As Pistons rebound, both Riley and Brown lose -- deservedly

**Shugadaddi** · 05-26-2006 11:09 AM

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Detroit needed to win this game. Had to win. Must win? Yes -- it must. And it did. Detroit held off Miami 92-88 Thursday night to even the Eastern Conference finals at one game each, and thank heavens for that.

Game 2 is great for the Pistons, but terrible for Pat Riley. (Getty Images)
Because if Miami had won this game, Larry Brown and Pat Riley would be one step closer to genius-hood. Both of them. And while they may in fact be basketball coaching geniuses, they're two selfish, cutthroat geniuses.

And nobody like that should be rewarded. Not for any reason. Not ever.

Last season the Pistons beat the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. Larry Brown coached the Pistons. Pat Riley did not coach the Heat. Are you connecting the dots yet?

Allow me: If Miami reverses last season's result by winning this series -- and by sweeping the first two games on the road, Miami would have been well on the way to winning this series -- Pat Riley would look like a conquering hero. And Larry Brown would look like Detroit's missing ingredient.

And that would be terrible. In a league full of too many me-first players to differentiate, Brown and Riley are running neck-and-neck for the most egregiously me-first coaches.

It was Brown who used last season's playoffs as a month-long job interview with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He denied he was involved with the Cavaliers, of course, but nobody believed him. Brown doesn't lie nearly as well as he coaches, although he has been doing one as long as the other.

It was Riley who used this year's 11-10 start by the Heat to stick his hair pick between Stan Van Gundy's ribs and replace Van Gundy with himself. Never mind that Heat center Shaquille O'Neal had missed 18 of those 21 games with a sprained ankle. Never mind that Riley himself, as Heat president, had contributed to the shaky start in the fall by throwing together a bizarre collection of rent-a-players through free agency (Gary Payton) and a trade (Antoine Walker, Jason Williams and James Posey).

After last season, after Brown's future with the Cavaliers evaporated, the Pistons bid him adieu. He ended up with the New York Knicks. He bombed. Funny how Brown's a genius when his starting lineup is Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace. He's not such a genius when he's starting Stephon Marbury, Herb Williams, Trent Tucker and whoever else plays for the Knicks. The Knicks went 23-59. Brown's still a liar, but now he's a losing liar. Some would call that justice.

This is why the Pistons couldn't lose Game 2. Brown doesn't need image rehabilitation. He needs to stay right where he is, on the bottom, while his former team, the Pistons, continue to roll along without him. And so they did on Thursday night, mostly controlling a Heat team that had the two best players (O'Neal and Dwyane Wade) but not Detroit's balance or chemistry.

By the same token, Riley doesn't need to breeze into the NBA Finals. Maybe he is a mastermind, considering he won four NBA titles with the Lakers in the 1980s. But maybe scores of coaches could have won four NBA titles with Magic Johnson at point guard and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at center.

That's an argument for another day, though Riley hasn't won an NBA title since 1988. Not with Patrick Ewing in New York. Not with Alonzo Mourning in Miami.

The argument for now is whether Riley rode his white horse into the Heat's locker room on Dec. 12 and turned Stan Van Gundy's chicken s--- into chicken salad. Or whether Riley was the beneficiary of O'Neal's return, the gelling of an unfamiliar roster and, finally, the health of Wade.

Let's not forget that the Heat were all set to win the 2005 Eastern Conference finals, even with the brilliant Brown on the Pistons' bench and the overmatched Van Gundy coaching the Heat. Miami led 3-2 but was blown out in Game 6 without Wade (rib injury), then lost Game 7 with Wade playing but hurting.

Now Wade is healthy. O'Neal is a first team All-NBA player. Riley is the coach. But Detroit, coached by Flip Saunders instead of that weasel Larry Brown, is hanging tough.

That's good. Not that I'm rooting for the Pistons to beat the Heat. That wouldn't be professional of me. Journalists don't root for teams.

But I make it a point to root against people like Larry Brown and Pat Riley. And to admit it openly. Maybe that's not professional, either.

But it's honest. And it feels terrific.

Great article on cbs.sportsline