See, it's OK to be critical...

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Here's a diatribe from Larry Brown about Allen Iverson. Iverson's an MVP,
has carried a team to the Finals and is a great player. Right? But Larry
Brown, the best coach in the business, says Iverson can be better if he does
things differently. I don't think he's saying Iverson isn't great or that
the Sixers would be better off without him. He's saying what a coach should
say: "This team would be better if you played like this." That's all I'm
saying about Antoine.

Here it is:


Later, when talking about the Sixers' perennial need for a perimeter scorer,
Brown seemed to be referring to Iverson when he said, "Well, we don't have
anybody who'll pass it to a shooter. It hasn't happened." 

"Yeah, we had Timmy Thomas and Toni Kukoc," Brown said. "The only (small
forward) who flourished was George (Lynch) because George was rebounding and
defending. He wanted to shoot the ball, but he realized, 'Hell, I'll never
get it, so I'm going to rebound and defend.' 

"Anybody we get there who wants to shoot the ball, they never get the ball.
So we can have Michael Jordan out there (and) if he spotted up, I doubt he'd
get the ball. So what does it matter?" 

Brown also said he'd like for Iverson to concentrate on getting other
players involved early and then hit the big shots in the fourth quarter. 

"We come out and do it (bleep) backwards," Brown said. "When Allen gets
other people off early, it'll make us better and make it easier on him. He's
got to understand the fourth quarter is his quarter. That's winning time.
You can talk about it all you want - it's a learning process."