Nuggets

The Earth and the basketball are round, and nobody in both worlds would appreciate the Nuggets winning their first championship more than the team's ...

Brown won the NBA title with the Pistons and Chauncey Billups in 2003-2004. Brown’s first two NBA Nuggets made the postseason, but then, and since, the franchise never has reached the Finals. The Brooklyn native was MVP of the first ABA All-Star game and coached the first All-Star game with a slam-dunk contest. When he left the Knicks in 2006 Brown told me he wanted to coach high school basketball. Larry was the first of four former North Carolina players who coached here. “The West is wild,’’ Brown said, “especially after all the trades at the deadline. When four of the franchises were merged into the NBA, Brown carried the red, white and blue basketball on the road for the Nuggets to warm up with in NBA arenas. From 1983-88 he coached at Kansas, won the Final Four and mentored Tad Boyle, who became the Colorado coach. “Most fun I ever had was in the ABA,’’ Brown says. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002 and honored with the Chuck Daly life achievement award two years ago. He is the only NBA coach ever to take eight different franchises to the playoffs, and he was an assistant or head coach at three prestigious basketball schools – North Carolina, UCLA and Kansas (where he won the Final Four) – and played or coached for 14 ABA and NBA teams. At 82, the Hall of Famer is still around.