Camp Larry Equals No Fun

Shapecity · Sep 28, 2008

Twenty-six years later, Mike Gminski recalls Larry Brown's preseasons the way ex-soldiers recall basic training: better to have done than to do.

“It was by far the hardest two training camps I was ever in,” said Gminski, a Charlotte resident who played 14 NBA seasons with four franchises, including the two seasons for Brown with the New Jersey Nets.

The Charlotte Bobcats will experience Camp Larry for the first time when they gather Tuesday morning at UNC Wilmington, only miles from the coastline but far from a day at the beach.

Gminski said the hard-core approach to conditioning Brown employs comes from Dean Smith, Brown's college coach at North Carolina. Preseason shootarounds – previously an excuse to rouse the players for some late-morning activity on game days – became exhausting, full-scale practices.

Gminski knew something was up when players were told to tape their ankles for every shootaround.

“Usually, the most important thing in shootarounds was walking through the other team's plays,'' Gminski said.

That was replaced by full-speed, five-on-five practices, followed by an exhibition hours later.

“The best way to teach things is at game-speed,” Brown said recently. “When you work as hard or harder than the other team, you take pride in that. Late-season or late in games, when you're in great shape, your confidence shoots straight up.”

The approach shocked Gminski and his teammates on the Nets, who were used to easing themselves into prime shape. By the start of the regular season, Gminski felt his and his teammates' legs were already used up, and the Nets lost 12 of their first 15 games.

The poor record and grumbling players coaxed Brown to back off a bit, but the standard was set.

And results followed. That season ended in a 20-victory improvement and a most unlikely Nets playoff appearance.

“Once we were over the shock of training camp, we were in really good shape,” Gminski said.

But it wasn't just conditioning that took the Nets that far. Brown is also a teacher with a sharp eye.

Bobcats center Nazr Mohammed, who played for Brown in Philadelphia, says he has spread the gospel to teammates.

“I told them they'll never get away with anything,” Mohammed said. “You'll never get away with not blocking out, you'll never get away with not running back, you'll never get away with not knowing a play.

“Keep on your toes, because he sees it all – all five guys on offense, all five guys on defense. You won't get away with it.”

Brown, 68, says this will be his last stop. But if any Bobcats think his approach has mellowed, they're in trouble.

“The whole month of October will be training camp,” said Mohammed, who played for Brown from 1998 through 2000. “Not one week (in Wilmington); the whole month until that first regular-season game.”

That's a seismic shift from Brown's predecessor, Sam Vincent, who often ran short practices or no practice at all, substituting film sessions.

Vincent said he had to rest players between games because injuries to Adam Morrison and Sean May robbed his team's depth.

Obviously word of Brown's methods spread. Nearly every Bobcat was back in Charlotte by Labor Day weekend, spending September in daily voluntary workouts.

“I couldn't imagine the whole team being here” that early, Brown said. “It sends a great message what these kids are about.”

Or perhaps how those kids view Brown: Call it a mix of anxiety and respect. They now have a coach who's won titles in the NBA (Detroit Pistons) and NCAA (Kansas), an intense guy with a reputation for quickly discarding those who step out of line.

“I got a taste at the Olympics,” said Bobcats center Emeka Okafor, who played for Brown in the 2004 Games. “I knew I had to be right for camp.”

And Brown will use camp to relentlessly clean up bad habits.

There's a start-stop rhythm to his practices, as he or assistants frequently interrupt scrimmages to refine principles.

Doc Rivers, now coach of the Boston Celtics, played a season for Brown with the Los Angeles Clippers. Sixteen years later he vividly recalls Brown spending 20 minutes teaching point guards the exact angle to run an opponent into a screen to make a particular play work.

The precision and persistence resonated with Rivers, who says any player – but particularly a point guard – will get the basketball education of his career with Brown. But that's only if the player has the patience and concentration not to wilt under the demands – both physical and mental.

“The difference is he's so verbal,” Mohammed said of Brown's practices. “He never stops telling you to run.”

Brown says he's no ogre and that everything is basketball-specific. For instance, he doesn't keep close track of players' weights or body-fat content. He trusts what he sees from their performance on the court.

Gminski, who admits he didn't love playing for Brown, says that performance is sure to improve.

“I fully expect that he'll get this team – if healthy – into the playoffs,” he said.

Why?

“Because at the end of the day, he's a genius,” Gminski said. “The Pistons can say all they want (about Brown's quirks) but they've never been the same since he left. He's a lot to handle, but his teams play defense, they play hard and they're smart.”

Okafor agrees.

“I know we have the talent and now we have a great coach,” he said. “Now we have that chance to reach the expectations people have for us.''
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Source: Charlotte Observer

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Camp Larry Equals No Fun

Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

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