August 16, 2022 • 21 mins
Ron welcomes Sacramento Kings and Nigerian national team's head coach Mike Brown to the show to talk about his life, career, and the NBA. Prior to joining the Kings, Brown was head coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2009, and Los Angeles Lakers, and the assistant head coach for the Golden State Warriors, who won 3 NBA Championships during his tenure.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Ron Bar and this is today's edition of
Ron Bars Sports Byline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
Mike Brown joins us on Sports Byline. He owns more
than fourteen years of NBA coaching experiences, both a head
coach and an assistant and twice he was the head
coach of the Cavaliers and also was the head coach
for the Los Angeles Lakers. And in his first stint
(00:21):
with the Calves, he led them to their first ever
NBA Finals appearance and was named the NBA Coach of
the Year after guiding Cleveland to a franchise record sixties
six wins. Cleveland won at least fifty games in four
of his first five seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers. One
thing else I know about you is that you were
born in Columbus, Ohio, but you spent a lot of
(00:43):
time in Germany. Your dad was an Air Force guy.
And I've talked to other athletes that come from military
family like I did as well. There is something about
growing up in a military family that I think is
different than any other experience for other kids. Can you
help me out here and understanding it. Yeah, there's there's
no doubt. You know. The first thing is, I think
(01:04):
because you travel so much and you're in so many
different uh country states, how you want to call it,
You've got to constantly uh make new friends because you're
changing schools. You get cultured real quickly because you you
come across a lot of cultures and then also going
into new experiences, um as an adult. There's nothing fearful
(01:26):
about it, you know, making new friends. There's nothing fearful
about it because you had to do it your whole
life growing up with your parents being in the military
and moving so much. So, uh, you know that moving
tends to be a pain in your mind when you're younger,
but it pays off huge dividends as you grow because
(01:46):
there are a lot of experiences that you lean back
or fall back on from your time in the military,
from your time growing up in the military, that can
help you going forward in your adult life. I think
also and makes you more adaptable. And I know you're
gonna agree with that because of just what you just
said and also the cultures that opens your mind. Uh,
what did you learn from that experience that you still
(02:07):
apply today in your life? You know, for me, any
business that you're in it's all about relationships. And I
know that moving from school to school growing up. Uh,
if you wanted to stay involved and you know, different
activities at the school and different sports teams, and you
wanted to have friends, you had to figure out how
(02:29):
to develop relations relationships quickly because you could possibly be
in a location just for a year and then you're
moving again. Sometimes two years and you're moving again. So
you know, the relationship aspect is something that I always
found was a unique thing because when you go from
school school, usually the culture and the school or the
(02:51):
way of thinking with most of the kids in the
school is a little bit different than the one that
you just came from. So you had to be able
to figure out how to handle, uh, get new relationships
quickly and foster those into long term. I know you're
someone who is very exact in what you do, very organized,
and the discipline and organization that comes from a military upbringing,
(03:15):
I think is also something that has affected you. Am
I right about that observation? Yeah, it's correct. My dad, Uh,
you know, with him being in the military for seven years,
he's very disciplined in a lot of different ways. He's
extremely organized, Uh, with whatever he does, and that has
robbed off on me quite a bit, almost to a
(03:37):
point where I have a little bit of O c D.
I'm blaming my military father on that. Through a lot
of things and take this time doing them until they
are as accurate or correct as they could be. Yeah,
your son A line just said, he'll never admit he
has obsessive compulsive disorder, but he really does. How does that?
(03:58):
Because I'm the same way. I have to have pencils
in line. If I see something on the floor, I
can't walk away from it. So I know exactly, and
I think it was the military background, because I think
you know as well as I do. Mike. I've said
this publicly before. The greatest discrimination I have ever found
has been in the military, because you know, if you're
a non commissioned officer, you live in n c O housing.
(04:19):
If you're an officer, you live in officer housing. You
have an officer's club, you have an NCO club, And
I think that kind of rubs off on you a
little bit. No doubt it does rub off on you.
