Grizzlies' Brown wins Coach of the Year

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Hubie Brown answered a question about Memphis' first pro basketball playoff game by detailing how his Kentucky Colonels won the ABA title in 1975.\nHe listed the St. Louis roster and pointing out that 72 of 79 players won NBA jobs after the leagues merged.\nJerry West listened, then said: "I can't remember yesterday. How do you remember that?"\n"When you're old, you just talk," Brown said. "I take advantage of the fact that you're being charitable."\nBrown -- at 70, the oldest coach in the league -- had plenty to talk about Wednesday after winning the NBA Coach of the Year award for leading the Memphis Grizzlies to a team-record 50 wins and their first playoff berth.\nHe 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.\nThe award marks a 26-year span between victories for Brown, who also was honored as the top coach in the 1977-78 season with Atlanta. Gene Shue won 13 years apart, with Baltimore (1969) and Washington (1982).\n"Here we are 26 years later, and he wins another one," said West, the Grizzlies' president of basketball operations.\nWest heard plenty of criticism 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 has been around.\n"We don't even have close to a perfect team here, and he's been able to hide some of our weaknesses," West said.\nBrown said the award must be shared with owner Michael Heisley, the Grizzlies and especially West, whose call came after Brown was demoted by television executives who thought he was too old to connect with the NBA's younger viewers.\n"This guy, the guy holding the door, gave me the opportunity to have a little more bounce in my step," Brown said.\nSloan 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.\nBrown hadn't coached in the NBA since 1987 and was 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.\nThis season, the Grizzlies went 50-32 and are playing the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs. They trail the Spurs 0-2 with Game 3 on Thursday night.\nBrown said he will always remember his team for the way it played this season.\n"You've got to want to come to work. That's why I love these guys, because when I come to work. They give me their hearts, and that's what coaching's all about," he said. "I'm hoping things will change in this series, but nobody's ever going to take away the playoffs and the 50 wins."\nCenter Lorenzen Wright, forward James Posey and guard Jason Williams were among the Grizzlies on hand to watch Brown receive the award. They clapped loudly and cheered, "Hubie! Hubie!"\nPosey said the players only notice an age gap when Brown starts telling stories about the teams and players he has coached.\n"He's been our leader, able to challenge and keep the intensity and keep us focused and headed in the direction we're headed -- to win 50 games and make the playoffs. The intensity he brings, not only in games but at practice, his ability to have a relationship with the players nowadays ... helps a lot," Posey said.\nForward Mike Miller said Brown not only teaches on the court but off as well.\n"A lot of coaches don't take the time to do that, and he does. He's so prepared, and his passion to win is as much as I've ever seen," he said.\nBrown listed the Grizzlies' successes this season, including a 35-2 mark when leading after the third quarter, winning 14 games when trailing by double-digits and losing only seven games by more than eight points.\n"They never stopped hustling, and they never stopped trying," he said of his Grizzlies. "Yeah, we had our nights, but you have to understand how hard it is to play as hard as they play"