NEW YORK -- Let's have a big round of applause for Hubie Brown, whose Grizzlies are an astounding 43-26. Other than team president Jerry West, who unflinchingly branded his team "dangerous" to me prior to the exhibition season, I imagine no one else figured Memphis, which began last season 0-8 under Sidney Lowe, would be entrenched in sixth place in the bloodcurdling Western Conference.
"If my feelings about this team are correct," West unequivocally stated in that same interview, "this will be the most satisfying accomplishment of my career."
Hubie can't help but to second West's emotion. As much as it indisputably meant to him to guide the Kentucky Colonels to their only ABA championship (in 1975) on his first professional head coaching watch, this is a deliriously delicious daydream come true.