And you know what, I'm glad it did because it's
helped me tremendously in my career. I I tell people
when when people have asked me, well, how have you
(04:40):
gotten experiences that she's gotten and reached the level that
she's attained and said, you know, everybody and I've done
it was smart. There's probably a lot of people that
are way smarter than I am. But I know I'm
a driver and if something doesn't feel right, well, I
haven't exhausted all of the options of something that I'm
trying to learn or get better, and then I'll keep
(05:02):
at it. And and that to me is a testament
of of growing up in the military, just you know,
being persistent, having a certain d live to be able
to accomplish whatever task is in front of you. And
I credit that, uh to my dad. And while you're
doing that, being organized definitely helps. So uh, you know,
even if you may not know what you're doing, at
(05:23):
least looks like at least it looks like you know
what you're doing. I know you didn't play pro basketball,
so then how would you describe your path to but
pro basketball? You know, sports and lucky blessed time you
want to call it. Uh. I went to one preseason
NBA game prior to working in the NBA. My entire
time growing up and and when I got to University
(05:47):
of San Diego, Hank Egan was our head coach. Um
we were about to the head to the airport on
my last road trip as a as a senior. Took
me four and a half years to graduate. I was
going to work as a graduate assistant the last semester
of my schooling and then try to get into law school.
I wanted to be a lawyer. I stopped by coaches
(06:08):
office and on the coffee table was USB magazine. And
on the front cover of the USB magazine was a
picture of Bernie Pickerstaff. I was a little surprised by it,
but I read the article and lo and behold, I
found out not only did Bernie play at us D
back in the day, but he coached there and then
he went to Maryrton Dotting an assistant coach in the pros.
And so, long story short, my coach ended up getting
(06:31):
an intern and unpaid internship. Hankigan ended up getting an
unpaid internship with Bernie that summer and I went out.
My Terence took care of me financially. I just loved
being there. At the new summer, Bernie called me in
his office. He used to call me young Buck for
the longest. He still does every once in a while.
But UH called me into his office, gave me a
check the fifteen hundred dollars and offered me a job
(06:53):
as a video coordinator in Thisially I turned it down,
and because he us why so they have to finished
school and USB was paying for my tuition, So he
had the assistant coaches do the video work until I
got back out there at the end of the semester,
which was a similar to teenth And that's how I
started my NBA career. You have coached with and for
(07:14):
Greg Popovich, Rick Carlisle, Bernie Bickerstaff, and Steve Kerr. In
your observations of those head coaches, what is it that's
common with them? What is it that makes them good?
What is it that makes it possible for them to
be head coaches in pro basketball? Yeah, there's two things.
That they have a great feel um not necessarily all
(07:37):
of them for the game, but they have a great
feel for the group, which is which is a unique, Uh,
a unique thing to have because again, no matter what
business you're in, it's it's about relationships, and they have
a unique sensor and unique feel for the entire group,
not just two or three guys on a team, or
(07:58):
one or two assistant coaches, but the entire team coaching staff,
plus the front office, and then they all have great
communication skills. They're all able to communicate very well their thoughts,
whether it's about X and oh's on the court stuff,
off the court stuff. Uh, They're able to communicate their
thoughts very well with whoever, whoever they're around. You know
(08:22):
as well as I do, Mike, that there is a
real challenge. I mean, it's one thing to be an
assistant coach. You're closer to the players, you communicate a
little bit more with them than maybe a head coach does.
The head coach is a step away. He relies on
his assistants. How hard is it to make that step
from assistant to a head coach? You know, it's it's
bigger than what people think, and mainly because you know,
(08:46):
you don't you have a lot more responsibility or a
lot more things to worry about. I know, as a
head coach, most of the times you're responsible for bringing
in your entire staff, and with the size of the
staff nowadays, that can be up to five coaches and
three player development guys, and you know, two or three
video coordinators, a scout, and you know basketball ops guys.
(09:10):
That's roughly you know ten the twelve people that you
could be possibly responsible for bringing in. And you know,
you always worry about if something goes wrong, which is
and in the NBA, it's similar to uh growing up
or working in the military. You you know that there's
nothing that's forever in the NBA. UH. You know, being
(09:31):
great Topovich is a unique thing. Um, being even be
Ntil Jackson is a unique thing. But the long term
uh stays for coaches in the NBA basically not existing.
So you know you're moving every three years. Well as
a head coach, UH, you know you don't want that
day to come, not necessarily for you because financially, uh,
(09:52):
you're well taken care of, but for all of the people,
all of the families that you brought to this new
city or to this new team. And so that's constantly
in the back of your head. And in knowing that
and knowing you've gotta win, and knowing that there's going
to be individual problems off the floor, individual problems on
the floor, team problems in both directions. There's just a
(10:13):
lot more to deal with, so you don't necessarily have
the time than an assistant coach may have to foster
individual relationships with certain guys on the team. Very insightful
conversation with a very talented coach, Mike Brown. He has
been a head coach in the NBA on two occasions,
twice with Cleveland, once with the Los Angeles Lakers, find
defensive specialist as well assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors.
