Larry Brown

With the heat-seared, rain-lashed, hardscrabble back lands of Mississippi as his setting, Larry Brown tells a harsh story in an oddly tender way. Sometimes, the tenderness deepens the story; sometimes, it sentimentalizes it. "Joe" is about the encounter, picaresque at first, and gradually grimmer, between the title character, a small-town contractor, and a desperately deprived and afflicted family of squatters.

All bad things must come to an end, and Wednesday it was the Clippers' search for a coach, when Bob Weiss was announced as Larry Brown's successor. Weiss, the former coach at San Antonio and Atlanta, had considered himself a longshot almost all along, starting before he interviewed for the job during a pre-draft camp in Chicago the first weekend of the NBA finals.

Larry Brown's first book of stories, "Facing the Music," came cross my desk some years ago with a batch of others, and just by chance I happened to pick it up, not really meaning to read it. What I was thinking was: "Just what the world needs, another short-story writer who doesn't know a short story from an aardvark." But I had not read more than a page before I knew I was wrong. Dead wrong. I read the book in a single sitting, and then read it again.

Genius, capitalist, visionary, bedouin, almost twice but probably not future UCLA coach, Larry Brown returns to his beloved Southern California . . . for a visit. His Indiana Pacers are here to play the Lakers tonight, a greater inconvenience than usual and not only because of Shaquille O'Neal. Brown will have to deny the dreaded Bruin Question. If it's a compliment--how many coaches retain appeal after leaving the local university twice and one of the professional teams once?

Larry Brown didn't wear his emotions on his sleeve Monday night. They were on his whole wardrobe. But the day he dreaded--facing the San Antonio Spurs a little less than a month after they fired him--didn't turn out so badly. Severe angst in the morning and afternoon was followed by the rest-and-relaxation portion of the agenda, the 124-110 Clippers victory before 14,404 at the Sports Arena behind a season-high 26 points by James Edwards and 24 from Ron Harper.

Those limo-riding glamour boys from Dallas backed up their bluster, but barely. And they can thank one of their least glamorous players, Larry Brown, for their third Super Bowl victory in four years. The Cowboys defeated Pittsburgh, 27-17, Sunday to extend the NFC's streak of victories in the NFL's showcase game to an even dozen.

Have you ever steam-cleaned a hog? Neither have I, but Larry Brown has--with his friend Louie, and the steam cleaner at Louie's father-in-law's "combination wrecker yard/auto repair/used furniture store," where you can also buy fireworks.

Dec. 17: Maybe Jerry Tarkanian has already suffered enough. At least, Larry Brown's actions provided him with a national championship. DOUG HOOPER Camarillo

Kansas basketball Coach Larry Brown has been given a two-year contract extension that will take him through the 1989 season.