Larry Brown is now 80 and the absolute epitome of a basketball lifer. After graduating from UNC, and after his legendary fight with Duke’s Art Heyman, he played in the NABL briefly, then took a job as a Dean Smith assistant.
From there he went to the ABA, playing for a few years before coaching the Carolina Cougars and then the Denver Nuggets, before going to UCLA where he landed his first of three colleges on some sort of NCAA trouble (Kansas and SMU would follow).
He was a great coach though as he proved time and again in the NBA, and no one would argue that he was one of the best pure coaches of all time.