(10:36):
We continue across the country and around the world. We've
got you on America's sports talk show Sports Byeline. You're
listening to Ron Bars Sports Byline USA podcast. Mike Brown
is with us again assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors,
but he's been the head coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers
on two occasions and went to the NBA Finals, taking
the Cabs to their first NBA Final, and then of
(10:58):
course with the Los Angeles Lakers as well. One of
the other things I'm interested in, uh, we've you know,
you always hear it talked about. Then you know, players
are making all this type of money and so you
can't fire the players. But I'm wondering about how a
coach establishes himself to get the respect that he needs
to have so that they will listen to him when
he is coaching them. That's always a very unique situation.
(11:22):
Give me some insight to that, Mike. I'll tell you what.
The biggest thing that you have to in my opinion,
be with a group of NBA players, and I'm sure
this way across the board is you have to be
up fun, Honice. Uh. Most of these guys are extremely
competitive individuals and more than the money for most of them,
(11:44):
not all of them, more than money, they want to win,
and they want to win at a high level because
they know all of their peers have money, but not
all of the peers have championship rings or not all
of the peers have success in the NBA at a
high level, and so they want to be able to
walk around like most of us with the chef puff
guys just a little bit, uh, knowing that they are
(12:05):
the cream of the crop. And you know that is
a good group of guys to be the cream of
the crop of So if you're honest and upfront with
most NBA players, look at him and that, and you're
trying to do the right thing for the group that
Garners their respect, which will allow you to coach him.
I think, and this is an observation on my part,
(12:27):
so feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong.
You have coached some of the NBA's greatest players, Kobe Bryant,
Lebron James Shack, Dwight Howard, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant,
and I think everybody pretty much knows that you don't
treat everybody equally on your roster. I mean, you have
to accommodate, you have to interact with them in different
ways because they have different egos, different personalities. I find
(12:49):
that area of professional sports and professional basketball to be
fascinating when you coach those type of players. How did
you approach that type of challenge? You hit it right
on the head. You can't coach everybody the same You
can't have everybody do the same thing. But you have
to be consistent and fair with what you do. And
(13:09):
and again, most guys, they're intelligent guys. They have an
understanding of how this thing works. But if a guy
like that is not doing his job, you have to
make sure you let him know. Uh. And and sometimes
in front of the group in order to not only
continue to coach him and help him get better and
get his respect, but most importantly, to get the rest
(13:30):
of the group's respect. I have never forgetten. When I
went to San Antonio as an assistant coach my first
year there, we were three games uh into the regular
season and something had We turned the ball over. It
was Tim Dunk that turned the ball over, and Pop
call the time out right away. And usually as coaches,
you go to the free throw line to huddle up,
(13:52):
let the players sit down, take a breath, talk amongst
one another, and then we get to the huddles a
coaching staff. Well, Pop didn't come to the free throw line.
He would straight to the huddle. He put his chair
right in front of Timmy and he commenced to saying Timmy, please, please, please, please,
please please. Rod I was like, I was like, oh
my gosh, I just moved to San Antonio and I'm
(14:14):
about to get fired. I was scared of that. But
like Pop is just carrying Timmy up and down and
left and right, and you know what, Simmy respected him
for it, and the rest of the team did too,
because Jimmy was wrong with what he did out on
the floor until Pop needed to correct it and let
Kimmy know in front of not only Tim but the
(14:36):
rest of the team, so hopefully he could change what
he did next time down the floor. Was that a
challenge for you in Cleveland? Because the reports out of
Cleveland was that Lebron wasn't particularly happy with you. I
don't know whether those reports were true or not, but
I would think that when you have somebody of the
stature of Lebron and maybe even Kobe, that you really
have to be very careful when you take them on.
(14:57):
One you don't want to embarrass them in front of
their teammates, and the other are you're trying to get
a point across, but yet you don't want to be
malleable where they think that they can can control you. See.
It's it's the ironic part about it, as far from
the truth. When I first hand Lebron, he was two
years out of high school and he hadn't won anything
(15:17):
at that point in time, and so he was really
young and really impressed the more at that time, especially
when we started winning right away our first year, we
went to the second round in the playoffs. So he
went from being in the NBA two years out of
high school playing in the regular season and the season ended.
The first year we go to the second round. And
it was like that or better almost every other every
(15:40):
other year that we were together. So he was very
easy to coach. He actually was the one that I
put up on video more than anybody else because I
wanted people to see that if if I could correct
Lebrun and he had he could handle it the right way,
then for me it was very easy to go tell
Boe Williams or Drew Gooden was the June so Gusta
(16:00):
or whoever else was on the team what I thought
they were doing wrong. So, uh, you know, being young
at that time, still being impressionable. Uh, for me, being
with Lebron was a good thing. You know. The other
thing I've always heard and correct me if I'm wrong
about this. Uh. As far as the great players, like
the ones I mentioned, what's the commonality of them? Because
(16:23):
Michael Jordan once said to me, Mike, he said, when
the game is on the line, Ron, I want to
be the one to determine the outcome. If I fail,
I'll take the blame. If I succeed, I want the glory.
