Clippers Said to Get Brown : Pro basketball: Coach is expected to be paid $750,000 per season for reunion with former Kansas star Manning.

The Clippers reached an agreement in principle on a five-year contract Tuesday with Larry Brown to become their next coach, sources close to the negotiations said.

The Clippers are expected today to schedule a news conference for Thursday to make Brown’s selection official. General Manager Elgin Baylor was believed to be meeting with Brown out of town and was unavailable for comment. Other team officials and Brown’s agent, Joe Glass, declined to discuss the matter.

“I never discuss any of these matters” Glass said. “That’s not meant to say there is something going on or that something is not going on.”

At about $750,000 per season, Brown would become one of the league’s highest-paid coaches, making twice as much as his predecessor, Mike Schuler.

Brown would be a high-profile addition to a team thirsty for positive publicity and interest around Los Angeles, and serves as what some see as another sign the Clippers are not the penny-pinching group of the past.

Owner Donald T. Sterling once asked why assistant coaches couldn’t tape players’ ankles before the games so they wouldn’t need a trainer. He now pays for full-time charter flights for his team.

Brown also figures to provide additional credibility on the court. Though known as a vagabond coach for never staying too long in one place, he is respected as a winner and someone who has interest in developing young players. In fact, not long into his first season with the San Antonio Spurs after leaving Kansas and almost accepting the UCLA job, he said he missed the teaching sometimes devoid in the pro game.

That is one of the things the Clippers like best about him. Though constant tension around the team and communication breakdowns with players were ultimately cited as the cause of Schuler’s firing Sunday after 1 1/2 seasons, management was also disappointed in the slow emergence of some young players and an offense that was often seen as stagnant.

Brown’s arrival would also bring a reunion with Danny Manning, the star of Brown’s 1988 NCAA championship team at Kansas. There has also been speculation that Ed Manning, Danny’s father and now an assistant coach/scout with the Spurs, might join the Clippers in a similar position. Ed Manning was an assistant to Brown at Kansas.

“The last time I played under Coach Brown, we were fairly successful,” Manning said before Tuesday’s night’s game against the Dallas Mavericks at the Sports Arena. “If you can guarantee that again, I’d more than welcome that. It would be nice to play for Coach Brown again.

“I really haven’t given it any thought. There is no reason to sit down and speculate on that. One, it’s out of our control. Two, the organization is going to hire the best man possible.”

A former standout player at North Carolina who played in the 1964 Olympics, Brown first became a head coach for the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Assn. in 1972-73. He went to Denver for 1974-75 and stayed with the Nuggets through their move into the NBA.

His next stop was UCLA, helping create some of the Bruins’ best memories of post-John Wooden times. In two seasons, Brown went 22-10 and 20-7 and reached the NCAA championship game in 1979-80.

After two seasons with the New Jersey Nets and five at Kansas, twice reaching the Final Four, UCLA wanted him back. The feeling seemed to be mutual. Brown agreed to, but did not sign, a contract with the Bruins on a Friday night and went back to Kansas on a private plane for a news conference.

However, he apparently changed his mind en route. At the Saturday news conference, Brown announced that he would stay with the Jayhawks. That night, he called UCLA officials to say he remained interested in the Bruin job, but wanted to be with his Kansas team when they went to see President Reagan at the White House.

Finally, asked in Washington whether he was still considering going to Los Angeles, he said he would remain with the Jayhawks. A month and a half later, Brown went to San Antonio.

On Jan. 21, near the middle of his fourth season with the Spurs, Brown was let go. It was the first time he had been fired.