SAN ANTONIO ? Back in the days when he coached in overalls, Larry Brown was pelted with avocados on 10-cent beer night at the old HemisFair Arena.

It was 1975, and they hated him here.

Brown was coach of the rival Denver Nuggets in the ABA, and the fan group known as the Baseline Bums dumped guacamole on him as he walked to the exit tunnel.

The Baseline Bums were a creation of the Spurs’ business manager, John Begzos, whose background was in minor-league baseball. They wore Bums T-shirts and sat in a 120-seat section directly over the ramp leading to the visiting locker room.

“I had made this comment that the only thing I liked about San Antonio was the guacamole dip, and for eight days they kept playing that sound bite. And there was a lot more to it because their coach (Bob Bass) said something about me,” Brown recalled Saturday on the second straight off day in the NBA Finals.

“So they had that 10-cent beer night, and people were hitting me with avocados and throwing dip on me. I remembered walking through the crowd and people were punching me. In the ABA that was typical.

“So it was an interesting experience. But I came back and coached here, and I found out I liked a lot more than the dip about San Antonio,” Brown said.

Detroit coach Larry Brown gives instructions as the Pistons' Rasheed Wallace listens. The Pistons practiced Saturday in San Antonio.

In 1988, the Spurs made a splash by hiring their old nemesis as their head coach after he had just led Kansas University to the NCAA championship. At a “Meet the New Coach” event at a local mall, the Bums showed up and gave Brown a gift.

Yep, guacamole. Presented rather than pitched.

Brown coached the Spurs from 1988 to 1992, a time when David Robinson was just beginning his career and the franchise was still defined by its many playoff failures.

He guided the Spurs during their heartbreaking seven-game loss to the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1990 Western Conference semifinals, a series that included a double-overtime loss in Game 5 and an overtime loss in Game 7.

In that Game 7, Spurs guard Rod Strickland threw the most infamous pass of his career, blindly tossing the ball over his head and behind him to where he thought Sean Elliot would be, only to have Portland’s Jerome Kersey pick up the ball and throw it upcourt to Clyde Drexler, who was awarded a breakaway foul – two free throws and the ball back.

The Trail Blazers went on to win and advanced to the finals, while San Antonio would end up having to wait nine more years before making it to the championship round.

“If we win that series, I think our history is different,” said general manager R.C. Buford, who was a gofer under Brown at Kansas and moved to San Antonio in 1988 as one of Brown’s assistants along with current Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

Brown left the Spurs midway through the 1991-92 season after a falling out with then-owner Red McCombs.

“Who knows what could have happened. Does that team stay together and make a run? Does Larry not leave?” said Buford, who left with Brown to become an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Buford returned to San Antonio in 1994 as Popovich’s head scout and eventually became the general manager who drafted Manu Ginobili at No. 57 in 1999 and Tony Parker at No. 28 in 2001.

Buford also picked Luis Scola at No. 56 in 2002, and the Spurs expect to sign Ginobili’s Argentine Olympic teammate this summer. “He’s the best forward in Europe right now,” Popovich said.