LAS VEGAS – This is Larry Brown on the other side, 76 years old, not wanting to retire but unable to land a job he wants, having to consider becoming an actual hoops ambassador, the dream of an elder statesman’s role in the NBA turning to the ache of a reality that he may have finally run out of zip codes to call home.

He is still around the game, sometimes a lot. Brown watched practices and gave feedback to friends, many part of the near-infinite reaches of his coaching tree, on the college circuit last season. He has likewise remained connected to the pros and on this night is sitting with Grizzlies coach David Fizdale in the first row of baseline press seats as Memphis plays Sacramento in summer league. But Brown is not in the game.

Larry Brown cannot get a job. The work doesn’t even have to be as head coach. A mentoring role on a bench, helping to groom fellow assistants and work with players, maybe occasionally swing through the minors to work with younger coaches and younger prospects – that would be ideal.

Except no one is hiring the Hall of Famer who, admittedly, can come across as a threat to coaches and management already in place. Blending in is not exactly his thing, after all. And so he is growing noticeably anxious, his nose pressed to the window while envisioning all the ways he could help an organization, if only.

“I want to do anything where people feel I can help make their franchise better and make a contribution,” he said. “In anything they’d ask me without worrying that I wanted their job. I’ve done that. I’ve been lucky enough.”

We are beyond the clichéd Brown caricature of the eternal pessimist, lovable but infuriating after all the stops in all the decades. LB might actually be done with the NBA and major college programs, and not because he walked away from them again. They have walked away from him.

Once upon a time, a quarter-century and a few lifetimes ago, he was the guy lounging poolside on the roof of a tiny Miami hotel on a baking spring afternoon talking about how great it would be to coach high school some day. Maybe junior college. Somewhere the job would be all about teaching the game, away from the hype machines and money, an idyllic ending he would mention again through the years.

Now that he is in perfect position to seize that very ride into the sunset, though, Brown can’t pull himself away from the NBA. He thought nearly a year ago about a high school job close to his Long Island roots. But that’s not the dream anymore.