THE FORMER COACH of the Detroit Pistons is sitting in the Bird in Hand Motor Inn just outside Lancaster in the midst of a 14-games-in-23-days trip, trying to replace his starting center and the league`s MVP, Geff Crompton, who suffered a season-ending injury the night before.
”You never have five games in five nights in the NBA like you do in the CBA,” says Brown, who coaches the Puerto Rico Coquis. ”It takes a toll on the players.
”But there are a lot of redeeming qualities about the CBA. It gives players an opportunity to develop more rapidly. When you`re a 10th man in the NBA, you`re just sitting on the bench. But by the end of a CBA season, these players, playing 35 minutes a game, have advanced further than that NBA 10th man. An awful lot of players in this league can be role-players in the NBA.”
Brown, whose brother Larry coaches at the University of Kansas, was named the CBA Coach of the Year last season–his first in the league.
”I like the sun in Puerto Rico,” he says, ”but I want to better my lot.”
