Larry Brown Playing Quotations

I wouldn't imagine that Marbury and Francis would be comfortable not playing a lot of minutes. We're also finding out if they can play together and so far, I don't see any reason why they can't.

Now we're playing for a championship. I look forward and not back, so this has been a pretty special last run.

I don't get caught up with wins and losses. I get caught up with guys trying to do the right thing, respecting their teammates, and playing with effort. It's disappointing to lose and not be rewarded for that as a team. But from my perspective it's a big step forward.

I don't think you guys ever heard me say I wasn't pleased with the way he's playing until the last game. I've never, ever said anything except I was pleased with the way he's playing, the way he's trying, and I thought he has been making great progress ... We've played twenty-some games. I don't expect this to happen overnight.

I don't think you guys ever heard me say I wasn't pleased with the way he was playing until the last game. Even with all the other stuff that's going on every other week, I've never said anything except I was pleased with the way he's been playing and way he's trying. The last game, he was not aggressive. He shot the ball seven times. He deferred. I expressed that. That's one game.

We've got to realize that you play differently in the playoffs. You've got to control tempo. It's imperative that you take care of the ball. You've got to play harder than you thought about playing at any time of the year, even though you hope that's a given.

We're playing under control a little bit better and not just running up and down the court. When you've got guys like Jalen and Steve who will make the extra pass, it just seems to open it up for everybody. I feel good about everybody's contribution.

We're playing under control better. We're not just running up and down the court. I feel good about everybody's contribution.

We talked and he wasn't getting enough work here. He told me we're playing a lot of games, we've been traveling. He told me he could work out twice a day, and he's done it before and he really felt confident that this would help him.

I looked out on the court, we had our summer team out there to beat a pretty good team. You know we are playing a playoff team and competing, and it was really fun to watch.

He's playing on one leg, and he was phenomenal. I looked a few times, and Ben was behind him, and you couldn't see him.

I saw them playing hard. That's all we can do from now on. We've got to find out who in that locker room is committed to do that every night. There were a lot of really positive things, and hopefully we can build on that.

I remember when I was at Kansas, we lost five straight games. I told the team, 'We're playing great,' and we won the national championship a month later.

I think to play him and have this thing carry on is really unfair. I want it to be his decision (to come back) when he feels comfortable he can play and not worry about getting hit, because he certainly hasn't played the same way since the injury. He's not aggressive at all. You can really tell the difference because he was playing at such a high level before that.

It gives other guys a chance to play, but you lose a guy who's playing as well as he is, it's tough.

We started playing a little fast. We missed a lot of really good shots and I thought we got a little tight. We forgot time and score.

I've never talked anything about being a systems coach in my life. I've been a basketball coach, about guys playing the right way. That's always been what I've said. It's amazing to me the guys that have wanted to do it have really prospered.

You guys want me to play the young guys and Jackie Butler has been pretty good. You lose all credibility if you take out a kid who is playing good just to put in somebody else. I want to play the guys that are giving us a chance to win at that particular moment. My hope is that Eddy Curry can play 40 minutes every game.

Teams have won with young players playing key roles. A lot of teams draft based on potential, but we have guys here who have played in college for a while. They will respect the minutes they get, not expect them, and they will be given every opportunity to play.

I listen to some of the comments on WIP - they're playing parts of the press conference - and I can see where people would read into things. But if anyone was at the press conference, I think would sense how much I enjoyed Philly and how I loved working for those people.

I'm just proud of the young kids. They've been playing in tough situations and finding ways to contribute.

I'm just proud of the young kids. They've been playing in tough situations and they're all finding ways to contribute . . . Why not play the young kids? You have been on my butt all year about that. The bottom line is when they have played, they've played pretty good.

I love to see us run up and down the court, but I think somewhere along the line, we're going to have to figure it out. It's like playing Jack Nicklaus in golf in his prime. I'd rather play him one hole than 18. We've got to somehow say this gives us our best chance to win.

I've had confidence we were going to be better, but I didn't know who to play. I think you get sensitive trying to find out who's going to get minutes each night and you stop coaching. A lot of guys have contributed and are playing at a high level.

I'm gonna keep playing the kids, ... and then figure out the rest of it from there.

I really didn't know what to expect, to be honest with you. You hate to put three of them out there together, playing in an NBA season against quality teams. That puts a lot of pressure on them. But they're good kids, they want to get better. It's going to speed up their growth, so we have to have some other people step up and we have to do a better job coaching them. But they're getting better.

I hope he wants what I want. I hope he wants to win games, make his teammates better. That's the only thing that really matters. I heard he wants to play like Allen. I heard he wants us to play like Phoenix. I don't get caught up in that. I thought he was playing great and if he plays like he played before he got hurt we'll win games next year.

They've (Indiana) been playing great and I know this wasn't one of their better games, but it was a quality win on the road for us. We moved the ball great and got a lot of great looks because of it.

It's a quality win for us on the road. We moved the ball great and got a lot of open shots because we gave the ball up. Controlling the tempo on the road is the way we've got to play ... You look at the stat sheet, and the nicest thing for me is I feel like a lot of people are playing together and trying to make everybody better.

Everyone is playing together and trying to make other guys better. Jalen (Rose) and Steve (Francis) were making the extra pass, which opened the court for everyone.

It wasn't only him (who was injured) at the time. But he was playing at such a high level. The first 30, 40 games, I thought he got better every game. His stats might not reflect that, but just in terms of what we were asking him to do. It set us way back and it set him way back.

We tried to score too fast. Against an athletic team like them, that's tough. I thought we had advantages if we could go inside, but we just got caught up playing their tempo.

It matters a lot. We got 18 games left and I didn't see any (selfishness) and I saw guys trying to win, trying to share the ball. I saw them playing hard and that's all we can do from now on. We got to find out who in that locker room is committed to doing that every night. That's the thing that's so important.