Tony Brown won his first game as Nets interim coach. it was a game where the opponent was without its star and on the back end of a back-to-back. But a win is a win and a win against the Knicks is a good thing anytime. Good for him.
And in a post-game interview, Thaddeus Young was asked what Brown brings to the team. Before he talked about what Brown is, he talked about what Brown isn't. He didn't mention Lionel Hollins, but he left no doubt what it was like playing under the now-departed Hollins.
Not pretty.
"When your coach is not panicking and he's staying positive and he's continued to motivate us, it's huge for us as far as an energy standpoint. It makes us want to continue to go out there and continue to play, and it doesn't keep us thinking about what's happening before as much.
"With us, I think our tendencies before was we were harping on the fact that we were going up leads ans harping on the fact that we have some plays where we turned the ball over. But Tony's mentality is, forget what happened before this, and let's try to push and try to win this game. That's huge for us as a team. it says a lot that he believes in us, that he wants us to compete, he believes that we can continue to win the game at any point."
Well, there you have it, the reason why Mikhail Prokhorov fired Hollins. What took him so long?