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 General Basketball WiretapBrown will coach Team USAESPN.com reports that Larry Brown will be named the coach of the USA Basketball team for the 2004 Olympics. The formal announcement will be made Tuesday. Brown won a Gold Medal in the 1964 Olympics as a player and has won twice as an assistant coach. He will lead the team through next summer’s qualifying tournament and the 2004 games in Athens. "If they asked me to be the coach, it'd be the greatest honor going. If they said they had someone else in mind, I'd respect that as well,'' Brown said last week. Other coaches considered for the position were Phil Jackson of the Lakers, Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz and Pat Riley of the Miami Heat. Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd and Ray Allen have already contacted USA Basketball to say they're willing to play in 2003 and 2004. A core group of eight or nine players is expected to be announced by February, with Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant expected to be shoo-ins if they accept invitations to play. O'Neal and Bryant "are two of the best players in our league, without question, and with the way other teams around the world have improved, we need our best players -- but also high-character guys. And I think they fit the bill,'' Brown said. Philadelphia 76ers, General Basketball Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets KG rescued Wolves and ruined NBAPatrick Reusse like many of us out there has had enough of seeing players come to the NBA to early, with dollar signs in their eyes and hangers-on saying 'take the money'. He also has someone that he blames for all this, and his name is Kevin Garnett. The Timberwolves played six seasons and were 240 games under .500 in the summer of 1995. They had the fifth selection in the draft and took Kevin Garnett, a high school player from Chicago. There was one more woeful season (26-56), then Garnett helped bring the Wolves to respectability. He has become a star and the Wolves have become a playoff team, if nothing else, for the past six seasons. Dollar signs appeared in the eyes of teenage hoopers all over the country when Garnett was taken fifth in the draft. And, when he became an immediate success (playing extensively and averaging 10 points per game) as a rookie, many of these lads said to themselves: "I don't need a college career before going to the NBA." Minnesota Timberwolves, General Basketball Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Stackhouse wants to be on Olympic teamSteve Wyche of the Washington Post reports: With the 2004 men's basketball squad starting to size up, Wizards swingman Jerry Stackhouse wants in. "I'd love to go, no question about it," said Stackhouse, sixth in the NBA in scoring with an average of 23.9 points per game. "I don't know what the criteria is for that. I never really put a lot of stock into whether I was selected or not, but if I had an opportunity to do it I would." Stackhouse has never been invited to participate in any of the major international competitions and he could be on the outside looking in for the Olympics. Several swing players -- Tracy McGrady, Ray Allen and possibly Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant -- have committed or are expected to commit to joining the team. "I don't know what it is," Stackhouse said as to why he has never been asked to compete. "I have my opinions about it. I don't waste a lot of time dealing with that. What I do on the basketball court speaks for itself. If that's not something that would bode well with the Olympic committee, then I can't do anything about it." The USA Basketball committee -- a 10-member group composed of eight NBA officials, one current player and one NCAA representative -- hopes to have six "core" players intact by the end of the month and nine on board by Jan. 1. The final three positions will be filled before the Tournament of the Americas, which will be held next summer. The U.S. squad must win a medal at the tournament to qualify for the Olympics. USA Basketball is expected to name its head coach -- Philadelphia's Larry Brown is the likely choice -- by the end of the month. Washington Wizards, General Basketball Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Nov 2002 Archive
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