While Herb Williams currently mans the fort for the Knicks in the Big Apple, the vacant head coaching position certainly is attracting some big names.

Phil Jackson said last week that should Isiah Thomas call him in regards to him possibly being the next coach of the New York Knicks he'd certainly listen (which, as Jackson made clear, doesn't mean he'd actually accept the position), and now the NBA's reigning champion head coach appears to be at least showing an interest in the job.

Larry Brown, the veteran head coach of the Detroit Pistons who won his first ever NBA championship as coach of the team last season, told the New York Post before Saturday's game with the Knicks that the New York position has always represented his "dream job" and that he "loves" New York president Isiah Thomas.

But Brown was careful not to lobby for the job in The Post interview.

"I've dreamed about it a number of times," said Brown before his Pistons crushed the Knicks on Saturday in Madison Square Garden. "Growing up there, being a Knick fan, of course it was my dream. And I've been passed over a few times. I'm an East Coast person. Red Holzman was my hero growing up. But I'm here. These people [in Detroit] have been wonderful to me."

"I want to do my job here and move on. I don't look at myself at coaching much longer."

Brown passed on chances to shoot down rumors about him possibly leaving the Pistons after the season to coach the Knicks both before and after the game.

The Hall of Fame coach, who has three-plus years left on his contract, didn't meet with the media before the game for the first time in his 1? seasons with the Pistons.

Then Brown, who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., passed on the postgame news conference, sending assistant coach Gar Heard.

"I've got the flu," Brown said in a brief interview with The Associated Press on his cell phone from his office. "Sorry, that's all I have to say."

Brown, according to ESPN, has been one of the more well-traveled coaches in history, with head coaching stints at Detroit, Philadelphia, Indiana, the Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio, New Jersey, Denver (NBA and ABA) and Carolina of the ABA, UCLA and Kansas. He also coached the 2004 U.S. Olympic men's team.