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

Brown was introduced as 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, who resigned as 76ers coach on 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."

Dumars first contacted Brown's agent Joe Glass on Friday night, and the deal was done by Saturday around 6 p.m.

Carlisle was fired Saturday after leading Detroit to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 1991. He was fired with one year and $2 million left on his contract despite winning two straight division titles and 100 regular-season games.

He said Monday that he plans to pursue coaching jobs this week during the NBA's predraft camp.

"I'm going to talk to two teams in Chicago about potential opportunities, and I'm excited about that," Carlisle said, less than an hour before Brown was announced as his successor.

Carlisle declined to name the teams with whom he would interview.

Brown had two years left in his contract that paid him $6 million per season in Philadelphia.

"We want to be successful for every year for a long, long time," Brown said. "Every year, come playoff time, we want to have an honest chance to win a championship."

He also coached Denver (five years), Indiana (four years), San Antonio (3½ years), New Jersey (two years), Carolina of the ABA (two years) and the Clippers (18 months).

Brown's tenure with the Sixers was the longest in his 31-year coaching career. He led the Sixers to the playoffs five straight seasons, including the 2001 NBA Finals, and will coach the U.S. men's team this summer at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico.

He has an 879-685 record in the NBA, and is 1,285-853 overall, including ABA and college. Brown won an NCAA championship with Kansas in 1988, and became the first coach to take six NBA teams to the playoffs when the Sixers made it in 1999.

Detroit, with the second pick in the draft, likely will select a scorer -- Darko Milicic of Serbia and Montenegro or Syracuse's Carmelo Anthony -- to complement a young nucleus of Richard Hamilton, Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, Mehmet Okur and Tayshaun Prince.

Brown's brother, Herb, was head coach of the Pistons from 1975-76 through 1977-78.

Carlisle, in his first head coaching job, helped turn Detroit from a lottery team into one of the top teams in the East. He was voted the top coach for the 2001-02 season.

He led the Pistons to a 100-64 regular-season record and a 12-15 postseason mark over two years. Their season ended May 24 when they were swept by New Jersey in the conference finals.

Some believed there was tension between Dumars and Carlisle, but both denied that was true Saturday.