KNICKS 90 – NETS 83
With last night’s season-finale coaching fiasco out of the way, Knicks president Isiah Thomas and Larry Brown today will sit side-by-side in a conference room inside their Westchester training facility to meet with the beat writers and discuss the Knicks’ future.
That’s the clearest sign yet there is intent for Thomas to throw bouquets at ailing Brown, who did not speak to reporters all day despite appearing on the bench in the Knicks’ 90-83 victory over the resting-for-the-playoffs Nets at the Meadowlands.
Brown’s agent, Joe Glass, who for days has been proclaiming Brown will be healthy enough to come back next season, expects Thomas to say he wants Brown as his coach. Glass hopes Thomas’ remarks will end speculation that Brown’s latest medical problems will result in his exodus.
“Isiah is always going to say good things about Larry,” Glass told The Post. “He always says good things about Larry. Why should this be anything different? Everything is normal.”
Nothing was normal about yesterday. The Knicks’ drama queen kept the suspense right up to game time whether he would coach, further confusing Knicks brass and players.
Brown sat on the bench, but Herb Williams did much of the coaching in one of the weirdest tag-teams in NBA history. The victory allowed Team Titanic to finish at 23-59, avoid their franchise-worst record for an 82-game season, and avoid a franchise-record 60th defeat. They finished with the second-worst record in the league, giving the Bulls second seed in the draft lottery.
As last night’s game unfolded, Williams ran the huddles and stood up shouting directions while Brown mostly sat. As the game went on, Brown became more animated, standing behind Williams in the huddle and doing most of the talking.
“He was pretty energetic,” Jamal Crawford said.
Williams said team doctor Lisa Callahan did not want Brown to spend the game standing up and sitting down because it would exacerbate his acid reflux.
“He let me have it, let me coach the game,” Williams said.
Brown’s health is of utmost importance because it could lead to him not coaching next season. Brown did not speak at the shootaround or before the game and was whisked out a secret stairway after the game as reporters waited for him in the tunnel leading to the team bus. All of it was in violation of NBA rules. The Knicks told Brown he did not have to speak to lessen the day’s stress.
Thomas has not talked to reporters in two months, except when he and Brown sat down three weeks ago with a Sports Illustrated writer and Thomas glowed about Brown. The feature has not been published.
But Thomas has not publicly given Brown a vote of confidence and did not stick up for him during the Stephon Marbury feud. Last time Thomas spoke on the topic, three months ago, he said anyone who defied Brown would be traded.
The players in the locker room were genuinely confused by yesterday’s proceedings, a fitting conclusion to the chaotic season.
At 6 p.m., Brown was holed up in a room next to the Nets’ locker room, telling Williams he was unsure he felt well enough to coach.
“He doesn’t know and I don’t know,” Williams reported 90 minutes before tip-off.
Brown huddled with Callahan and got a visit from Nets coach Lawrence Frank before the game.
A source on the team bus said Brown was coughing on the ride from Westchester to New Jersey. Brown hadn’t coached since last Thursday, when he left late in the third quarter in Cleveland with an acid reflux incident that forced his hospitalization.
The Knicks assistant coaches, whose livelihood depend upon Brown’s return, said he has not given them an indication he doesn’t want to come back.