Knicks expected to hire Mike Brown as head coach, source says
Mike Brown as head coach of the Sacramento Kings last October. Credit: Getty Images/Ezra Shaw
The search was long, maybe longer than the Knicks will even admit, to find a coach to take over for the vacant job on the sideline with Tom Thibodeau fired just days after the team finished a long playoff run that lasted into the Eastern Conference finals.
And a month after the shocking dismissal of the coach who’d led this ascension the Knicks found a replacement. A league source said the team was finalizing details Wednesday to hire long-time NBA coach Mike Brown, who arrives to high expectations immediately.
According to a source familiar with the thinking of the organization, team president Leon Rose and the front office were able to take a thorough and lengthy process because the Knicks job was the only job open after Thibodeau was let go. The Knicks targeted Brown early in the process with his extensive resume and throughout the search he held the traits that they most coveted — a personality based on leadership and a willingness to collaborate with the rest of the organization.
The rest of the coaching staff remains something that will be discussed further as the final details of the agreement are completed. The Knicks are expected to retain a number of assistant coaches from the prior staff, including Thibodeau’s lead assistant, Rick Brunson.
Brown, like Thibodeau, is a two-time Coach of the Year, and has had successful runs in each of his prior stops. The 55-year-old compiled a 454-304 record as a head coach with the Cavaliers, Lakers and Kings, reaching the NBA Finals with the Cavs in 2006-07, and has coached in 90 playoff games. While he has not won a title as a head coach he has been on the staff of teams that won four championships. He first won one while serving on Gregg Popovich’s staff in San Antonio and then captured three in Golden State while working under Steve Kerr.
It is the sort of experience necessary to take over a team in New York that won 51 games under Thibodeau, reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years and building a stable franchise base for the first time in decades. The Knicks, barring an offseason deal, return their top seven rotation pieces, including a pair of All-NBA players in Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
That wasn’t enough for Thibodeau to keep his job and Brown, who has coached teams with LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, knows the pressure placed on a coach. Brown was fired in Cleveland after winning 66 and 61 games in consecutive seasons and was hired by the Lakers to replace Phil Jackson. After one season in which they compiled a strike-shortened 41-25 record, Brown attempted to remake the offense with a veteran roster. But just five games into the season he was fired. He was hired back by Cleveland but fired again after one season.
That sent him to six seasons as an assistant in Golden State before landing the Kings job in 2022-23. He won 48 games his first season with the top-scoring offense in the NBA and was voted NBA Coach of the Year for the second time. But after winning 46 games the following season, the Kings got off to a 13-18 start this season and he was fired.
Brown was one of four candidates the Knicks interviewed for the job along with former Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins, who like Brown, was fired during last season, Timberwolves assistant coach Micah Nori, and James Borrego, currently an associate head coach for the Pelicans after serving as head coach with the Magic and Hornets.
The Knicks underwent a long process, similar to what the organization did when Thibodeau was hired after the team went through interviews with 13 candidates. This time it started with research into a much lengthier list of candidates to see which would fit the criteria the front office was seeking. Then it was four who were brought in with Brown back for a second interview Tuesday. The front office had a discussion with University of South Carolina woman’s coach Dawn Staley and reached out to five teams to speak to their currently employed head coaches — Jason Kidd in Dallas, The Rockets' Ime Udoka, the Bulls' Billy Donovan, the Hawks' Quin Snyder, and the Timberwolves' Chris Finch — and were rebuffed in every overture.
But getting a coach with experience commensurate to the expectations was always a priority and while firing Thibodeau can be questioned, just as hiring a coach who’s been fired three times already — twice in season and once after just one season — can be questioned, too, Brown has a solid reputation and the experience to appease the players already in place.
After Brown was let go in Sacramento this season, Kings guard Malik Monk told reporters, “Teams just got adjusted to us. They were surprised when we first came out with Mike, didn't know how we were playing, didn't know how we were going to play, and now just feel like they had time to adjust to us and get used to it. So, yeah, we just got to change things up.”
When Brown was fired, Magic coach Jamaal Mosley said, "He changed a bit of that culture in what he was doing. I say these things not only as a fellow coach. I say this as, he’s a close friend. He’s been a mentor of mine and I know how good he is and I know how he cares, how he’s helped pave the way for so many of us that are in the game right now. And so it stings, because of the man I know he is and what he represents and what he’s done for this game and for so many of us that are sitting in these seats right now.”
The job he inherits is managing a team that currently has the starting five back — a unit that was put in place in the offseason last year and spoke repeatedly about needing time to build together. With their top two bench players back and the additions in recent days of free agents Jordan Clarkson and Guerschoen Yabusele, Brown will have a deeper and more cohesive roster than Thibodeau ever had.
While summer league starts for the Knicks soon, Brown has time to build relationships and plot out where he can level up the team from last season — the best performance by the franchise since 2000.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
