Lakers may talk to Larry Brown, who does not seem interested

Larry Brown didn't sound like a coach who's in a hurry to get back to the NBA.

The Los Angeles Lakers have discussed reaching out to Brown, who coached the 76ers from 1997 to 2003 and led them to the 2001 Finals, about their vacant head coaching job, ESPN reported.

During a telephone interview Tuesday, Brown did not discuss the Lakers, but he did offer some comments about coaching in the NBA that suggest he's not planning to leave Southern Methodist, where he has spent the last two years.

"We can see the way the NBA is now," Brown said. "If you're not really connecting with the owner, you've got no shot. I was so fortunate to be around Mr. [Ed] Snider.

"I look now, and I think it's so simple: If the coach, the president, and the owner are all on the same page, it seems to me there's no way you can fail," Brown said. "I don't see that" in today's NBA.

"When I look back at my life in pro sports, whenever I've been involved with an owner who cared about me and was there for me, it made it pretty easy."

Snider, the Flyers' chairman, owned the Sixers during Brown's tenure.

The Lakers under owner and head of basketball operations Jim Buss went 27-55 this season, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004-05. Mike D'Antoni resigned as coach last month.