Woodling: Brown’s NBA links frighten recruits

By Chuck Woodling     Nov 18, 1987

Kansas City prep basketball whiz Anthony Peeler lists Kansas as one of his three college choices and signs with Missouri.

Chuckie Sproling, a scoring machine from Denver, lists Kansas as one of his finalists and signs with St. John’s.

Tonny Stubblefield, a point guard from Broomfield, Colo., signs with Wyoming and says Kansas was his second choice.

Reggie Britt, a 6-6 forward at Coffeyville Community College, signs with Kansas State and says he rejected Kansas overtures because Larry Brown…”I just feel, is going back into the NBA after (Danny) Manning turns pro.”

Yep, it was a washout November early signing period for KU coach Brown and his staff, so much so that Brown blasted other recruiters – although not by name – for using rumors he’d return to the NBA against him.

Last year, of course, Brown went the entire season and beyond denying rumors he would become head coach of the New York Knicks. Eventually, he did fly to New York and talk to Knicks management, but that’s as far as it went.

Brown penned a new long-term Kansas contract, but that stopped the rumors only momentarily. Or until the NBA announced it would field two expansion teams next season – The Charlotte Hornets and the Miami Heat.

And just as soon as Carl Scheer, one of Brown’s oldest friends, announced he would leave the comissionership of the Continental Basketball Assn. to become the general manager of the Charlotte franchise…well, one and one doesn’t equal three.

Throw in that Brown played collegiately at North Carolina and that he once coached the Carolina Cougars of the old ABA and Brown could swear up and down and stomp his feet to no avail. There’d still be speculation.

“He faces that every year,” Scheer told me by phone from his office at CBA headquarters in Denver. “Good coaches do that and he’s such a dynamic personality.

“But it’s unfortunate because the kids and Larry don’t deserve that,” Scheer said. “They should be judged on tehir merits, and they’re as good as any team in the country.”

Nevertheless, Scheer, who doesn’t take over in Charlotte until January, won’t throw any water on the fire. How can he?

“Larry’s name will be mentioned often becuase he’s an outstanding coach,” Scheer said. “He’s a natural candidate. I’ll be candid…he’s certainly somebody who’d be on my list.”

Not a single member of the Hornets’ coaching staff has been selected and won’t be, Scheer stressed, until after the NBA playoffs. In the meantime, Brown’s name figures to pop up from time to time in connection with the Charlotte post.

“I don’t know what he’s going to do,” Scheer said, “but I know that he’s happy at Kansas.”

Here’s something that can be put to rest, though. If Brown does go to the Hornets after his fifth year at Kansas, it won’t be as a package deal wtih Manning. The odds of that are about the same as winning the Antarctica Lottery.

Charlotte will have the eighth or ninth pick – a coin flip with Miami will decide the order – in next summer’s college draft, and if Manning lasts until the eighth or ninth player selected they’ll be able to measure the shock on a Richter scale.

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