hoops coaches all across the country, including big name Division I programs and pro teams that would love to benefit from his expertise. And Brown says he’s more than eager to give it, adding that he doesn’t think he could “handle being idle.”
“I was so lucky I played for all the best coaches and got to coach with some of the best coaches and coached some of the best players, and I have a lot I’ve learned that I’d like to share,” he said. “So that’s my goal right now, to find out how I can do that.”
Brown and his family have spent summers in East Hampton for several years, giving him a familiarity with the area, and he said that while they typically aren’t found here after Labor Day weekend, he’s experienced the offseason and likes it.
“I’m real close with [Atlantic Golf Club head pro] Rick Hartmann, and he’s always telling me how special it is,” Brown said. “I got to spend a little time here [in the offseason] during the NBA lockout in 1999, and I could sense it’s a lot different, in a good way for me. So I’m not opposed to doing it. I just don’t want to make a commitment to kids and not fulfill it 100 percent.”
Brown has never coached a high school team, but said the level of competition isn’t necessarily a deciding factor for him.
“My goal, when I went to college, I always dreamed about being an American history teacher and coaching baseball, basketball and football at the high school level,” he said. “Sometimes different things happen, but it was always in the back of my mind that that was going to be my career path.
“All the guys I’ve coached, whether in college or the pros, I haven’t found many that didn’t want to learn or didn’t care,” he continued. “That’s what keeps me going. I know what Ed Petrie did here, and I’m aware of Bridgehampton and their tradition. My whole thing is if a ball is bouncing and there’s a couple baskets, and someone wants to be taught, I’m all in.”
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