Larry Brown’s agent fired back at owner James Dolan yesterday for his devastating allegation that the Knicks’ former coach only wanted to coach here one season despite signing a five-year deal.
“It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” Joe Glass told The Post. “If he wanted to coach just one year, why did he buy a home during the season? It’s not even worthy of a comment.”
Brown rented a house in Greenwich, Conn., for the season before purchasing a home last spring. The Browns are supposed to move in this week, but a source said his wife, Shelly Brown, does not want him to coach again.
During Wednesday’s meeting with Knicks beat writers, Dolan, Garden president Steve Mills and Isiah Thomas charged that Brown wanted to cut five or six players with contracts totaling $180 million. That act was the strongest signal Brown was begging to be fired, knowing the demand was unrealistic.
Sources said three of the players were Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and Jerome James. The other three are believed to be Maurice Taylor, Jalen Rose and rookie Nate Robinson. A source said Brown wanted Rose and Taylor to be released after the trading deadline. The weird part is, Rose and Taylor actually may have trade value because they have expiring contracts.
Glass declined to address that charge.
“I haven’t seen anything in writing, I haven’t seen anything official,” Glass said. “So I’m not responding. We’ll respond to the accusations at the appropriate time.”
Glass has employed a Washington law firm to help him with the arbitration case against the Knicks, in which he’s looking to recoup $40 million for Brown.
Thomas, who replaced Brown as coach, appeared on the Knicks flagship radio station, ESPN Radio, yesterday.
“We came to the conclusion Larry didn’t want to coach this team,” Thomas said. “We couldn’t afford the changes he wanted to make.”
Beyond a personality clash, Brown wanted Marbury waived because he didn’t fit the coach’s idea of a prototype point guard. Brown was ticked James reported woefully out of shape then injured his hamstring in training camp. Brown thought Francis was turnover-prone and was enraged when he demanded to start next season.
Brown didn’t like Taylor talking back to him after he sent him to the injured list without informing him directly. And with Robinson, Brown felt he was all about making highlight plays, not winning plays.
“Obviously, he lost the team,” Dolan said Monday. “That’s not surprising when you talk to them that way in the press.”
Thomas said Monday, “Some days Marbury could play for him, some days he couldn’t.”
On radio, Thomas said yesterday about Marbury’s leadership: “Everyone says, ‘Can Marbury lead a team?’ I’m the leader of the team. Marbury’s job is to play and mature and have a good time on the basketball court. I will bring that back to him and New York. If they’re looking for a leader, look at the guy standing on the sideline.”
Thomas, asked about his Dolan-imposed one-year leash, made a prediction that he won’t be canned.
“I’m extremely comfortable operating in a pressurized environment,” he said. “My job is to get my players to play in that environment, too.”
Asked what he meant, Thomas proclaimed, “I mean we won’t have to deal with that hypothetical question.”