And I think you know, in life in general, people
are afraid sometimes to take the blame for something. Is
that a commonality among all the great ones? Well, I
think I think there's two things that are common amongst
(16:46):
the great ones. It's intelligence or feel. You know, either way,
there everybody that I've been around and I thought was
a great player was extremely intelligent or had a great
feel for the game on both ends. And then it
competitiveness or drive. Those two things that those two competitiveness
or drive and then intelligence or feel, those two things
(17:09):
to me were common amongst all of the greats. There
were some some players that I've been around that were
great players that may not necessarily want to take the
shot at the end of the game, or at times
may not want the ball in their hands at the
end of the game. But that that did not mean
by no stretch that that there weren't great players or
(17:30):
they're not great players. But I do think those two
areas are huge for somebody that already had some talent
to be great. I take a look at the Golden
State Warriors, of course, winning a championship, going to the
finals and everything, and how well they played, setting a
record for most wins in a season, and I think
back to the again Chicago Bulls when Michael was there
(17:52):
their championship years, and I see a commonality. But I'm
really impressed with the Warriors simply because the fact that
they have so many quality the players to be able
to get them all to buy into the script and
and be comfortable with it. It goes beyond what I
saw with the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls had Michael, they
had Scottie, they had the Worm, and then they had
the cast of characters including Steve Kerr. How have they
(18:15):
made it work? And how did they make it work
with the Golden State Warriors. You know, I've been in
this business a long time and in that facts of this,
and I've come across some great owners and uh, you
know the guys that have done wonders not only for
their teams, but for for the cities and states they've
been in. But you know the two guys here, Peter
(18:38):
and Joe, they're fantastic owners. Uh. And then you go
to Bobby Myers and and Steve Kerrs. I think it
starts from the top and it trickles down. And when
you have quality of people like that, they're leading, uh,
leading the organization that they tend to go find quality
people to be a part of it, and that's what
they've done with the players that they've assembled on to staff.
(19:02):
You know, you have guys like Steph Curry, Clay Thompson,
Kevin Durant, Draymond Greene, Andrea Godala, and I can go
on and on with the type of men that are
on this team or the makeup of this team, and
it's easy, especially once you become a part of it.
It's easy to see why guys aren't concerned about their numbers,
or guys are extremely happy for their teammates, are happy
(19:26):
when we win and we play the right way. Uh
So the buy in starting from the top on down
in basically ending with Steve because he's the one that
has to manipulate all this is very easy because of
the quality leadership group that we have and the quality
of people that are a party of this organization. We
have a little bit over a minute left, Mike, and
(19:48):
I want to ask you. I mentioned you are a
defensive specialist, and I remember a conversation I had with
Dennis Johnson, the late Dennis Johnson, and I asked him
about defense, and I said, tell me what makes it
so good when you play it well. He said. It's
an attitude. He said, I wanted to let a guy
I'm guarding no that in the fourth quarter, I'm going
to climb inside his jersey and he's gonna fight me
all the way. Isn't an attitude more than anything else.
(20:10):
It's for the great one there. And so when I
look at some of the great guys on the defensive
end that I coached, starting with Draymond Green, Bruce Bowen,
those guys have a certain attitude that they know, uh
that they want to let their opponent know that they're
gonna be inside their jerseys for forty eight minutes and
(20:33):
it's gonna get harder as the game goes along. And
so for the great ones, yes, I think in the
their individual defense coupled with their team defense. He is
about attitude. But I think you can be a great
team defensive unit, uh if you have five guys that
are on the same page and they really want to
(20:55):
help each other when things break down. Because guys are
too good in the NBA, stuff will break down, and
you've got to be able to know how to react
to any type of breakdown that you have on the defensive.
The floor as a group, not as an individual, but
as a group. Mike, I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation.
I hope we have more of them, and I also
hope you'll come back at some point and spend more
time with me here on Sports Byeline. It's been just
(21:17):
very insightful for me. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate the call.
I appreciate the time. Thank you. Mike Brown again assistant
with the Golden State Warriors, but he has been very successful.
He is a very tenacious type of guy. He understands detail,
and he's a perfect head coach, I think, as well
as an assistant coach. Head coach. Twice with the Calves
and then once with the Lakers. We continue across the
(21:40):
country and around the world on America's sports talk show.
