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Mike Brown said he would watch tonight's game in his room at the Lakers' hotel after the NBA suspended him and fined him $25,000. Kobe Bryant offered to soften the blow by having cheesesteaks delivered to Brown's room. Assistant coach John Kuester will direct the Lakers tonight against the Philadelphia 76ers in Brown's absence. Brown is eligible to return to the bench for Thursday's game against the Boston Celtics. "I understand it," Brown said of the league's decision to suspended him one game for making contact with referee Zach Zarba and failing to leave the court in a timely manner after his fourth-quarter ejection from Saturday's loss to the Utah Jazz. "They have a protocol they have to follow. I understand." Los Angeles Daily News

Los Angeles Lakers, Coaching, Mike Brown 

Brown said Bryant would "take care of me." Bryant said he would send a cheesesteak from a place called Larry's not far from his childhood home in the suburbs, which he believes to be the best in the city, topping renowned tourist attractions like Geno's and Pat's in South Philadelphia. "So, Larry, hopefully, you'll be taking care of me really well," Brown said. Los Angeles Daily News

Los Angeles Lakers, Coaching, Mike Brown 

How do you go about replacing the guy who hired you as an assistant coach? What is that phone call like? "It wasn't even a phone call," Randy Wittman said late last week. "You basically walk in here, and it's all kind of happening." NBA.com

Washington Wizards, Coaching, Randy Wittman 

"I learned a lot because I've done it before, and when it happened then I said I don't ever want to be in that position again," Wittman said last week. "It's awful, just to put it bluntly. It doesn't matter. The one thing I learned was I had to sit down with these guys and tell what I wanted to do, if I was going to take over, and how I wanted to do it. And if they didn't agree with me, don't have me do it. That's the only way. You can't come in here and not be yourself, and I think you try to do that sometimes, because you're thrown right in. It's not an interview process and you've gotten the job, and it's your job. It's all of a sudden, blam. That's why I said if you want me to do it, this is how we have to do it." NBA.com

Washington Wizards, Coaching, Randy Wittman 

Carter played with the Heat from 1999-2003, and is now with his sixth NBA team in 13 seasons. But his days of returning to Miami as a player are winding down. "Probably one year and then I'll start coaching," Carter, 36, said of his plan to retire after next season and become an NBA assistant. FOXSports Florida

Toronto Raptors, Coaching, Anthony Carter 

"Me and George have been talking about it for the last two years about me coaching with him, so I'm looking forward to that experience and that challenge," Carter said. "I've been talking to Sam Cassell (of Washington) about how it is, and with Tyronn Lue with Boston. Those are guys who I played (against)." FOXSports Florida

Toronto Raptors, Coaching, Anthony Carter 

Amar'e Stoudemire has played most of his career for Mike D'Antoni and wants to continue playing for him. Stoudemire defended his coach, saying the Knicks' struggles are not D'Antoni's fault. He said it's up to the players to do more and that he's not the only one who would like D'Antoni to remain the Knicks' coach. "I think we all do," Stoudemire said. "We'd all love to have Mike coach us. We don't want to go through a drastic change midseason like that. We just got to play hard. We've got to give him the best opportunity to coach us and be coachable. We have to be coachable." Newsday

New York Knicks, Coaching, Mike D'Antoni 

"You can see night in and night out how the system works," Stoudemire said. "If we keep that going, we'll be good." Newsday

New York Knicks, Coaching, Mike D'Antoni 

But lately the losing has become even more gruesome, with the worst loss in franchise history after getting destroyed by the Blazers in Portland. Are you guys behind coach Paul Silas? Bismack Biyombo: Yes, we believe in Silas. We have some injured players, although that is not a excuse. It's a very difficult situation. It's complicated to say that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow we will win. He always says that the most difficult thing is winning. He's been there, he knows how it is to be in a winning situation. Although we have injuries, we must stay optimistic, keep working. Yes, we have lost some games by a lot of points but it doesn't mean we don't care. We lose, we practice the next day and we do our best. Personally I'm impressed about how hard we're practicing. It's true that is frustrating that we're losing, but with our effort I'm sure we will win again. HoopsHype

Charlotte Bobcats, Coaching, Paul Silas, Bismack Biyombo 

So the chemistry is good? It's not like what happened in Washington, where it seems the players had tuned out Flip Saunders? Bismack Biyombo: We don't have that problem. At the beginning of the season, we lost games but we were close to getting some wins. We competed against Miami, we won against Milwaukee at home... Then we had some injuries that killed us, but we know it's not an excuse. HoopsHype

