Motown Masterminds

By Sean Gregory/Auburn Hills Sunday, June 20, 2004
    • After the Detroit Pistons obliterated the Los Angeles Lakers to claim the National Basketball Association title last week in the sport's biggest upset in more than 25 years, the two masterminds behind the win, Pistons coach Larry Brown and general manager Joe Dumars, didn't get the chance to congratulate each other until the next morning. The night had been a blur of confetti, champagne blasts and Kid Rock music. Finally, at around 9 a.m., the two grabbed a moment alone in Dumars' office at the Pistons' arena, the Palace, in Auburn Hills, Mich. Both working on three hours of sleep, they slapped backs and thanked each other. When Dumars hired Brown just a year ago, he told him, "Please don't say you work for Joe Dumars. Please say we work together." Now, together, they were champions.

    After seven different coaching jobs over a 21-year NBA career, Brown won his first pro title last week, making him, at 63, not only the oldest coach to win an NBA championship but also the first to win a title in college and the pros. (As the coach of the U.S. Olympic team, he goes for the trifecta in Athens this summer.) But it took a union with Dumars to give the itinerant coach his crown. And the ex-Piston bad boy, who helped Detroit win back-to-back championships as a player in 1989 and '90, made history of his own, becoming the first African-American GM to craft an NBA champion.


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    Initially, it wasn't clear whether Dumars and Brown would get along. Brown had been both coach and personnel director in Philadelphia, but in Detroit he was only the coach. "It was very difficult for him to give up that control," says Brown's brother Herb, 67, a Pistons assistant. At the same time, Dumars wasn't about to cede authority, because he had built the team in his own image as a player — tough and selfless. When he became GM in 2000, Dumars brought a team philosophy to Detroit, but he didn't have much of a team to work with. The players he brought in were misfits elsewhere, but they fit perfectly in Motown. Dumars picked up big, Afroed Ben Wallace from the Magic and watched him develop into a rebounding machine. Point guard Chauncey Billups, dumped by five different teams, became the finals MVP.

    Dumars and Brown got along because they wanted to win. The smartest play they ran together may have been the team's February trade for play-off standout Rasheed Wallace. Last summer Brown told Dumars that he would love to acquire Wallace, despite his hothead reputation. It turned out that Dumars had already been pursuing him. "The similarities in our thought became eerie," says Dumars.

    Both men face challenges ahead. If the Pistons want to keep winning, Dumars needs to keep Rasheed, now a free agent. Brown could also face a tough summer — some of America's best ballplayers, like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett, have opted to skip the Olympics. Brown concedes that he's disappointed about such no-shows. "But it's not their fault," he told TIME shortly before marching in Detroit's victory parade. "Some guys have serious concerns about security. Others have family issues. Kobe's in a tragic situation." The Olympic basketball team can improve its chances of grabbing the gold if it plays hard defense, runs the floor and shares the ball. In other words, America should start acting more like Detroit.