You have been listening to Ron Bars Sports Byline US,
a podcast on the eight Side Network.
Hi, I'm Ron Bar and this is today's edition of
Ron Bars Sports Byline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
Mike Brown joins us on Sports Byline. He owns more
than fourteen years of NBA coaching experiences, both a head
coach and an assistant and twice he was the head
coach of the Cavaliers and also was the head coach
for the Los Angeles Lakers. And in his first stint
(00:21):
with the Calves, he led them to their first ever
NBA Finals appearance and was named the NBA Coach of
the Year after guiding Cleveland to a franchise record sixties
six wins. Cleveland won at least fifty games in four
of his first five seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers. One
thing else I know about you is that you were
born in Columbus, Ohio, but you spent a lot of
(00:43):
time in Germany. Your dad was an Air Force guy.
And I've talked to other athletes that come from military
family like I did as well. There is something about
growing up in a military family that I think is
different than any other experience for other kids. Can you
help me out here and understanding it. Yeah, there's there's
no doubt. You know. The first thing is, I think
(01:04):
because you travel so much and you're in so many
different uh country states, how you want to call it,
You've got to constantly uh make new friends because you're
changing schools. You get cultured real quickly because you you
come across a lot of cultures and then also going
into new experiences, um as an adult. There's nothing fearful
(01:26):
about it, you know, making new friends. There's nothing fearful
about it because you had to do it your whole
life growing up with your parents being in the military
and moving so much. So, uh, you know that moving
tends to be a pain in your mind when you're younger,
but it pays off huge dividends as you grow because
(01:46):
there are a lot of experiences that you lean back
or fall back on from your time in the military,
from your time growing up in the military, that can
help you going forward in your adult life. I think
also and makes you more adaptable. And I know you're
gonna agree with that because of just what you just
said and also the cultures that opens your mind. Uh,
what did you learn from that experience that you still
(02:07):
apply today in your life? You know, for me, any
business that you're in it's all about relationships. And I
know that moving from school to school growing up. Uh,
if you wanted to stay involved and you know, different
activities at the school and different sports teams, and you
wanted to have friends, you had to figure out how
(02:29):
to develop relations relationships quickly because you could possibly be
in a location just for a year and then you're
moving again. Sometimes two years and you're moving again. So
you know, the relationship aspect is something that I always
found was a unique thing because when you go from
school school, usually the culture and the school or the
(02:51):
way of thinking with most of the kids in the
school is a little bit different than the one that
you just came from. So you had to be able
to figure out how to handle, uh, get new relationships
quickly and foster those into long term. I know you're
someone who is very exact in what you do, very organized,
and the discipline and organization that comes from a military upbringing,
(03:15):
I think is also something that has affected you. Am
I right about that observation? Yeah, it's correct. My dad, Uh,
you know, with him being in the military for seven years,
he's very disciplined in a lot of different ways. He's
extremely organized, Uh, with whatever he does, and that has
robbed off on me quite a bit, almost to a
(03:37):
point where I have a little bit of O c D.
I'm blaming my military father on that. Through a lot
of things and take this time doing them until they
are as accurate or correct as they could be. Yeah,
your son A line just said, he'll never admit he
has obsessive compulsive disorder, but he really does. How does that?
(03:58):
Because I'm the same way. I have to have pencils
in line. If I see something on the floor, I
can't walk away from it. So I know exactly, and
I think it was the military background, because I think
you know as well as I do. Mike. I've said
this publicly before. The greatest discrimination I have ever found
has been in the military, because you know, if you're
a non commissioned officer, you live in n c O housing.
(04:19):
If you're an officer, you live in officer housing. You
have an officer's club, you have an NCO club, And
I think that kind of rubs off on you a
little bit. No doubt it does rub off on you.
And you know what, I'm glad it did because it's
helped me tremendously in my career. I I tell people
when when people have asked me, well, how have you
(04:40):
gotten experiences that she's gotten and reached the level that
she's attained and said, you know, everybody and I've done
it was smart. There's probably a lot of people that
are way smarter than I am. But I know I'm
a driver and if something doesn't feel right, well, I
haven't exhausted all of the options of something that I'm
trying to learn or get better, and then I'll keep
(05:02):
at it. And and that to me is a testament
of of growing up in the military, just you know,
being persistent, having a certain d live to be able
to accomplish whatever task is in front of you. And
I credit that, uh to my dad. And while you're
doing that, being organized definitely helps. So uh, you know,
even if you may not know what you're doing, at
(05:23):
least looks like at least it looks like you know
what you're doing. I know you didn't play pro basketball,
so then how would you describe your path to but
pro basketball? You know, sports and lucky blessed time you
want to call it. Uh. I went to one preseason
NBA game prior to working in the NBA. My entire
time growing up and and when I got to University
(05:47):
of San Diego, Hank Egan was our head coach. Um
we were about to the head to the airport on
my last road trip as a as a senior. Took
me four and a half years to graduate. I was
going to work as a graduate assistant the last semester
of my schooling and then try to get into law school.