Charlotte Bobcats, Coaching, Paul Silas, Bismack Biyombo 

D'Antoni is in the last year of his contract, and the Knicks aren't playing up to the expectations he set for them. He knows what that usually means for a coach. Yet before the Knicks beat the Nets Saturday nightat Madison Square Garden, he was smiling, making jokes and showing no outward concern about his job security. "It doesn't do anything for me," D'Antoni said. "If I do my job well, then things will be good. If we don't win, it will happen. I'm not worried one way or another, to be honest with you. I know, it's kind of, 'Yeah, right.' That's one good thing about being 60 years old. You don't have to worry too much." Newsday

New York Knicks, Coaching, Mike D'Antoni 

A league source said D'Antoni isn't in danger of losing his job. If the losing continues, however, that could change. One thing that could work in D'Antoni's favor: The Knicks have been playing harder and better lately. They could have taken a three-game winning streak into Saturday night. The Knicks easily beat the Pistons on Tuesday night, and their two games after that -- against the Eastern Conference-leading Bulls and at Boston -- came down to the final possession. Newsday

New York Knicks, Coaching, Mike D'Antoni 

Mike D'Antoni says he "can't panic" over his job security despite the Knicks early struggles and despite Madison Square Garden management refusing to publicly endorse the embattled head coach. "I don't know, when do you panic?" D'Antoni said prior to Saturday's game against the Nets. "You do your job. You can't panic. We are who we are. We've got to get better. I can run around with my hair on fire, we've still got to play the game and win. I may be panicking inside, but I still believe in our guys." New York Daily News

New York Knicks, Coaching, Mike D'Antoni 

D'Antoni was hired by former Knicks president Donnie Walsh, who made it his business to be the daily spokesperson for the team. Walsh always supported D'Antoni and said on several occasions that he, and not the head coach, should be blamed for the any problems the team was having. Asked if he'd like to have Walsh around now, D'Antoni joked: "If Donny could make a jump shot it'd be great. He could in his old days." New York Daily News

New York Knicks, Coaching, Mike D'Antoni 

I’m shocked Flip Saunders’ name has yet to surface as a candidate to succeed one head coach or another in job jeopardy. New York Post

Coaching, Flip Saunders 

The Lakers will play Philadelphia on Monday. Will Mike Brown coach them? The Lakers coach could face a suspension after appearing to bump referee Zach Zarba early in the fourth quarter of a 96-87 loss to Utah on Saturday night at EnergySolutions Arena. Brown was upset after watching Utah guard Earl Watson mug Pau Gasol for a steal that led to a dunk by Derrick Favors with 8 minutes 35 seconds left in the game. The Lakers coach bounded onto the court and received two technical fouls, resulting in his first ejection of the season. "I thought [Watson] ran through him to get the ball," Brown said later after watching a replay in the locker room. Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Lakers, Coaching, Mike Brown 

Brown said he apologized to his team but did not think his actions resulted in the defeat. "I shouldn't have done what I did because it put our team in a deeper hole than it was in," Brown said. "It's not good to do that. It's not setting a good example or setting the right tone for our team." Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Lakers, Coaching, Mike Brown 

"I shouldn't have done what I did because it put our team in a deeper hole than it was in," Brown said. "It's not good to do that. It's not setting a good example or setting the right tone for our team. And the bottom line was Utah was more physical than us tonight and they kicked our behind on the glass and they kicked our behind in the half-court and you have to give them credit. "I made it probably a little worse by getting kicked out." Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Lakers, Coaching, Mike Brown 

According to NBA sources, D’Antoni will not be fired today despite back-to-back, last-second losses to Chicago and Boston, disputing a report earlier this week. But with the club at 8-15, his job security is in heavy question, and D’Antoni may not be able to afford losing to the Nets tonight in the last game of their back-to-back-to-back set. New York Post

New York Knicks, Coaching, Mike D'Antoni 

You suddenly find yourself on the deck of the Titanic after the run-in with the iceberg and you want to do more than rearrange a few of the lounge chairs. Randy Wittman remembers the urge. Almost five years to the day before he was named interim coach of the Wizards, Wittman was bailing water in Minnesota. "You try to change everything in a day," he said. "I think I tried to re-invent basketball and hopefully I've learned from that." NBA.com

Washington Wizards, Coaching, Randy Wittman