Cavs players Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mo Williams come out in support of Mike Brown
Zydrunas Ilgauskas says Mike Brown is a good coach and hopes the Cavaliers don't regret letting Brown go.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cavaliers players Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mo Williams came out in support of Mike Brown today when Brown was fired as coach of the Cavaliers after five seasons.
LeBron James is on vacation and unavailable for comment, according to his spokesman.
Ilgauskas, who had an infamous falling out with Brown after the coach didn't play him on the night he was poised to become the Cavs leader in games played early this season, clearly has put that behind him.
"I have nothing but good things to say about him,'' Ilgauskas told The Plain Dealer. "I enjoyed playing for him. I think coach Brown is a very good coach.
"Obviously, we didn't achieve what we set out to achieve, which is to win a championship. But if you're going to lay all the blame on coach Brown and think that's going to solve everything, you've got another thing coming.
"I think we're all at fault -- the players, everybody. You have to, at some point, accept some of the responsibility. We all have to do that. A coach only can take you so far. At some point you have to do it yourself and we didn't do it. I think coach Brown will be fine. He'll be coaching again, and I'm very sure he'll have success.''
Williams agreed.
"Do I think he deserved it? No,'' Williams said. "My question is: Who's out there that's better? He's not a bad coach. To fire him, that's making a big statement. After him, you have to get a Hall of Fame coach.
"I thought we prematurely acted on our emotions, as an organization. I think he did a good job. If anything, bring in a veteran assistant. I think we just could have gotten better instead of blowing it all up. Now we're starting over.
"I'm hurt, because I like him a lot. He'll be missed. We know how the business of basketball goes. He knows the nature of the business, also. His presence will be missed.''
Both players thought Brown would survive the Cavs recent loss to the Boston Celtics in the second round of the playoffs, the third straight time they were unable to return to the NBA Finals after a somewhat surprising appearance there in 2007.
"As we've all come to find out, winning a championship is very hard,'' Ilgauskas said. "Just because you're willing to spend money ... you cannot buy a championship. That's one thing I've learned from my playing career. You have to earn it. You have to have the right players. You have to have a little bit of luck, but you have to have the right mix of players ... not necessarily the most talented. Because talent at some point goes out the window. It becomes who wants it more.
"I was asked all the time this year, 'Is this the best team you've been on?' I'd say, 'Yes, if we win a championship.' But so far the best team I've been on is the team that went to The Finals. You can knock those guys who were on the team but we defended. We were the No. 1 team in defense in field-goal percentage and points throughtout the playoffs. Yeah, we had LeBron, who was amazing. But everybody else was blue collar guys who did their job. They just went to work. They didn't look for any recognition or anything like that. You have to do the little things, especially in the playoffs. You have to box out. You have to go for loose balls and things like that. [The Celtics] outhustled us, which is inexcusable in the playoffs.''
Ilgauskas, who returned to the Cavs in midseason after being traded and released by Washington, is a free agent, and his future, like that of the Cavs, is up in the air. But he's more worried about the franchise than himself. Brown was his seventh coach since he was a first-round draft choice of the team in 1996.
"I don't care where I'm going to play next year or what's going to happen,'' he said. "But this city has become like a home to me. You hate to see people get disappointed, but I just have this funny feeling that they might come to regret this decision, unless they go for Phil Jackson or something. You can throw all the names you want at the wall, but the reality is different. I've been through a lot of coaches and coaching staffs and, trust me, they're not all that good.''