Legendary basketball coach Larry Brown still paces the sidelines. The 74-year-old basketball lifer is at SMU now–and he’s in the NCAA tournament again against one of the teams he used to coach, UCLA. (It would be hard, given Brown’s itchy feet, for him not to run into a team he used to coach.) Safe to say few people have seen more basketball than Larry Brown, who won national championships at the NCAA and NBA levels. (Brown the player is the all-time leading assist leader in the defunct ABA–a record he’ll have forever!)
So of all people Brown should know that this year’s fearsome Kentucky men’s basketball team isn’t a professional-level squad, despite its enormous talent. But this week Brown said “I honestly believe Kentucky would make the NBA playoffs in the East.” Now the NBA’s Eastern Conference has seen better days, but this is malarkey and Brown knows it–or should. Washington Wizards All-Star John Wall (a Kentucky alum) disabused everyone of the notion earlier this year that Kentucky could even win a game in the NBA. Brown has a strategy though, no doubt: if Kentucky can beat the Knicks, the SMU Mustangs can go all the way!
Larry Brown just said “I honestly believe Kentucky would make the NBA Playoffs in the East”
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) March 18, 2015
