Mike Brown will soon discover what price of success is at Madison Square Garden
Mike Brown and Stephen Curry of Golden State look on from the sideline against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 1, 2017, in Oakland, Calif. Credit: Getty Images
Congratulations Mike Brown. You are the grand prize winner.
You have just been hired for the toughest job in the NBA, if not one of the toughest jobs in all of sports. After an exhaustive search that included multiple failed attempts to interview big name coaches who were under contract with other teams, the Knicks have decided that you are the guy who can lead their talent-laden club to their first NBA championship since 1972-73.
Knicks president Leon Rose pretty much made clear that this was the expectation when the team fired Tom Thibodeau days after the Knicks completed their most successful season in a quarter century, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000. “Our organization is singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans,” Rose said in a statement.
Talk about pressure. The Knicks not only expect you to win big; they expect you to win big immediately. With Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton expected to be out for this entire season as they recover from Achilles surgeries, the Knicks should enter the 2025-26 season as the favorite to win the East.
Congratulations Mike Brown. As a 55-year-old veteran coach whose career has seen marked highs and lows, you might not be the sexiest pick, but you are the bravest. The Knicks could have had you on the first day of their search, but let their eyes wander all over the league as they tried to pry Jason Kidd and Ime Udoka away from their current employers. You stood your ground, you made your case and most of all you were the most qualified candidate who really wanted the job.
You have to be brave to want this challenge. Even under less extreme circumstances, the Knicks' coaching has been one of the least secure positions in an industry that is not exactly famous for its job security. In fact, you will be the 15th coach to run the team in the last 24 years. Those coaches included Hall of Fame coaches like Lenny Wilkens and Larry Brown. Hall of Fame player Isiah Thomas. And former Knicks like Mike Woodson and Herb Williams.
None of them faced the kind of pressure you are going to face with this organization and this fan base that is starving for more success after seeing their team beat the defending champion Boston Celtics before losing in six games to Indiana in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Thibodeau has never been as popular with fans as he has been since the Knicks fired him. As much as fans complained about his (non) use of his bench over the past five years, most respected the job he did this season in getting the Knicks to the NBA’s Final Four and didn’t like the way his tenure ended.
The Knicks are betting that you will be an upgrade from Thibodeau. That remains to be seen, but there are a number of things on your resume that make you a decent fit for this team.
First, you have worked in big markets and understand superstars. As a head coach and an assistant, you have worked with some of the best players of this generation, including Tim Duncan, Steph Curry, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant.
Second, some of your strengths are the deficiencies that are believed to have led to Thibodeau’s dismissal, including player development, expanding the rotation, giving distinct roles to assistants and collaborating with the front office.
Finally, you do have enough experience to be considered a respectable choice, not a gamble like some hot assistant coach of the moment. You have been to the NBA Finals — albeit 18 years ago with a young LeBron James in Cleveland — and you have a lifetime 454-304 record despite being fired from the Cavaliers (twice), Lakers and most recently the Sacramento Kings.
In other words — like Thibodeau when he was hired — you’ve been around the block enough to understand the magnitude of the task at hand.
Congratulations Mike Brown. You are the grand prize winner. You’ve been handed one of the toughest jobs in sports. But you’ve also been handed a pretty good team and the chance of a lifetime.
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.
