fr:Larry Brown (basketball)

See also Larry Brown (author). For the MVP of Super Bowl XXX, see Larry Brown.

Larry Brown (born September 14, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York) has been a successful college and professional basketball coach for the last 31 years. He has won over 1,000 professional games in the ABA and the NBA and is the only coach in NBA history to lead seven different teams to the playoffs. He is 1,285-853 in his career and is the current head coach of the Detroit Pistons.

Brown, a 5-9 point guard, played at The University of North Carolina, under the legendary coach Dean Smith where he also was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha, after playing his high school basketball in New York. A stellar player for the Tar Heels in the early 60's, Brown was considered too small to play in the NBA so he went to the NABL Akron Wingfoots, where he played for two years (1964-65). During that time Brown was selected to the 1964 Summer Olympics team while leading the Wingfoots to the 1964 AAU National Championship. After a brief stint as an assistant coach at North Carolina, Brown joined the upstart American Basketball Association, playing with the New Orleans Buccaneers (1967-68), Oakland Oaks (1968-69), Washington Caps (1969-70), Virginia Squires (1970-71) and Denver Nuggets (1971-72).

While the head coach at UCLA (1979-80, 1980-81), Brown led his freshman-dominated 1979-80 team to the NCAA title game before falling to Louisville, 59-54.

Brown coached at the University of Kansas from 1984-1988. Brown was named "Coach of the Year" for the NCAA in 1988 and "Coach of the Year" for the conference in 1986. During his tenure, Kansas finished first in the conference in 1986, and second in 1984, 1985, and 1987. He led Kansas to the national championship in 1988 defeating Oklahoma 83-79. He had 5 NCAA Tounament appearances, 3 Sweet 16 appearanace, and 2 final four appearances. Brown had a cumulative collegiate coaching record of 177-61 (.744) in seven season, including a five-year mark of 135-44 (.754) at Kansas.

Brown accepted the head coaching position with the San Antonio spurs of the NBA following the 1987-88 season and later coached the Indiana Pacers

Brown won his first NBA Championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. By doing so, Brown became the first man to coach a college basketball team to an NCAA Championship to the NCAA title in 1988) and an NBA team to an NBA Championship. During his tenure at Kansas 1984-1988, Brown attained a remarkable record of 135 wins and 33 losses.

He was chosen as the head coach for the USA men's basketball team ("Dream Team IV") at the 2004 Summer Olympics.