I wanted to be a lawyer. I stopped by coaches
(06:08):
office and on the coffee table was USB magazine. And
on the front cover of the USB magazine was a
picture of Bernie Pickerstaff. I was a little surprised by it,
but I read the article and lo and behold, I
found out not only did Bernie play at us D
back in the day, but he coached there and then
he went to Maryrton Dotting an assistant coach in the pros.
And so, long story short, my coach ended up getting
(06:31):
an intern and unpaid internship. Hankigan ended up getting an
unpaid internship with Bernie that summer and I went out.
My Terence took care of me financially. I just loved
being there. At the new summer, Bernie called me in
his office. He used to call me young Buck for
the longest. He still does every once in a while.
But UH called me into his office, gave me a
check the fifteen hundred dollars and offered me a job
(06:53):
as a video coordinator in Thisially I turned it down,
and because he us why so they have to finished
school and USB was paying for my tuition, So he
had the assistant coaches do the video work until I
got back out there at the end of the semester,
which was a similar to teenth And that's how I
started my NBA career. You have coached with and for
(07:14):
Greg Popovich, Rick Carlisle, Bernie Bickerstaff, and Steve Kerr. In
your observations of those head coaches, what is it that's
common with them? What is it that makes them good?
What is it that makes it possible for them to
be head coaches in pro basketball? Yeah, there's two things.
That they have a great feel um not necessarily all
(07:37):
of them for the game, but they have a great
feel for the group, which is which is a unique, Uh,
a unique thing to have because again, no matter what
business you're in, it's it's about relationships, and they have
a unique sensor and unique feel for the entire group,
not just two or three guys on a team, or
(07:58):
one or two assistant coaches, but the entire team coaching staff,
plus the front office, and then they all have great
communication skills. They're all able to communicate very well their thoughts,
whether it's about X and oh's on the court stuff,
off the court stuff. Uh, They're able to communicate their
thoughts very well with whoever, whoever they're around. You know
(08:22):
as well as I do, Mike, that there is a
real challenge. I mean, it's one thing to be an
assistant coach. You're closer to the players, you communicate a
little bit more with them than maybe a head coach does.
The head coach is a step away. He relies on
his assistants. How hard is it to make that step
from assistant to a head coach? You know, it's it's
bigger than what people think, and mainly because you know,
(08:46):
you don't you have a lot more responsibility or a
lot more things to worry about. I know, as a
head coach, most of the times you're responsible for bringing
in your entire staff, and with the size of the
staff nowadays, that can be up to five coaches and
three player development guys, and you know, two or three
video coordinators, a scout, and you know basketball ops guys.
(09:10):
That's roughly you know ten the twelve people that you
could be possibly responsible for bringing in. And you know,
you always worry about if something goes wrong, which is
and in the NBA, it's similar to uh growing up
or working in the military. You you know that there's
nothing that's forever in the NBA. UH. You know, being
(09:31):
great Topovich is a unique thing. Um, being even be
Ntil Jackson is a unique thing. But the long term
uh stays for coaches in the NBA basically not existing.
So you know you're moving every three years. Well as
a head coach, UH, you know you don't want that
day to come, not necessarily for you because financially, uh,
(09:52):
you're well taken care of, but for all of the people,
all of the families that you brought to this new
city or to this new team. And so that's constantly
in the back of your head. And in knowing that
and knowing you've gotta win, and knowing that there's going
to be individual problems off the floor, individual problems on
the floor, team problems in both directions. There's just a
(10:13):
lot more to deal with, so you don't necessarily have
the time than an assistant coach may have to foster
individual relationships with certain guys on the team. Very insightful
conversation with a very talented coach, Mike Brown. He has
been a head coach in the NBA on two occasions,
twice with Cleveland, once with the Los Angeles Lakers, find
defensive specialist as well assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors.
