<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Angered by the Knicks' failure to show much energy or competitiveness in their last two home losses, some Garden fans have taken to staying around until the bitter end, just to boo and shout derisive chants at the home team. Those who have will be glad to know that they haven't wasted their breath: Larry Brown hears the message, loud and clear. On the heels of Wednesday's latest drubbing, the coach justified the fans' caustic reaction to seeing the Knicks fall to 6-15. "I don't tune 'em out at all," Brown said after practice yesterday at the team's Greenburgh facility. "I hear it all. I'm embarrassed. I know how much they love basketball and love this team and want us to do well. And when we play poorly, I hear it. It kills me because I'm responsible. That's my job. When I go out and see us play like that...you expect it in this type of environment." No, Detroit in December never looked better. But besides supporting fans who can't stand to see the Knicks headed for a fifth straight losing season, a stretch of futility not witnessed in New York since the mid-1960s, Brown also blasted his team for continually failing to execute his game plans. With the Knicks constantly making the same mistakes at both ends, Brown's overview of the first quarter of the season made it sound as if he longs for the days when he coached a championship team. "This is much more difficult, right now, than I ever imagined," he said. "It's disheartening to lose at all. I can handle it when he we give ourselves a chance and try to do the right things. The last two ballgames, I just haven't seen that. Right now, we're just not very good." Their .286 winning percentage was the NBA's fourth-lowest heading into last night and puts them on pace for 23 wins, which would be their fewest since 1963-64. While no one expects the Knicks to be that bad by the time Brown finishes his first season in New York, his players aren't exactly following his instructions on such critical matters as defending pick-and-rolls. "I've always believed in, if you got to tell 'em a thousand times, you tell 'em," he said. "There are some kids, you tell 'em once and they get it. Others, you got to tell 'em a thousand times and they still might not get it. Right now, I feel like we've got to keep telling 'em over and over and over again. And it gets frustrating, reminding guys of the same things....You look around and you say, you know, we went over it and we talked about it. It's troubling." At the offensive end, too many poor decisions have led to too many turnovers. Brown didn't directly criticize Stephon Marbury, but he was including his starting point guard when he discussed the offensive breakdowns. "The good teams have ball movers, guys who make passes to start plays," he said. "The bad teams have guys all trying to make scoring passes. We've got to get back to making passes to start plays. That's been a problem all year."</div> Source
