Editor's note: Over the next five weeks, we will reveal the top 50 coaches in college basketball as decided by our ESPN Forecast panel. Today we unveil No. 21: SMU's Larry Brown. On Monday, we release No. 20.
On Tuesday, ESPN's Mark Stein and Ramona Shelburne offered an update on the NBA's two richest franchises and the respective coaching searches therein. Phil Jackson wanted to talk to Derek Fisher about the New York Knicks job, drawing from his rather limited "former role players on Phil Jackson-coached title teams" candidate pool after Steve Kerr went to the Warriors instead.
But the Lakers were interested in Fisher too and were getting down to business in their own quest. They had interviewed a handful of usual suspects already (Alvin Gentry, Byron Scott, Mike Dunleavy), had pleasant chats with others (Kurt Rambis, George Karl) and, according to the report, were maybe, kind of, sort of thinking about reaching out to two others.
The Lakers, sources add, have also internally discussed reaching out to Scott Skiles and former NBA championship-winning coach Larry Brown, who has spent the past two seasons in the college game at SMU.
And so there it was, the first NBA rumor of Brown's tenure at Southern Methodist. It's a wonder it took this long.
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