The tortured soul of Larry Brown

I didn't attend Larry Brown's end-of-season news conference Friday, but I'm going to try and read the tea leaves, anyway.

Brown is going home to Philadelphia now to talk with his wife, Shelly, and his two teenagers (ages 13 and 15) about whether he should move back to Philly (presumably to retire or else take a front-office job with the 76ers) or stay in Charlotte to coach the Bobcats for at least another season.

OK, a couple of points:

1) When you were 13 or 15 years old, did you want your Dad around all the time?

2) Why won't Shelly, his wife, move here? This is intriguing, but apparently not an option. The Browns want to keep the kids in schools where they are happy and they have friends. I understand that, and certainly they're all used to the situation, given that when Larry came here the kids were 11 and 13 and only he moved to Charlotte. Shelly gave the go-ahead for that move originally, but it took some doing -- I remember Michael Jordan saying Shelly was a tougher negotiator at the time than Larry was.

3) Here was the most telling thing Brown said about this dilemma Friday:
"I have a great job here. I love Charlotte, I love working for Michael, I love coaching. I don’t think there are many places where I’ve been as comfortable, and I’ve been in some pretty special situations.

"But I have a 13-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old son and the time I’m away from them, I can’t get that back. I’ll be 70 [on his next birthday]. I don’t feel that way, unless I look in the mirror. But I’ve got to go home and talk to my wife. I love her and I love my kids and I don’t want them growing up and all of a sudden I blink and I’ve missed that. It’s just something I’ll have to address and try to figure out."

So Larry's soul is tortured once again. He's been that way, off and on, for large segments of his life. But he's also a basketball genius, which is why everyone puts up with his "To be or not to be" imitation of Hamlet every couple of years.

My guess? Brown ultimately gets it worked out on the homefront. And he stays in Charlotte. Maybe only for one more year, maybe for two to fulfill the original contract he signed with Jordan.

That's just my gut reaction, after watching Brown interact with Jordan and other Bobcat employees Wednesday at the golf tournament at Quail Hollow. You could see the affection there. Brown loves what he's doing and who he's working for. And Shelly knew what he did when she married him -- how a lot of his life is defined by basketball, and coaching. I think she and Larry will work out a compromise, and he'll stay -- at least for one more year.

But I'm certainly not going to bet the house on that. Let's remember, this is Larry Brown. He's so fascinating in large part because he's so unpredictable. "Where You Gonna Be Next Year, Larry?" was once the title of a Sports Illustrated feature on Brown.

And that was in 1984.

Larry following MJ, staying coy

Michael Jordan and Larry Brown share a laugh Wednesday at the Quail Hollow Championship pro-am. Jordan played; Brown watched.

I am at the Quail Hollow Championship today, and was following the Michael Jordan-Fred Couples pairing on the ninth tee when things started to get interesting.

Out of the gallery bounded Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown (who originally was a candidate to play in the pro-am, but ended up not doing so). Brown hugged everybody in the group -- it also includes Quail Hollow president Johny Harris -- and then started following them inside the ropes.

"Grab a club and let's go!" Jordan told Brown. Brown said no thanks, he was just going to watch, and then he did exactly that. Brown walked behind Jordan and Couples with Bobcats president Fred Whitfield and assistant coach Dave Hanners, applauding occasionally (especially when Jordan hit a good one).

This, of course, sets off a ruckus among the fans. Some variation of "Stay in Charlotte, Larry!" and "Don't leave, Larry!" was repeated dozens of times over the next few holes. Each time, Brown would smile, wave -- and say absolutely nothing.

I got the feeling Brown was still in the "hemming-and-hawing" stage -- he certainly wasn't telling fans "Okay, I'll stay." He did sign a lot of autographs, though, and was as gracious as he could be without answering questions.

I cornered him at one point and asked if I could talk to him. He nodded, but then said he wanted to watch Jordan play the round first and walked away. I am guessing Brown will end up talking to a cluster of reporters in about an hour or two at the 18th green -- word of his impromptu visit to the course is starting to spread.

Brown apparently plans to go home to Philadelphia Thursday and have a talk with his wife (and maybe 76ers officials??) about whether he's going to coach in Charlotte, end up as president of the Philadelphia franchise, do something else or retire entirely.

There was one funny moment, too, when a couple of teenagers saw Brown up close.

"Next year we'll win it all!" the first teenager told the coach. Brown had no response.

"Next year, we'll win a game in the playoffs," the other said sarcastically.

"Yeah," Brown said, grinning.

I'll miss Chris Harris

As the Panthers' purge continues....

Carolina traded starting strong safety Chris Harris on Tuesday for Chicago backup linebacker Jamar Williams. Harris made news (again) on his Twitter page, announcing the trade before either team announced it.

This means the Panthers will have at least nine new starters out of 22 next season, as Sherrod Martin is expected to step in for Harris. It continues Carolina's tendency to get younger this offseason. Here's Darin Gantt's excellent story about the deal.

Will Harris's departure make a huge on-field difference? Probably not. Martin is pretty darn good. Harris had a great streak last season of being involved in at least one turnover for five straight games, but he also doesn't have the sort of speed that I think defensive coordinator Ron Meeks most values in that position.

Still, I'll miss Harris -- and his Twitter account. Now he knew how to use Twitter! He didn't use it just to post what he had for breakfast (and I saw him once at a Charlotte pancake house, so I can tell you the man liked his breakfast). He broke news on that thing -- first the release of Brad Hoover, then news of his own trade. (Harris and kickoff specialist Rhys Lloyd were by far the most entertaining Panthers to read on Twitter; now both are gone. Somebody in that locker room needs to step up!).

