Hall of Fame basketball coach Larry Brown resigns post at Memphis due to health concerns

Former University of Kansas men’s basketball coach Larry Brown has resigned his position as special adviser to the head coach at the University of Memphis, the Tigers’ athletic department announced on Friday.

According to a news release, Brown, 82, has “ongoing health concerns” that are “not considered serious.”

“We wish coach Brown a speedy recovery,” Memphis men’s basketball coach Penny Hardaway said. “Having coach Brown as part of our program over the last year-and-a-half was very impactful on our student-athletes and me as a coach and we hope all the best for him and good health moving forward.”

Brown was a full-time assistant on Hardaway’s Memphis coaching staff a year ago.

“Coach Brown is a legend — a basketball legend. Honestly learning from him (last season at Memphis) was huge for me,” Detroit Pistons forward Jalen Duren told Colin Cody of WREG News Channel 3 on Friday “All he would tell me is, ‘Stay humble, work hard and don’t ever let anybody outwork you.’ I still have a great relationship with coach Brown. Even to this day he always supports me and makes sure I’m good.”

The school in late October had said Brown took a temporary leave of absence to address a “minor medical issue.”

Brown coached Memphis’ Hardaway with the NBA’s New York Knicks. He joined Hardaway’s staff in Memphis in July 2021 as an assistant and was named a special assistant to Hardaway before this season.

Brown, 82, is the only coach to win championships in both the NCAA (with KU in 1988) and the NBA (Detroit Pistons, 2004). Brown was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2002.