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An experienced coaching veteran, Herb Brown brings 40-plus years of basketball knowledge and championship mettle to Atlanta as he begins his third season as an assistant on head coach Mike Woodson's staff. In 2003-04, Brown and Woodson helped Larry Brown in coaching the Detroit Pistons to the NBA world championship in a surprising upset of the heavily-favored Los Angeles Lakers.
A former head coach himself, Brown served as the head man of the Pistons from 1976-78 and led them to two playoff appearances in 1976 and 1977, the only back-to-back playoff showing for Detroit prior to the Chuck Daly era that began in 1983. Brown's 1976 squad was the only Pistons team to advance past the first round of the playoffs before Daly's arrival.
In addition to his stay in Detroit, his assistant coaching stops have taken him to six other teams - the Houston Rockets, Phoenix Suns, Indiana Pacers, Chicago Bulls, the 2001 Eastern Conference Champion Philadelphia 76ers and the Portland Trail Blazers. He also served as a scout with the Milwaukee Bucks, Pacers, 76ers and Bulls, earning championship rings in 1992 and 1993. Brown also coached in the International Basketball League (IBL), Western Basketball Association (WBA) and Continental Basketball Association (CBA), where he won two division titles, made four trips to the playoffs and was named Coach of the Year in the WBA and in the CBA with Puerto Rico in 1984.
Brown also has extensive international experience, leading Israel Sabras, a team consisting of former Boston Celtic head coach and player M.L. Carr, former Hawks and current UNLV head coach Lon Kruger and North Carolina Central coach Henry Dickerson, to the championship of the European Professional Basketball League in 1975. He coached in the Puerto Rico Professional Basketball League for 15 summers with his teams appearing in the playoffs each year and winning the championship in 1984 with Canovanas.
In 1972, Brown worked under the auspices of the U.S. State Department as a visiting head coach with the Pakistanian National Team. He also coached in Spain for six seasons, taking his teams to the playoffs five times, and coached Team USA to a gold and two bronze medals in the Maccabiah Games in Israel, including a bronze last summer.
The six-time coach of the year is the author of three books, "Basketball's Box Office," "Preparing for Special Situations," and "Let's Talk Defense" by McGraw-Hill, along with numerous other articles that have been published in the United States, Europe and South America.
A 1957 graduate of the University of Vermont, Brown began his coaching career at C.W. Post as an assistant coach from 1960-64. His first head coaching experience was at SUNY Stony Brook from 1964-69, where in 1969, he was named Coach of the Year after directing Stony Brook to the league and playoff championship.
Brown, a 2002 recipient of the Hank Greenberg Sportsmanship Award, was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Commack, NY this past April. Born March 14, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York, he and his wife Sherri reside in Vinings, and have a total of four kids and seven grandchildren. Herb and Sherri also have a summer residence on the Oregon coast.
Brown is on the Board of Directors of US Sports for Israel, and is an active participant in the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders as well as Playing for Peace. | 