(10:36):
We continue across the country and around the world. We've
got you on America's sports talk show Sports Byeline. You're
listening to Ron Bars Sports Byline USA podcast. Mike Brown
is with us again assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors,
but he's been the head coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers
on two occasions and went to the NBA Finals, taking
the Cabs to their first NBA Final, and then of
(10:58):
course with the Los Angeles Lakers as well. One of
the other things I'm interested in, uh, we've you know,
you always hear it talked about. Then you know, players
are making all this type of money and so you
can't fire the players. But I'm wondering about how a
coach establishes himself to get the respect that he needs
to have so that they will listen to him when
he is coaching them. That's always a very unique situation.
(11:22):
Give me some insight to that, Mike. I'll tell you what.
The biggest thing that you have to in my opinion,
be with a group of NBA players, and I'm sure
this way across the board is you have to be
up fun, Honice. Uh. Most of these guys are extremely
competitive individuals and more than the money for most of them,
(11:44):
not all of them, more than money, they want to win,
and they want to win at a high level because
they know all of their peers have money, but not
all of the peers have championship rings or not all
of the peers have success in the NBA at a
high level, and so they want to be able to
walk around like most of us with the chef puff
guys just a little bit, uh, knowing that they are
(12:05):
the cream of the crop. And you know that is
a good group of guys to be the cream of
the crop of So if you're honest and upfront with
most NBA players, look at him and that, and you're
trying to do the right thing for the group that
Garners their respect, which will allow you to coach him.
I think, and this is an observation on my part,
(12:27):
so feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong.
You have coached some of the NBA's greatest players, Kobe Bryant,
Lebron James Shack, Dwight Howard, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant,
and I think everybody pretty much knows that you don't
treat everybody equally on your roster. I mean, you have
to accommodate, you have to interact with them in different
ways because they have different egos, different personalities. I find
(12:49):
that area of professional sports and professional basketball to be
fascinating when you coach those type of players. How did
you approach that type of challenge? You hit it right
on the head. You can't coach everybody the same You
can't have everybody do the same thing. But you have
to be consistent and fair with what you do. And
(13:09):
and again, most guys, they're intelligent guys. They have an
understanding of how this thing works. But if a guy
like that is not doing his job, you have to
make sure you let him know. Uh. And and sometimes
in front of the group in order to not only
continue to coach him and help him get better and
get his respect, but most importantly, to get the rest
(13:30):
of the group's respect. I have never forgetten. When I
went to San Antonio as an assistant coach my first
year there, we were three games uh into the regular
season and something had We turned the ball over. It
was Tim Dunk that turned the ball over, and Pop
call the time out right away. And usually as coaches,
you go to the free throw line to huddle up,
(13:52):
let the players sit down, take a breath, talk amongst
one another, and then we get to the huddles a
coaching staff. Well, Pop didn't come to the free throw line.
He would straight to the huddle. He put his chair
right in front of Timmy and he commenced to saying Timmy, please, please, please, please,
please please. Rod I was like, I was like, oh
my gosh, I just moved to San Antonio and I'm
(14:14):
about to get fired. I was scared of that. But
like Pop is just carrying Timmy up and down and
left and right, and you know what, Simmy respected him
for it, and the rest of the team did too,
because Jimmy was wrong with what he did out on
the floor until Pop needed to correct it and let
Kimmy know in front of not only Tim but the
(14:36):
rest of the team, so hopefully he could change what
he did next time down the floor. Was that a
challenge for you in Cleveland? Because the reports out of
Cleveland was that Lebron wasn't particularly happy with you. I
don't know whether those reports were true or not, but
I would think that when you have somebody of the
stature of Lebron and maybe even Kobe, that you really
have to be very careful when you take them on.
(14:57):
One you don't want to embarrass them in front of
their teammates, and the other are you're trying to get
a point across, but yet you don't want to be
malleable where they think that they can can control you. See.
It's it's the ironic part about it, as far from
the truth. When I first hand Lebron, he was two
years out of high school and he hadn't won anything
(15:17):
at that point in time, and so he was really
young and really impressed the more at that time, especially
when we started winning right away our first year, we
went to the second round in the playoffs. So he
went from being in the NBA two years out of
high school playing in the regular season and the season ended.
The first year we go to the second round. And
it was like that or better almost every other every
(15:40):
other year that we were together. So he was very
easy to coach. He actually was the one that I
put up on video more than anybody else because I
wanted people to see that if if I could correct
Lebrun and he had he could handle it the right way,
then for me it was very easy to go tell
Boe Williams or Drew Gooden was the June so Gusta
(16:00):
or whoever else was on the team what I thought
they were doing wrong. So, uh, you know, being young
at that time, still being impressionable. Uh, for me, being
with Lebron was a good thing. You know. The other
thing I've always heard and correct me if I'm wrong
about this. Uh. As far as the great players, like
the ones I mentioned, what's the commonality of them? Because
(16:23):
Michael Jordan once said to me, Mike, he said, when
the game is on the line, Ron, I want to
be the one to determine the outcome. If I fail,
I'll take the blame. If I succeed, I want the glory.
