Grizzlies’ Brown Is Honored

Hubie Brown won the NBA coach of the year award Wednesday for leading the Memphis Grizzlies to a team-record 50 wins and their first playoff berth.

Brown -- at 70, the oldest coach in the league -- beat Utah’s Jerry Sloan in a close race with 466 points, including 62 of 122 first-place votes from a panel of sports writers and sportscasters.

The award marks a 26-year span between honors for Brown, who also was selected as the top coach in the 1977-78 season with Atlanta. Gene Shue won 13 years apart, with Baltimore (1969) and Washington (1982).

Jerry West, the Grizzlies’ president of basketball operations, heard plenty of criticism and doubters when he hired Brown in November 2002. He couldn’t stop smiling as he presented his coach with the award at a news conference after the Grizzlies’ practice. He called Brown the best coach he had been around.

“We don’t even have close to a perfect team here, and he’s been able to hide some of our weaknesses,” West said.

Brown said the award must be shared with owner Michael Heisley, the Grizzlies and especially West.

“This guy, the guy holding the door, gave me the opportunity to have a little more bounce in my step,” Brown said.

Sloan got 424 points, with 56 top votes. Milwaukee’s Terry Porter and Miami’s Stan Van Gundy, both rookie head coaches, tied for third with 54 points and one first-place vote each.

Brown was retired as a coach and working in TV when he took over as Memphis’ coach two weeks into last season, when the team won 28 games -- then a franchise record..

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Jim O’Brien was introduced as the coach of the Philadelphia 76ers and believes he’ll have more success getting along with Allen Iverson than his predecessors.

“I have never had difficulty leading people and having people understand the expectations that I have,” said O’Brien, who stepped down with the Boston Celtics in January and replaced interim coach Chris Ford in Philadelphia. “I’m a fairly easy person to play for.

“I really want to have an opportunity to coach Allen Iverson.”

It appears O’Brien, 52, will get his wish. Team president Billy King reiterated that Iverson was not on the trading block, saying, “Allen will be here next year.”

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Injured New York Knick forward Tim Thomas ripped New Jersey Net forward Kenyon Martin as a phony tough guy and criticized his teammates too for failing to respond to the flagrant foul that sidelined him in Game 1.

Thomas will not play in Game 3 tonight, when New Jersey will try to take a 3-0 lead over New York, but if he makes it back for Game 4, a confrontation is all but guaranteed, he says.

“My goal is just to get back out there on the court before this series is over so I can go hit somebody. That’s it. That’s all I’m looking forward to,” Thomas said. “What’s been done to me is going to be done to them. It’s very simple.”

Thomas’ statements were his first public comments since he was fouled by Jason Collins in Game 1 on a dunk attempt. Thomas took a hard fall, bruising his back, hip and ankle.

Thomas said he had not seen a videotape of the foul but considered it a dirty play.

He also aimed some criticism at his teammates.

“When I was laying on the floor I was expecting somebody to do something, to push, to shove, anybody. But it never happened,” Thomas said. “In that situation, you have to respond. You have to, that’s the bottom line.

“For it to go down that way and for nobody to really respond, I’m just waiting for somebody to do something.”

Thomas saved his most caustic comments for Martin.

“You get techs and you get fines and that makes you tough?” Thomas said. “Because your game is wild and crazy, that makes you tough? When a scuffle breaks out, you have 13 guys that can protect you. When it’s you and someone else, what happens then?

“Somebody call Don King and hook it up for us.”

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Coach of the Year

Voting for the NBA coach of the year as selected by a panel of 122 sportswriters and broadcasters. Voting is on a 5-3-1 basis:

*--* Coach, Team 1st 2nd 3rd Pts Hubie Brown, Memphis 62 50 6 466 Jerry Sloan, Utah 56 44 12 424 Terry Porter, Milwaukee 1 5 34 54 Stan Van Gundy, Miami 1 10 19 54 Rick Carlisle, Indiana 2 3 22 41 Jeff Bzdelik, Denver 0 4 13 25 Flip Saunders, Minnesota 0 3 10 19 Phil Jackson, Lakers 0 2 2 8 Rick Adelman, Sacramento 0 1 0 3 Gregg Popovich, San Antonio 0 0 3 3 Paul Silas, Cleveland 0 0 1 1

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