Harris also was a stand-up guy in that locker room and also a smart guy. Bet you didn't know he had a twin brother who is a university professor. When he began his career with Carolina, he had an uncanny knack for causing fumbles, but that dissipated some over time.

What a good guy, though. The Panthers still have a number of those, but they sure have gotten rid of a bunch of them this offseason.

Brown's future -- and 5 ugly numbers for Bobcats

The Bobcats just got swept by Orlando in their first-ever playoff series, falling 99-90 Monday night. It was a strange evening dominated in the media room by the latest batch of rumors that Bobcats coach Larry Brown was close to leaving Charlotte to assume the presidency of the Philadelphia 76ers -- a Yahoo.com story touching off these rumors.

Brown said again after the game that he would coach nowhere else but for Michael Jordan and Charlotte and acted offended that the question was even asked.

But when later asked specifically whether he would take a front-office job elsewhere -- in other words, not coaching elsewhere but still leaving Charlotte -- he said, "That's hypothetical."

Brown made it sound like he wanted to stay, saying he loved nothing more than coaching. But he also sounded like he more or less had to get permission to do it again from his wife Shelly, who has stayed in the Philadelphia area with their two children all this time while Brown has been in Charlotte, coaching basketball and otherwise living what I would find to be a rather lonely existence.

Brown seemed weary after the game and said he felt "miserable" about the sweep. He also noted he will be 70 on his next birthday. In other words, this issue is not completely done by a long shot -- Brown is still going to have long conversations with his wife and Jordan before deciding for sure whether he will coach Charlotte in 2010-11. It sounded to me like retirement was at least as much an option as taking a front-office job in Philly -- let's be serious, if you really wanted to be around your wife and kids a lot more, you'd retire, not just take another job closer to them.

OK, onto the 5 ugly numbers for the Bobcats:

15: Out of 16 teams in the playoffs, that's how many teams have won at least a single first-round game. Charlotte was the only one to get swept. In the party everyone wants to get to, the Bobcats are the first one ushered out the door.

3-for-18: Stephen Jackson's shooting performance from three-point range in this series.

12: Difference in Bobcats starting center Theo Ratliff's number of fouls in the four-game series (15) compared to his number of rebounds (3).

14-12: Boris Diaw's total field goals for the series compared to his total turnovers. Diaw was decent Monday, but in the first 3 games he disappeared at all the wrong times.

2: Charlotte's lead at halftime in Game 4. Was this a bad thing? Well, no. But a reporter who has covered the Magic all season saw me at halftime and said, "That's just about as bad as the Magic can play. And they're down by 2."

In other words, as soon as Orlando got going again, it would be over, and that's exactly what happened. The talent variance in this series was so severe that Charlotte really only had one good chance to win -- in Game 3 when Dwight Howard fouled out -- and the Bobcats blew that one.

On Matt Moore, Panthers draft and the Bobcats

I wrote a couple of columns for Sunday's paper after attending Charlotte's 90-86 playoff loss to Orlando and watching the Panthers' NFL draft.

I won't belabor the points I made in them, but I wrote mostly about Bobcats coach Larry Brown's frustration in the first one and mostly about Matt Moore's sudden competition at quarterback given the Panthers drafting two new QBs in the second one.

Quite a week coming up in Charlotte, too -- the Bobcats' Game 4 is Monday night (with Charlotte just hoping to avoid the sweep now the way Dwyane Wade did Sunday) and the huge golf tournament all week at Quail Hollow.

5 thoughts about Game 2 as Bobcats go down 0-2

Just finished watching the Bobcats lose, 92-77, to Orlando in Game 2 of this 7-game series. A few thoughts that I couldn't fit into my column:

1. Both head coaches seemed to be equally furious at the officiating Wednesday night. Larry Brown and Stan Van Gundy each drew a technical. Van Gundy believes his superstar Dwight Howard doesn't get superstar calls and keeps getting whistled for "marginal fouls" -- Howard has missed about 20 minutes of both games because of foul trouble.

Brown was upset that only three players on his team shot free throws at all Wednesday and that Orlando outshot the Bobcats from the free-throw line, 35-18.

2. Van Gundy disputed Brown's notion that the Magic didn't practice Monday because they didn't respect Charlotte. He said instead that Game 1 was so brutal that his players needed some "physical rest," and he added that Orlando won't practice much on Thursday, either. Van Gundy portrayed all this as a compliment to Charlotte, but then again, what did you expect him to say?

3. Three Charlotte starters -- Boris Diaw, Theo Ratliff and Raymond Felton -- shot a combined 4-for-15 and scored a total of nine points Wednesday. That's nasty.

4. Vince Carter was much better Wednesday, showing what he can still do when he drives to the rim and accepts contact instead of settling for outside jumpers. He scored a team-high 19 points. Carter and Raymond Felton also had a brief dispute on the court that caused Carter to roll his eyes at Felton -- you don't see two Tar Heels doing that too often.

5. Tyson Chandler had six fouls in a little more than 13 minutes of action Wednesday. Geez.

Vince Carter in his "Vin-Sanity" dunking days

I wrote a column today about Vince Carter, who at Orlando now has a better chance at the NBA championship that has eluded him for a dozen years than he ever has before.

Although the column mainly deals with substance (i.e. championships) rather than style (i.e. the dunks Carter is so famous for), no Carter story would be totally complete without mentioning a couple.

In the story, I mention two highlight moments in Carter's flamboyant resume -- his thrilling performance at the 2000 NBA slam-dunk contest and his dunk over a 7-foot-2 French center in the 2000 Olympics.

Here are the YouTube links for each: The NBA dunk contest and the Olympic dunk, which the French media would later christen "the dunk of death." Enjoy.