<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">NEW YORK -- Last year's Larry Brown saga drags on, and may even reach into the first day of this season as well. Brown spent 9 1/2 hours at NBA headquarters yesterday, pleading his case to commissioner David Stern that the Knicks owe him $53.5 million, and it still wasn't enough time to sort out the mess. That means Isiah Thomas might be late to training camp. In a formal hearing Stern heard testimony from several people, including Brown, Knicks owner James Dolan, and Thomas, but he wasn't able to wrap up the hearings, which will resume Tuesday. Stern said that if Brown's legal team requests Thomas appear on Tuesday -- the first day of Knicks camp -- he would have to miss his first official day of practice as the Knicks new head coach. Thomas was on hand for about four hours, and left without speaking to reporters. There were also some surprise witnesses -- all of whom were under oath -- including Brown's close friend Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs. He was presumably summoned at the request of the Knicks to bolster their claim that Brown discussed potential trades with other teams. Assistant coach Dave Hanners, a Brown loyalist who will remain as Thomas's assistant, was also brought in. Brown left at 7 p.m. without talking to reporters, and when he was approached by reporters, his cantankerous agent, Joe Glass yelled, "Back off." Dolan left 20 minutes later and also declined to speak. "You know I can't talk to you," he said with a smile. Stern spoke briefly to reporters and said he hoped to finalize the proceedings Tuesday. The Knicks bought out the contract of veteran power forward Maurice Taylor, who wasn't going to see any minutes this year. Taylor, who was owed $9 million in the final year of his deal, averaged only 6.3 points and 3.4 rebounds last year.</div> http://www.nj.com/knicks/ledger/index.ssf?...2370.xml&coll=1
