Larry Brown

ATHENS - The sound you hear is the sound of the world gloating. It was a very bad day for los Americanos. The sound you hear is the sound of Italians crying for joy. It's Argentines woofing with pride. It is these two countries whose very good basketball teams will play for the Olympic gold medal today, not los Americanos. The Argentines and Italians aren't alone in their sense of satisfaction. After the basketball semifinals yesterday, I saw a few Spaniards in the stands. They pumped their fists, ecstatic the United States was beaten.

ATHENS - The U.S. men's basketball team must have visited the Olympic lost-and-found on its day off. After being nearly a scoring no-show for five games, Stephon Marbury found his touch yesterday and atoned with 31 points - a U.S. men's Olympic record - to lead the Americans to a 102-94 victory over previously unbeaten Spain in a quarterfinal matchup. The Americans play Argentina tonight in the semifinals. On a day when rebounding was a struggle and four players were in foul trouble, Marbury's sudden arrival after scoring just 21 points in the tournament made the difference.

LOS ANGELES - Larry Brown was tired of rationalizing a miracle or, for him, bad luck. "Give them their due," Brown said of the Los Angeles Lakers, who beat his Detroit Pistons in overtime, 99-91, in Game 2 of the NBA Finals after an improbable comeback. Now, it was time to be sarcastic. "Are you allowed to give people their due in this thing?" Brown said. "Are you allowed to tell a team that they won a game?" So the healing began. Kobe Bryant saved the Lakers' season with a game-tying three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left Tuesday night.

If Phil Jackson has what Larry Brown wants, Brown sure isn't letting on. Jackson, the nine-time NBA champion coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, brings an overwhelming favorite into tonight's opener of the NBA Finals. Brown, hired in the offseason specifically to get the Detroit Pistons to this level, has no titles on his professional resume. But with all the story lines available heading into this NBA championship series, Brown's quest for a ring is not one of them, or at least he's determined not to let it become one. "I think it means more to other people that are close to me than me," Brown said of the championship chase the other day. "Of course, at the beginning of the season our goal is to win an NBA championship, and that will always be the case.

When Doug Collins awoke in his Scottsdale, Ariz., home yesterday morning and found there were four messages on his cell phone, he told his wife he knew he was about to be fired as coach of the Washington Wizards. His hunch turned out to be correct as the Wizards moved to purge the organization of the remnants of Michael Jordan's 3 1/2 years, dismissing the coach he hand-picked to guide his return to the court from retirement. And Collins, more or less, endorsed the move. "Sometimes, you need to make a change simply because you've got to change the environment," said Collins in a conference call last night with reporters.

PHILADELPHIA - Larry Brown was asked whether a good NBA coach has to be part salesman. A look at his face and the long pause as he ponders the question let you know that the concept doesn't quite sit right with him. It's not that Brown, who brings his Philadelphia 76ers home for Game 3 of the NBA Finals tonight in a 1-1 tie with the Los Angeles Lakers, doesn't see the analogy. It's quite apt, in some regards, he allows. Rather, it's that the notion somehow implies insincerity or, at worst, dishonesty, and if you know anything about Brown, you should know that he is a straight shooter.

PHILADELPHIA - Larry Brown and Allen Iverson haven't been the smoothest pairing known to the basketball world, so their hug near the end of the Philadelphia 76ers' 108-91 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 7 of the NBA's Eastern Conference finals last night was something more than the standard coach and star player wrapping their arms around each other. Brown, the peripatetic coach and basketball lifer with the perpetual hangdog look, and Iverson, the rap star wanna-be with the troubled past, embraced warmly with 51 seconds to go and the Sixers assured of their first trip to the NBA Finals since 1983, the picture of a hard-earned detente turned into mutual affection.

PHILADELPHIA - Larry Brown finally has something valid to complain about. The Philadelphia 76ers coach, who rarely seems to leave home without a hang-dog expression, is said to be one of the NBA's best teachers, but the Sixers haven't left very much room for teaching. A 10-0 beginning, the best start in franchise history, has given Philadelphia the best record in the league so far (13-2), though it left the perfectionist Brown with hardly a fault to find with his charges. But the Sixers had dropped two of their last three before Wednesday's home win over the Washington Wizards, which gave Brown something to get after his team about.

Atlantic Division Orlando Magic 1999-2000 record: 41-41 (4th); missed playoffs Coach: Glenn "Doc" Rivers (41-41 in one season) Key additions: F Grant Hill, G/F Tracy McGrady Key subtractions: F Ben Wallace, G Chucky Atkins What can go right: McGrady and Hill add talent to a band of scrappy overachievers and get the Magic to the conference finals or better. What can go wrong: The Magic awaken from last year's dream season, Rivers is unable to coach stars, and the two newcomers don't blend in. Likely scenario: Should be good for at least two playoff-round wins.

F. Winfield Brown, 92, construction firm owner F. Winfield Brown, who owned a construction and real estate management firm and was a woodworking enthusiast, died Tuesdayof cancer at Ginger Cove Retirement Community in Annapolis. He was 92. In the early 1940s, Mr. Brown took over as president and owner of Madison Construction Co., after the death of his father, who founded the business. He retired in 1975. A longtime resident of Broadmoor Road in Homeland, Mr. Brown had lived since 1998 at the Annapolis retirement community, where he helped establish the Ginger Cove Woodshop.