And I think you know, in life in general, people
are afraid sometimes to take the blame for something. Is
that a commonality among all the great ones? Well, I
think I think there's two things that are common amongst
(16:46):
the great ones. It's intelligence or feel. You know, either way,
there everybody that I've been around and I thought was
a great player was extremely intelligent or had a great
feel for the game on both ends. And then it
competitiveness or drive. Those two things that those two competitiveness
or drive and then intelligence or feel, those two things
(17:09):
to me were common amongst all of the greats. There
were some some players that I've been around that were
great players that may not necessarily want to take the
shot at the end of the game, or at times
may not want the ball in their hands at the
end of the game. But that that did not mean
by no stretch that that there weren't great players or
(17:30):
they're not great players. But I do think those two
areas are huge for somebody that already had some talent
to be great. I take a look at the Golden
State Warriors, of course, winning a championship, going to the
finals and everything, and how well they played, setting a
record for most wins in a season, and I think
back to the again Chicago Bulls when Michael was there
(17:52):
their championship years, and I see a commonality. But I'm
really impressed with the Warriors simply because the fact that
they have so many quality the players to be able
to get them all to buy into the script and
and be comfortable with it. It goes beyond what I
saw with the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls had Michael, they
had Scottie, they had the Worm, and then they had
the cast of characters including Steve Kerr. How have they
(18:15):
made it work? And how did they make it work
with the Golden State Warriors. You know, I've been in
this business a long time and in that facts of this,
and I've come across some great owners and uh, you
know the guys that have done wonders not only for
their teams, but for for the cities and states they've
been in. But you know the two guys here, Peter
(18:38):
and Joe, they're fantastic owners. Uh. And then you go
to Bobby Myers and and Steve Kerrs. I think it
starts from the top and it trickles down. And when
you have quality of people like that, they're leading, uh,
leading the organization that they tend to go find quality
people to be a part of it, and that's what
they've done with the players that they've assembled on to staff.
(19:02):
You know, you have guys like Steph Curry, Clay Thompson,
Kevin Durant, Draymond Greene, Andrea Godala, and I can go
on and on with the type of men that are
on this team or the makeup of this team, and
it's easy, especially once you become a part of it.
It's easy to see why guys aren't concerned about their numbers,
or guys are extremely happy for their teammates, are happy
(19:26):
when we win and we play the right way. Uh
So the buy in starting from the top on down
in basically ending with Steve because he's the one that
has to manipulate all this is very easy because of
the quality leadership group that we have and the quality
of people that are a party of this organization. We
have a little bit over a minute left, Mike, and
(19:48):
I want to ask you. I mentioned you are a
defensive specialist, and I remember a conversation I had with
Dennis Johnson, the late Dennis Johnson, and I asked him
about defense, and I said, tell me what makes it
so good when you play it well. He said. It's
an attitude. He said, I wanted to let a guy
I'm guarding no that in the fourth quarter, I'm going
to climb inside his jersey and he's gonna fight me
all the way. Isn't an attitude more than anything else.
(20:10):
It's for the great one there. And so when I
look at some of the great guys on the defensive
end that I coached, starting with Draymond Green, Bruce Bowen,
those guys have a certain attitude that they know, uh
that they want to let their opponent know that they're
gonna be inside their jerseys for forty eight minutes and
(20:33):
it's gonna get harder as the game goes along. And
so for the great ones, yes, I think in the
their individual defense coupled with their team defense. He is
about attitude. But I think you can be a great
team defensive unit, uh if you have five guys that
are on the same page and they really want to
(20:55):
help each other when things break down. Because guys are
too good in the NBA, stuff will break down, and
you've got to be able to know how to react
to any type of breakdown that you have on the defensive.
The floor as a group, not as an individual, but
as a group. Mike, I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation.
I hope we have more of them, and I also
hope you'll come back at some point and spend more
time with me here on Sports Byeline. It's been just
(21:17):
very insightful for me. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate the call.
I appreciate the time. Thank you. Mike Brown again assistant
with the Golden State Warriors, but he has been very successful.
He is a very tenacious type of guy. He understands detail,
and he's a perfect head coach, I think, as well
as an assistant coach. Head coach. Twice with the Calves
and then once with the Lakers. We continue across the
(21:40):
country and around the world on America's sports talk show.
You have been listening to Ron Bars Sports Byline US,
a podcast on the eight Side Network.
Host
Ron Barr
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