The word according to Hubie

Steve Carp

Monday, May 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

It was 7:30 a.m. The early risers had straggled in. Those who had stayed out late and decided to sleep in could catch the second sermon.

The First Hardwood Church of Basketball was far from filled Sunday at Bally's. But those who caught the talk left more enlightened than when they had arrived, thanks to the wise words of a veteran of many battles, who endured an 11 1/2-hour journey from Detroit to spread the gospel.

Hubie Brown says he isn't a preacher, but rather, a teacher. And those who catch his act during the NBA regular season and playoffs on Turner Network Television would agree.

"I'm a teacher first," Brown said between talks at the Nike Championship Basketball Clinics where he closed out a three-day hoops revival for 3,000 coaches. "I can teach on TV and at clinics all over the world."

So for one day, the former Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks coach got out from behind the camera and in front of a few hundred disciples with clipboards in hand, pens at the ready. Brown showed them how to break down a box-and-one defense and how to create an effective low-post offense, interspersing the technical jargon with humorous anecdotes from his five decades in the game.

It was going back to his roots, to the time he was coaching three sports at a New Jersey high school in the 1960s.

Mirror image

Brown looked into the audience and saw himself 30-odd years ago.

"You never stop learning," Brown said. "I understand what these coaches go through. I did it for nine years at the high school level."

While the game has changed at the NBA level with the dilution of talent from expansion and the youth movement needed to fuel that expansion, Brown said it's still a game of coaching and teaching.

"Coaching hasn't changed," he said. "One-third of the coaches are excellent, one-third are good and one-third are poor. And that's at any level -- high school, college or the pros. You can't simplify it.

"You have coaches who could coach in any era. The key is getting your top two players to be coachable. If they are, the rest will fall into line."

Bull market

Brown points to the Chicago Bulls as a prime example. Would Phil Jackson be as successful if Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen didn't buy into what he was selling?

"Look at Philadelphia," Brown said. "(Allen) Iverson is taking 40 shots and he's shooting 39 percent. (Jerry) Stackhouse is taking 19 shots and shoots 39 percent. Where is this team going?"

Yet, things are different in today's NBA. The game is more athletic. The players break in at a younger age. The talent pool is diluted. The money is so big, it boggles the mind.

And while Shaquille O'Neal can get $120 million from the Lakers, no amount of money is going to help him make a free throw. Fundamentals have declined, though Brown won't put that solely on the NBA.

"You can't get in a gym 3-4 hours a day anymore in high school or college," he said. "The rules won't let you. So of course you don't have enough time to teach.

"Now, guys are trying to get by on their athleticism. For years, the game was played at rim level. What has happened is that level has gone to the top of the box at 11 feet."

Quality control

In the NBA's rush to get into new markets and sell the game, overall quality may have been sacrificed.

"We've overexpanded," Brown said. "There's probably 70-80 players who aren't ready to play at this level. They're getting playing time and they're hurting the quality of the benches.

"Everyone in the league, from the players to the coaches to the general managers, realize our game's not what it could be. But because of the Constitution, you can't stop a kid from coming out. If you're a talented high school player, a freshman or a sophomore in college, an agent can easily convince you that you can be a lottery pick."

But where the league may be lacking experience and fundamental skills, it has made up for with preparation. Brown said it was the main reason scoring has been on the decline.

Just the fax

"The video preparation and the fax machine have increased the total preparation a thousand percent," Brown said. "Not a hundred percent. A thousand.

"Every team tapes every game. And when they send a guy to advance scout, he goes back to his hotel room and faxes the report to the office. By the time the team arrives the next day for practice, everything's done. You have a picture of it at 9 in the morning and they can see it for themselves. You know everything the other guy's going to do."

Brown said the league's youth also lends itself to lower-scoring games.

"The talent pool is questionable, not because of athleticism but because of shot-making and knowledge," he said. "With the line moved in, everyone's shooting 3s. Foul shooting is a disaster. That's why scoring is down.

"When I coached, our goal was to shoot 79-80 percent as a team from the line. You know what the best percentage in the league was last year? Seventy-seven percent.

"The other factor is the lack of transition basketball. In the '70s and '80s, you saw 2-on-1s, 3-on-2s, 4-on-3s. Now, a team gets on the break, they stop, back it out and wait for the big guys to come down and run their isolation sets."

Not all bad

Still, somebody likes what they see. The NBA is a $3 billion business reaching all parts of the globe. Brown is seen several times a week on Turner, teaching the audience the game while sharing insight, technical expertise and his passion for basketball.

It's probably why he doesn't need to return to the sidelines. He's making good money teaching North America the game without the pressure of having to win and please his owner.

When he feels the need to get out from behind the camera, he does 20-25 clinics, like the one Sunday in Las Vegas.

"It's been a great experience," he said of his nine years in TV. "I've never had to change my lifestyle for my family. I have the best of both worlds. Without basketball, I'd be working in a factory like my father did."

Instead he is the preacher -- er, teacher of the hardwood.

If you're a television analyst, you had better have an opinion. Turner Broadcasting NBA analyst Hubie Brown never lacks an opinion. No wonder he has been on the air for nine years. Here are a few of the former coach's thoughts on the state of basketball and the NBA:

If you were in David Stern's chair and were NBA Commissioner for a day, what changes would you make?

First, I'd move the 3-point line back and make it a tougher shot. It's too easy the way it is now. I'd also upgrade the illegal defense rules so you could double-team the weak side below the foul line. And I'd use the trapezoid lane like they do in the international game to give the big guys more room. There'd be no legal zone defenses. With the skill of the coaches and the athletic ability of today's players, it would be an absolute joke.

Is respect for the game an issue?

Discipline and daily organization will impress any athlete. You think Pat Riley has a problem with discipline? If you don't conform, you're gone. I go back to the thing that if the top two players are coachable, you don't have respect problems.

What's a sure way to get beat in this league?

Teams that can't work together or get major injuries can't win. Every team has a couple of guys who can play. But like I said, if they're not coachable, you're not going to win. As for injuries, San Antonio is a prime example. They lost David Robinson and Sean Elliott. They were dead once those guys were gone.

Can the Women's NBA make it?

I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see if you can sell women's basketball in the summertime when people have other things to do. And this isn't the NCAA Final Four. This is NBA hard-core cities where the fans are used to the best level of basketball.

Why doesn't the NBA shorten its season and make the regular season more meaningful?

You can't. The economics won't let you. The owners need every game because the (salary) cap keeps going up and you have to have revenue for the cap.

How did the scoring in the playoffs suddenly increase?

It didn't. That one series (Phoenix-Seattle) made it look lopsided. But look at the other series. New York-Charlotte was low-scoring. So was Atlanta-Detroit and Chicago-Washington. Minnesota? Those kids got caught up in playing in the playoffs for the first time and they tried to play at Houston's tempo and level. And they couldn't.

Can anyone beat the Chicago Bulls?

If Chicago's healthy, they're the favorite in every series because they have home court and they've got the second-best road record. You might beat them once at home, but they'll come back and beat you at your place. And no one has won two games in their building.

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