Larry Brown on Cuban's D-League thoughts: 'Worst thing I heard'

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said last week he thinks young basketball prospects would be better off playing in NBA's D-League than in the NCAA.

Basketball coaching legend Larry Brown is just down the street from Cuban in Dallas at SMU, but he doesn't agree.

"I admire him and think he's one of the bright guys we have in our profession, but that was the worst thing I heard," Brown said on 105.3 The Fan on Wednesday. "Maybe the Mavericks would take the time to prepare these kids -- I'm not talking basketball wise -- in all the life issues to prepare them to be in the NBA."

Cuban said forcing the "one-and-done" basketball stars to attend college as student-athletes is a "big lie," but Brown believes even that single year of being on a university campus is a major benefit to a player's development that they wouldn't get in the D-League.

"If you're a college coach and you do your job well, and I think the coaches on the college level do -- living on a college campus, having to go to class, being around other college students, being with coaches that really teach," Brown said. "The NBA has this development thing -- they don't teach guys how to play. In my mind, the head coaches in the NBA and a lot of the assistants do, but this is the greatest minor league system in the world. If you didn't even go to one class and just lived in a college environment, you're way ahead."

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