Larry Brown, a 67-year-old coach famous for bouncing around top pro and college jobs, was named coach of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats on 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,” he said.
“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,” he said.
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.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
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