Larry Brown

Larry Brown returned from a stomach ailment to coach the Knicks on Wednesday night in the final game of a dismal first season in New York. The Knicks responded by avoiding their first 60-loss season with a 90-83 victory over the New Jersey Nets at East Rutherford, N.J. Brown did not speak to the media before or after the game. He was ushered out of the arena by security personnel and members of the Knicks' public relations staff.

Larry Brown won't coach the New York Knicks in Wednesday's regular-season finale after an acid-reflux condition that sent him to the hospital last Thursday in Cleveland and forced him to miss the last three games, ESPN reported. Meanwhile, the New York Daily News reported that the Knicks took out an insurance policy on Brown's five-year, $50-million contract that would free the team from paying him if he's forced to resign because of health reasons.

New York Knick Coach Larry Brown was to be hospitalized overnight after becoming ill during the third quarter of Thursday night's game against the Cavaliers at Cleveland. The 65-year-old Brown, who has had health issues in recent years, was taken from Quicken Loans Arena on a stretcher after New York's 91-87 loss. He appeared alert and was sitting upright with oxygen tubes in his nose as he was wheeled out to an emergency vehicle.

Kim Ford, 29, of Aliso Viejo and Drew Cox, 29, of Laguna Niguel were planning to get married Oct. 8 in Orange County. But they entered a contest created by ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" show and are now among the finalists to win an all-expenses-paid wedding May 26 at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn. Although neither Ford nor Cox attended the school, both are die-hard UCLA fans.

Kobe Bryant fans in the big city showed up in droves, hoping to see another run at history. What they got instead was a free-throw-shooting contest, the Lakers taking a lot and the New York Knicks not, in a sequentially challenged but convincing 130-97 Laker victory Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. There were 82 foul shots in all, 58 for the Lakers, along with six technical fouls, a flagrant foul and an ejection as the Lakers moved to 1-1 on their seven-game trip, the longest of their season.

There's a new sheriff in New York and his name is ... George Steinbrenner? No way. It's true he built the Yankees into the last great dynasty, but they won their last championship in 2000. In Gotham, that's a long time ago. Eli Manning? It was all Eli, all the time for a while, but the Giants' loss in the first round of the playoffs, in which the second-year quarterback threw three passes for interceptions, did wonders for everyone's perspective. Surely not Larry Brown?

The Detroit Pistons spent much of last season answering questions about Larry Brown. They hope they won't have to anymore. The Pistons hugged their former coach before facing him for the first time -- and then played like the team that won him his only NBA championship. Richard Hamilton scored a season-high 40 points to lead Detroit past Brown and the New York Knicks, 106-98, Friday night at Auburn Hills, Mich., after a couple of days of hype.

In time, the pessimists circling the Knicks like buzzards may be absolutely right. Coach Larry Brown and team president Isiah Thomas ultimately can't get along. Point guard Stephon Marbury can't change, and won't summon the will to run Brown's more structured system. This clumsy union will end badly, very badly, with one or two -- or, hell, why not all three of them, given their well-traveled histories -- leaving town amid criticism and controversy.

New York Knick Coach Larry Brown, while his team was in town to play the Lakers, was asked whether he gloated when his former team, the Detroit Pistons, defeated Phil Jackson and the Lakers during the 2004 NBA Finals. Brown answered that he does not take personal satisfaction in beating opposing coaches, but there was one exception: when he was with the Indiana Pacers, who were routinely losing to the Jackson-coached Chicago Bulls. "They used to beat us like a drum," Brown said.

Now for the mother of all whirlwind romances. Brooklyn-born Larry Brown, who has spent his life looking for a home in 11 previous stops (counting his first job at Davidson, where he left before the season because they wouldn't carpet his office) is back where it all started, coaching the hometown Knicks, or what's left of them. Brown breaks down his new teams, but this one was already broken.