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Brown wants to join Celtics' staff

Larry Brown has coached nine NBA teams. He was fired from the Bobcats in December

Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown has an interest in joining Doc Rivers’ Boston Celtics staff as an assistant coach, assuming Lawrence Frank accepts the Detroit Pistons' head coaching job, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Frank and the Pistons are discussing terms of a deal over the weekend, league sources said, but there is still no agreement in place. However, the Pistons and Frank are both anxious to forge a partnership.

Despite Brown’s credentials and good relationship with Rivers, the Celtics coach is inclined to promote a well-regarded young assistant on his staff – Mike Longabardi – sources said. Nevertheless, Rivers hasn’t ruled out the idea of further discussing a spot for Brown on his bench next season.

Rivers agreed to a new five-year, $35 million contract in June, and the Celtics aren’t dying to pay for a high-profile assistant like they’ve had recently in Tom Thibodeau and Frank, sources said. And yet as one league source close to Brown said, “Larry would do this for less than the going rate.”

Rivers and Brown discussed a spot on the Celtics' coaching staff in 2007, but Brown decided to stay with the Philadelphia 76ers as a consultant. Since the Charlotte Bobcats fired Brown in late 2010, he’s been passed over with but sparse consideration for several NBA head coaching openings – and even been turned back in his overtures for several college jobs, too.

Brown, 70, tried to become a candidate for NCAA jobs at UNLV, Oklahoma, Missouri and Penn State in the spring, but those schools never gave him serious consideration.

Brown has coached nine teams in the NBA, winning 1,098 games and cementing himself as one of history’s most successful coaches. Nevertheless, he’s grown more difficult to deal with on the job, and recent acrimonious endings in Charlotte, New York and Detroit have impacted his desirability among teams. Younger general managers and owners are less inclined to deal with his high-maintenance reputation. What’s more, teams are especially uneasy handing over young teams to him. Brown had long insisted that he would someday finish his career as a high school coach, but so far that act of charity hasn’t happened.

Besides Frank, Boston lost one lower-level staffer, Darren Erman, to Mark Jackson’s coaching staff with the Golden State Warriors. Roy Rogers is also expected to leave the coaching staff, probably to join Frank if he goes to the Pistons. The Celtics still have assistants Kevin Eastman and Armond Hill on staff.