The Star Ledger Brown has been watching the Knickerbockers play basketball at two Madison Square Gardens over the past half century as a fan and as a visiting coach. But last night was the first time in his long, distinguished career that he was not sitting in the stands munching on popcorn or directing the action from the visitors' bench. He took his long-anticipated place on the Knicks bench for the first time in ore than 32 years of coaching, assuming the same spot that one of his idols, Red Holzman, who won two championships and 613 games as Knicks head coach, once commanded. "I always think about him when I come here," Brown said before the game. "That banner's up there, 613. He's meant a lot to our sport. Those two championship teams had probably as big an impact on our game as any team's, just because of the way they played and what those guys were about. I don't think anybody's going to take his place." But Knicks fans, many of whom are too young to remember Holzman's glory years of the early 1970s, are hoping and expecting that Brown will be a worthy successor. And for the 15,541 who showed up for last night's game, it had to produce a warm feeling to see the Hall of Fame coach on the friendly end of the sidelines for once. There he was, the familiar figure in his usual natty attire, dressed in a dark suit with a dark striped tie, jumping to his feet, waving his arms and shouting instructions to his players. But those players are no longer Reggie Miller, Allen Iverson, Rasheed Wallace, David Robinson or David Thompson. Now it's Stephon Marbury, Eddy Curry and a group of quick, athletic young players who are poised to join forced with Brown to re-energize the Garden. It was those young players, like guard Nate Robinson and forwards David Lee and Channing Frye, who sprinted past the Nets in an impressive display in the Knicks' victory Saturday night, and last night they helped wipe away a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to give Brown a silver lining. Lee, who Brown said reminded him of former defensive great Bobby Jones, had the best game at both ends of the court, scoring a team-high 17 points in 30 minutes and playing some sound defense after getting schooled by Dirk Nowitzki on his first two possessions. Robinson had 13 points in 25 minutes and Frye had 11 points in 19 minutes. Source
