By Lewis Helfand

The year was 1994. The Indiana Pacers lost to the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, but they played extremely well. It was supposed to be the beginning of a long reign for Indiana as one of the elite Eastern Conference teams. Larry Brown lead them back to a second straight appearance in the conference finals the following year, and 1996 should have been another step forward. For those who don't remember, it didn't quite work out that way. The Pacers lost in the first round, so Brown traded away the Pacers veteran floor leader, Mark Jackson, at the end of the season. The result the next year was not what Brown had hoped for. The team crumbled. Struggling all season to play .500 ball, they finished with a losing record and missed the playoffs. The players began ignoring Brown and the team was forced to make a mid-season trade to bring Jackson back. Brown left for the Sixers and the Pacers finally reached the finals under Larry Bird a couple years later.

Brown is notorious for tinkering with his teams. He is always tempted to make that one extra deal he thinks will put them over the top. Convinced that there is some magical combination of players that will guarantee a championship. He is constantly searching for that missing piece. What Larry Brown, the great coaching genius, has failed to realize, is that the missing piece is not any individual player. But rather the decision of the team to take their game to the next level. The perfect example of this being Miami. A team loaded with star players and a high payroll. A team that was expected to be the best in the east last year before Mourning went down. A team that was supposed to contend this year. And for the first couple months of the season, they were only contending for the worst record in the league with Chicago and Memphis. Now Miami seems to have turned a corner and has an outside shot at a playoff berth. It is something that happens all the time. A team with promise and high salaries tanks out, the coach is blamed and fired, and the new interim coach is given a big contract when the team turns around. It happened last year with the Celtics when Rick Pitino was replaced by Jim O'Brien.

But the difference with Miami is that there was no coaching change. Pat Riley's reputation let him keep his job when any other coach would have been replaced. So, Miami's turnaround has nothing to do with the coach. The reason Miami's play was so poor at the beginning of the season, is simply that the team quit. They lost a lot of their defense and mental toughness when they gave up Tim Hardaway, Dan Majerle and Anthony Mason, and Riley is overrated, but the Heat still had more than enough to be the fourth or fifth best team in the east right now. The players simply quit. There is nothing Pat Riley or any other coach could have done.

Right now, Larry Brown realizes that his trades were a mistake. And Philadelphia is going through the same thing that Indiana did. Struggling to make the playoffs after strong performances in the past few years. Reacquiring the players it traded away, or the closest available substitutes. Derrick McKey is a decent player, but he is nothing more than an old man's George Lynch. A tough defender with no real shooting ability. What could the Sixers be doing right now if Brown hadn't gutted the eastern conference champions in search of that elusive missing piece? One has to wonder.

There is something to be said for not over-coaching and just letting players play. Every now and then NBA players are polled as to what coaches they would like to play for. Phil Jackson and Jerry Sloan are two men that usually top that list. Coaches who don't tamper with their teams, but stick with the same core of guys year after year and win consistently. Larry Brown's style of playing the right way and teaching fundamentals instead of winning is usually ranked a bit lower. When Phil Jackson adds a player to one of his teams, it is something to complement what is already there. A Dennis Rodman to replace Horace Grant's rebounding, or a Ron Harper to bring leadership to a young Lakers team. When Larry Brown adds a player, it completely changes the style of play and chemistry and throws the team into chaos. Changing from Ratliff and a transitional running team to Mutombo and a plodding half-court offense with no shooters. Or abandoning the defense first mentality of Lynch, Hill and MacCullouch for the "stand at the three-point line and launch bad shots" mentality of Derrick Coleman. If Brown still believes he can get a championship by making as many deals as possible, he should sit down with Bob Whitsitt and ask him about the 2000 Finals. Or maybe he could just trade Coleman for Kemp.