Edition: U.S. / Global

Sports of The Times; Old Dog Teaching New Tricks

Published: November 14, 2002

THE N.B.A. season is young, but one of the potentially compelling story lines is unfolding in Memphis, where the woeful Grizzlies have made a desperate stab at righting their capsized ship.

They lured Hubie Brown, 69, back to the bench.

This goes beyond recycling; this is excavation.

I figured what the heck. Hubie is nearly 70 years old. He has mellowed. No more of the sharp-tongued, hard-driving, pedal-to-the-metal approach that earned him success and exits in Atlanta and in New York in the 1980's.

When I called the Grizzlies yesterday morning, they said Hubie was on the job and had his 0-8 team back in two-a-day practices so the players could learn his system in time for a game Friday night.

''We only have two days to make up for 30 days of exhibition and 8 exhibition games to create a change in philosophy and to get our players to reach the goals that we have,'' Brown said later at a news conference.

Had anyone but Jerry West done this, I'd have said he was crazy. But West, the Grizzlies' president of basketball operations and former architect of the Los Angeles Lakers, has impeccable instincts for building teams. He apparently feels that Brown has the ability to make the Grizzlies' sinking ship seaworthy. Hubie may not reach the final port, but he'll make sure the ship does. That's his history.

The hiring of Brown was ingenious; the Grizzlies needed direction. No one else with the necessary experience would be crazy enough to take the job. Yesterday, one general manager said, ''Who wants to take a job when the team is 0-8, young, and there's no opportunity for training camp?''

Answer: Hubie Brown.

Why would a man who turned 69 in September and whose last coaching job was in 1986 leave a cushy television analyst's job with TNT to hop back into the fire?

So much has happened in the N.B.A. since Brown was fired by the Knicks in 1986. In Brown's era, the coach-authority was the final voice: no questions asked, no debate, no compromises. Players have changed. Ernie Grunfeld, the Milwaukee Bucks' general manager and a Knicks player under Brown, thinks Brown has changed, too. ''Hubie's a smart guy; he's a quick study,'' Grunfeld said. ''He knows how to deal with today's players. If he goes off, he knows he can't scream.''

The most significant event in coach-player relationships took place in 1997 when Latrell Sprewell choked P. J. Carlesimo, his coach with the Golden State Warriors. The confrontation set the parameters in the era of multimillionaire players. The new watchword is mutual respect.

Carlesimo, back in the league as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs, didn't entirely agree. ''I think that there's a lot of truth to that, but I still think if you looked at the 29 coaches in the league, there are still guys who push real hard, stay on people and do things a certain way,'' he said. ''To me the hammer is Jerry West. Jerry West picked him and Jerry West is running that operation. That is going to go the furthest toward Hubie's acceptance.''

Experience is one thing, N.B.A. championship rings are quite another. Hubie is long on experience but short on N.B.A. rings. In 1975, he coached the Kentucky Colonels to the American Basketball Association championship. But that was the A.B.A. A young player might ask at the end of an exasperating day: if you have so much experience, why don't you have any N.B.A. rings?

Brown was in a similar situation in 1982 when he replaced Red Holzman as the Knicks' head coach. The Knicks had finished the 1981-82 season in last place in the Atlantic Division. Brown was coming off a five-year reclamation project in Atlanta, where he was fired with three games left in the 1980-81 season.

Brown was a two-season savior with the Knicks. They reached the playoffs his first two seasons, but then injuries and Brown's abrasive style wore on nerves. In December 1986, 16 games into the season, he was fired.

No one questions Brown's basketball knowledge. His manner has always been the issue. When Brown replaced Holzman, Dave DeBusschere, the general manager, apparently set ground rules to curb Brown's volatile coaching style. When Brown was dismissed, Scotty Stirling, who had replaced DeBusschere, said that Brown's acerbic style had made him ineffective.

What has Brown learned in the 15 years he has been away?

Will this be a new era for the Grizzles, or will this be back to the future in Memphis?

Photo: Hubie Brown (Associated Press)