Brown makes Bobcats his ninth NBA coaching stop

Larry Brown, a 67-year-old coach famous for bouncing around top pro and college jobs, was named coach of the National Basketball Association's Charlotte Bobcats here Tuesday.

The move comes five days after Brown resigned as an executive vice president for the Philadelphia 76ers and three days after the Bobcats fired Sam Vincent following a disappointing 32-50 record in his only season guiding the club.

Brown, who has coached eight prior NBA teams in a 23-year career, is a former player at the University of North Carolina just like the Bobcats' managing member of basketball operations - retired NBA legend Michael Jordan.

Brown's career was well before the six-time NBA champion's tenure with the Tar Heels, but Jordan knew journeyman Brown was the man he wanted to try and make a winner out of the fourth-year club owned by Robert Johnson.

"Like our program, he has struggled to find his identity," Jordan said. "I think we will find the right position here. This is the type of atmosphere he enjoys. He will take the pieces he finds and turn them into something better.

"I think his teaching skills will be the biggest asset these young kids have. Our team did not respond well in game situations and that was a big downfall for us."

Brown ranks fifth on the NBA all-time win list with 1,010 career victories and is the only coach to win a US national college crown as well as an NBA title, winning in 1988 with the University of Kansas and Detroit in 2004.

"The only team I took over with a winning record was Detroit and anybody could have coached that team," joked Brown, known for his ability to turn a struggling club into a winner but also for his many moves around the game.

"I'm confident this is going to be a place that I will be around for a long time," said Brown, who cited his age as a reason why he might not move but refused to say this would be his final coaching stop.

Brown, whose first coaching assignment came in 1972 with the American Basketball Association's Carolina Cougars, also guided the 2004 US Olympic team that settled for bronze at Athens four years ago.

Brown's most recent prior coaching stop was with the New York Knicks before he was fired after the 2005-2006 season.

"The reason I'm here is because of Michael and Bob (Johnson)," Brown said. "When Michael asked me to come, it was a no-brainer. There's no place I would rather be. Michael called me. How are you going to say no to Michael?"

Brown, whose teams have made 17 NBA playoff trips, will stress teaching and work ethic to his new charges.

"They have been coached. I just want to take it to another level," Brown said. "Every day at practice will be a learning situation. We just have to work harder.

"The players on this team all have the right character. They all want to get better and win. I'm commmited to challenge players to do their best. That's what Michael is about. That's what I'm about.

"I'm not going to ask them to do things they can't. I'm going to ask them to do things better. There's a good chance we're going to be very successful."

Citing the surprise playoff challenges that Atlanta and Philadelphia have given Boston and Detroit, the two winningest teams in the NBA this season, Brown said he is confident the Bobcats can rise into such a challengers' role.

"If players know you are out there every day trying to make them better, they will give you everything they've got," Brown said. "If we show these kids we care, we will get better pretty quickly."