AUBURN HILLS, MICH. ? Detroit hired Hall of Famer Larry Brown to make a good team better.

Brown was introduced as the Pistons’ coach Monday, two days after Rick Carlisle was fired and one year after Carlisle was the NBA’s Coach of the Year.

Brown, 62, inherits a 50-win team that has a talented, young nucleus and holds the No. 2 pick in the June 26 draft.

“He is the pre-eminent coach in the league to me,” said Joe Dumars, team president of basketball operations.

Brown, a former Kansas University coach who resigned as 76ers boss May 26 after six seasons, will be paid $25 million over five years, according to a source within the NBA who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Brown was released from a contractual clause that prohibited him from coaching another NBA team if he left Philadelphia prematurely.

“This is a team I admired from afar,” Brown said Monday. “I promise you this: Every time we step out on the court, we’ll represent this franchise the way it’s supposed to be represented,” he said. “You won’t be embarrassed by the effort.”