Mike Brown was not going to obsess over his NBA future, regardless of how unfair things ended at his previous job.
The long-time coach, who had worked on NBA benches in some capacity for 27 years, guided the Sacramento Kings to their first postseason berth in 17 years in 2023 and was voted NBA Coach of the Year. But then he was kicked to the curb following a 13-18 start the following year.
So, he and his wife traveled. They went to Sydney and Mexico, St. Bart’s, and even New York, where he partied with some Wall Street finance bros until 5 a.m.
“If an opportunity came up, great. If it didn’t, I felt lucky, blessed, fortunate,” Brown said. “I had a good run. But I felt at some point, I’d get another opportunity, whether it was a head coach or assistant coaching position, so I just kind of rolled with it and didn’t think much about it.”
His resume was simply too good to be out of work for too long, though. He led LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first NBA Finals appearance in 2007, which earned him his first NBA Coach of the Year honor. He was an assistant coach under Gregg Popovich with the San Antonio Spurs and Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors, winning four championships in the process.
He was Kobe Bryant’s head coach for a time with the Los Angeles Lakers, learning how to perform in the pressure cooker of a big market with lofty expectations.
That was deemed good enough of a fit for the Knicks, who entered the 2025-26 campaign with title aspirations of their own after being knocked out of the conference final last season by the Indiana Pacers.
“This opportunity came up. From afar, I felt this team was ready, and I’m just thrilled to death that [they] gave me an opportunity to be a head coach again,” Brown said.
He has passed every adversarial test with flying colors in his first year in charge in New York. Working under owner James Dolan’s mandate that it was NBA Finals or bust, Brown led the Knicks to their first silverware in 53 years with an NBA Cup title in December. He then overcame a miserable 2-9 stretch in January, and then pressed all the right buttons to get Jalen Brunson and Co. humming on all cylinders for the playoffs.
What has ensued is one of the most dominant runs we have ever seen in NBA playoff history. The Knicks have won 11 straight games, including sweeps of the Philadelphia 76ers and, most recently, the Cleveland Cavaliers to clinch their first Eastern Conference title since 1999, doing so with an overwhelming 130-93 win in Game 4 in Cleveland on Monday night.
“It’s funny, at my previous job, I took them to a point that was higher, and it didn’t work out,” Brown said. “I truly felt that this team was an NBA Finalist team. I thought we had a true opportunity because some jobs you take, it’s like, ‘OK, we can get better, we have a chance to make the playoffs right now.’ But this one, I felt we legitimately had a chance if we could help them figure it out and the players could stay together during the process, especially if we hit adversity… I did have that belief from Day 1. I didn’t know how it was going to turn out, but we’re here.”
For as much as the credit should go to the Knicks’ core of Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart, Brown’s handling of this roster built by team president Leon Rose has been next to perfect.
With added depth reinforcements of Jose Alvarado, Jordan Clarkson, and a healthy Landry Shamet, Brown was able to keep his stars fresh and throw different rotations and relentless waves of attack at the opposition — something previous head coach Tom Thibodeau failed, even refused, to do.
Perhaps the perfect embodiment of that came on Monday night when the Knicks punched their ticket to the NBA Finals. Thirteen different players recorded a point in Game 4, six of whom posted double digits. None of them, however, scored more than 20 points, making this the first time in playoff history that a team scored 130 points with a 20-plus scorer.
“Throughout the course of the season, you have your ups and downs and your good and the bad you have to fight through,” Brown said. “Sometimes we got through it quickly, sometimes it took a minute to figure it out. It was probably toward the end of the season when I was like, ‘OK, we can feel it. This group is exactly where we need to be at the right time of the year.
“Our group is playing good basketball, and they’re doing it in different ways. They’re doing it differently depending on who our opponent is. When you show that type of versatility on both ends of the floor, it just adds to the belief.”
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