In an interview with NBA.com Larry Brown discussed many things including working with Michael Jordan. Â Larry Brown basically said Jordan has too many yes-men around him. Â That’s very similar to Charles Barkley’s sentiments, could be why the Bobcats are currently 7-55. Â Read more after the jump.
You worked for a guy known as a great competitor, Michael Jordan. What it was like to work for him?
He gave me a chance. I was out of work, and he had asked me once before and it didn’t work out. I’ll always respect him. I admired the hell out of him as a player, and working for him was a dream of mine — not only the Carolina ties, but what he’s done for our sport.
I was probably more disappointed in his decision to let me go than anything that’s ever happened to me in my life. We needed him in the sport. When people talk about Allen, and people talk about Michael in basketball, it’s just incredible the respect everybody has for them.
Was he tough to work for?
Yeah, but I love guys that expect great things for you and raise the bar. I try to do that as a coach. I hope that I’m not asking guys to do things they’re not capable of doing, but I’d much rather play for a coach that thought I could do great things.
For Michael, I wanted to be with somebody who wanted the best. The biggest problem — and he might get mad at me — he needs more people to challenge him and I don’t think he has enough of that. He needs more people around him who he has respect for who are not afraid to tell him what’s right. That’s the one thing I’m disappointed in.
He tries to help a lot of people, put a lot of his friends in positions where he can kind of help them, but at the end of the day if they have his best interests they’ll be challenging him because he does want to be the best. We made the playoffs, but he wasn’t satisfied with that.
