Barbara Barker: Knicks' Mike Brown's meltdown was exactly what team needed
Knicks head coach Mike Brown argues a call with an official during the first half against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. Credit: AP/Frank Franklin II
Jalen Brunson may have missed a shot at the end of Wednesday’s 103-100 loss to Oklahoma City, but he landed another one perfectly in the locker room about a half hour later.
At the end of his postgame locker room interview, a reporter noticed that Brunson had a dark mark under his right eye and asked what it was.
“A little black eye,” Brunson said with a half-smile. “Probably a no-call.”
Kaboom. Ouch. With that comment, Brunson drove home a point that Knicks fans continued to echo overnight and into Thursday morning.
Oklahoma City has long had a reputation as a team that gets away with being extremely physical on defense but has a star in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who constantly gets the benefit of the doubt. Given that the Thunder play in the Western Conference and this was their first contest of the year against the Knicks, this was not something that was not previously high on the Knicks’ fans radar.
It sure is now as everyone from comedian Ben Stiller to Entourage star Jerry Ferrara was posting on X about the so-called “no-call” Gilgeous-Alexander late in the first quarter.
No one loves a villain more than Knicks fans. From Bill Laimbeer to Reggie Miller to Trae Young, Madison Square Garden has a long history of zeroing in on players to hate. It appears Gilgeous-Alexander could be the next villain, which would make for one incredible storyline should these two teams meet in the NBA Finals.
This is abhorrent. https://t.co/c8IVhf9HBO
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) March 5, 2026
I would rather them call a foul on Brunson here then NO call. At least there could have a been a challenge. But weird no call and then call the same thing on OG later. Oh well. https://t.co/HS7VUKMCo7
— Jerry Ferrara (@jerryferrara) March 5, 2026
But we’re getting way ahead of ourselves here.
The question is, does Gilgeous-Alexander get preferential treatment? And the answer is, what did you expect? The fact that the reigning MVP on the defending NBA champs gets treated with kid gloves in a national television game in his only trip to Madison Square Garden really shouldn’t be all that newsworthy.
What was, however, is how both the Knicks and coach Mike Brown reacted to it, which is something that bodes well for the cohesion of this team as it heads into the finals 19 games of the regular season.
Let’s start with Brown. His reaction, both during and after the game, to the fact officials did not blow the whistle on the play at the end of the first quarter when Gilgeous-Alexander was driving to the basket and Brunson stepped in to take the charge, was savvy on multiple levels.
To review: The usually calm and cordial Brown exploded after watching Brunson get knocked to a heap on the ground while Gilgeous-Alexander finished an uncontested layup. Brown was so upset by the non-call that he ran out onto the court yelling at crew chief Brian Forte and, in a very rare upset, had to be held back by Rick Brunson, the Knicks emotive assistant who also is Jalen’s father.
Brown was assessed a technical for his outburst, which of course is exactly what he wanted. It was a situation where his players could have reacted poorly to the way the game was being called. Instead, he did it for them so they put their head down and played the kind of defense they needed to keep playing to keep themselves in the game.
Afterward, Brown doubled down with the message that the Knicks had been victimized by officials.
“SGA, he’s a tough cover,” Brown said of the MVP. “He does a great job of convincing the referees, probably better than anyone in the league, that he’s getting hit.”
Then, when specifically asked about the technical, Brown pulled no punches.
“You guys saw the play,” Brown said. “SGA had two fouls and Jalen was there, and he ran him over . . . I don’t understand why that was a no-call. But that should’ve been his third, the bucket shouldn’t have counted and we should’ve gone the other way with the basketball.”
Brunson was asked after the game if it felt good to see his coach go to bat for him.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m going to have his back every single night. He has ours, regardless of what he does or the tech he gets or whatever. I’m going to have his back.”
Brown didn’t have to win over Brunson. That likely happened before he was fired. He has, however, had to win over a portion of Knicks fans who have yet to see him coach their team in the playoffs, yet to see him go through the wars like former coach Tom Thibodeau did with the team.
He took a step toward that Wednesday, and his team took a step forward despite the loss.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
