Adam Zagoria will write a weekly column for FloHoops.com. His first story deals with Naismith Hall of Famer Larry Brown, a basketball lifer who can't quit the game at 77.

NEW YORK — Jim Todd had just gotten off the golf course in Cape Cod last Wednesday when he received a phone call from his old friend Larry Brown.

"He asked me to come and help him out; he wasn't going to be able to take the team to Italy," Todd, the fomer Clippers head coach and Knicks assistant, recounted Tuesday morning in the gym at Columbia University.

"First thing I said to my wife, 'You don't say no to Larry Brown.'"

Brown, 77, had been slated to coach the USA East Coast All-Star team during a four-game stint in Venice this week, but a sudden health issue will prevent him from making the trip. Brown says he's been "under the weather" since a recent trip to Brazil for a basketball clinic.

"[The doctors] don't want me to travel right now just till I get checked out," Brown said after putting the 12 players on the roster through a 90-minute practice that began at 6:30 AM.

"It's disappointing because last year I worked with [Western Connecticut head coach] Guy [Rancourt] and we went to Madrid and Barcelona, but we didn't have enough time to really practice. So we set it up this year so we could have four or five practices [at Columbia] because we're playing [three] national teams."

Brown is leading the team — which includes Kansas' Charlie Moore, South Carolina's Justin Minaya and two Purdue players, Aaron Wheeler and Sasha Stefanovich — through the practices at Columbia, but Todd will run the team in Italy.

"He didn't tell me right away that it was Monday morning that we were leaving [for New York and then Italy]," Todd cracked about the phone call with Brown.

Larry Brown is coaching the @East_Coast_BBC All-Stars here at @Columbia. They head to Italy tomorrow for 3 games. pic.twitter.com/g13K8JWXT3

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) July 31, 2018

Todd added: "I want him to put everything in, let these guys be coached by Larry, by a Hall of Fame coach, and I said I'm just going to be an extension of him. Once we get there, we'll run the stuff and I'll just be an extension of him on the floor."

Rancourt, Syracuse assistant Adrian "Red" Autry, and UNCG’s Tom Tankelewicz are also serving as assistants.

Minaya said the players are disappointed that Brown won't make the Italian trip, but they are trying to soak up as much as they can in New York from the only man ever to win an NBA title and an NCAA title as a head coach.

"Obviously, any time you get a chance to be coached by him, he's a legend," said Minaya, the son of Mets assistant GM Omar Minaya. "But even these two days, I'm taking as much as I can get from him. They said he's forgotten more basketball than we know."

Larry Brown working with @Justin_minaya of South Carolina. Frank Martin is expected here later and will also trip to Italy to see the @East_Coast_BBC pic.twitter.com/JWRtAvSAqG

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) July 31, 2018

Brown hasn’t coached a college or pro team since resigning from SMU in 2016.

That came after the NCAA in September 2015 handed the school a postseason ban for 2016 and suspended Brown for nine games after saying that SMU “committed multiple violations,” including "academic fraud, unethical conduct and head coach control." Brown was also given a two-year show case.

He's spent the intervening time attending college practices, hanging out with old friends like Villanova's Jay Wright, Kansas' Bill Self, and Kentucky's John Calipari, "which has been phenomenal."

Two years removed from the SMU experience, Brown said he was "hoping to get with the NBA" and "try to help in any way that I could."

"I almost went with Earl Watson [to Phoenix] but that didn't work out, he lasted three games," Brown said. "I thought I had chances to go places but the whole culture of the NBA, to me, has changed. [They think] older guys can't relate to young guys, we don't understand the game, we're not aware of analytics. I was doing analytics when I was 14. Good shot, bad shot, get fouled, get more rebounds, don't turn it over."

In the fall of 2016, Brown even considered coaching a high school team on his native Long Island, but that never went anywhere.

"It was East Hampton," he said. "I didn't think I could give them the amount of time that they deserved because I had other obligations."

He recently agreed to coach the Italian club Auxilium Torino. He said he plans to be in Italy for that team's first practice August 16 and is excited about the experience.

"Yeah, I've been stealing my whole life and I love to teach," Brown said. "I just want to share what I was taught. Unfortunately, I feel like they think the older you get, you don't understand the game anymore, which blows my mind."

Before taking the job, Brown met with Antonio Forni, the president of Torino, and Francesco Forni, Antonio's son who is the GM and whose knowledge of basketball has been openly questioned by European media.

"He likes flash," Brown said of the son with a smile.

Of the team's lack of recent stability, Brown said with a smile, "The one nice thing about it, we've only had seven coaches in four years."

Former North Carolina player and assistant Dante Calabria will serve as one of Brown's assistants, while two young Italian assistants will stay on.

Torino has added six young foreign players to the roster that also includes veteran Carlos Delfino. The younger players include Royce White (Iowa State), James Michael McAdoo (North Carolina), Tony Carr (Penn State), Tra Holder (Arizona State), and Tekele Cotton (Wichita State).

"They all, to me, have a chance to play in the league," he said. "I'm hopeful that if we do our job, they'll have a chance to get to the NBA, or maybe get to play at the highest level in Europe."

As for his own lifestyle in Italy, Brown cracked, "I'm just going to live in the gym. They practice twice a day. Eight weeks of preseason."

He's hopeful that his daughter, Madison, will join him for the second semester to study in Italy, "which would be phenomenal."

So health permitting, Brown does plan to head to Italy, just not this week when the college guys head over.

Todd will go instead, but his wife won't be joining him. He gave her the option of Venice or Cape Cod.

"Obviously, I lost that," Todd said, "because she stayed home."

Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who runs ZAGSBLOG.com and contributes to The New York Times. Follow Adam on Twitter.