Larry Brown says he was put on Earth by God to coach Allen Iverson

Larry Brown answered reporter's questions for nearly 10 minutes before Sunday's post-game press conference came to a close.

It was then that Brown - the former 76ers coach and current head coach at Southern Methodist - wanted to offer his own remarks. No. 23 SMU had fallen, 71-64, to Temple but Brown's unprovoked remarks were about his former star player, Allen Iverson, and not his team's upset loss.

Brown prefaced his remarks that he would be unable to attend Iverson's No. 3 retirement ceremony on March 1.

Here they are in full:

"A lot of people thought we banged heads and stuff like that, but I know God put me here to coach him. He might not think that, but I feel that way. The more I am away from it and the more I meet young people and people stop me everywhere, I realize the impact he had on our game. And I'm thrilled that you guys are doing it for him, because no one deserves it anymore than he does. In this community, I do think he was accepted the right way. And that makes me feel great. Thanks."