Steve Popper: Mike Brown tries to light fire under Knicks in preparation for upcoming season
Knicks' Mikal Bridges dribbles the ball against the 76ers' VJ Edgecombe during a preseason game on Oct. 5, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pa. Credit: Getty Images/Mitchell Leff
GREENBURGH — It’s just a week into training camp, the afterglow of the summer of the Knicks just beginning to fade as the celebrations, the parade and all of the attention have come to an end. But it was enough for Mike Brown to drop a dose of reality on his team Wednesday morning.
The Knicks were wiped out Monday in the preseason opener by a Philadelphia squad that sat most of their stars and that irked him. And when he saw the fire wasn’t back in practice, he stopped to deliver a message.
The starters and stars for the Knicks were fine Monday. Jalen Brunson looked like, well, Jalen Brunson. Karl-Anthony Towns pushed aside the contract headache and was the same sort of facilitator he was in the postseason. OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges seemed to take steps forward in their new-found stardom and Josh Hart did the sort of little bit of everything that has stabilized the team.
But for a team with one open roster spot, with a rotation still not shaped yet, Brown did not like what he saw from the defending champions.
“I brought it up today, when we weren’t competing,” Brown said. “I’m like, you know what? And I specifically went down the line talking about Jalen, Mikal, OG, KAT and Josh. I said those five: they are going to play. If they do something wrong, I’m going to get on them and we’re going to figure it out, but they still are going to play. I said, everybody else in this gym: you [are] fighting.
“You’re fighting either to make the team or you’re fighting for minutes. I said, look around. This is not just because we won last year. This has nothing to do with last year’s team. Those five guys are the same. But this is a new year, a new team. We got to look forward. And so, every day, it’s a competition. . . . . We should be pushing each other to get better while competing for minutes and/or to make the team. So, you’re 100% accurate. It’s going to be hard.”
The leadership in the locker room has made a point since the start of camp that just as they preached that they approached each game with a 0-0 mentality, that is how this season has to go, too. But it’s natural to see some relaxation, an exhale, from a team that snapped a 53-year championship drought for the franchise.
That might be as much of a challenge that this team faces, just as much as the challenge that will come from rebuilt teams like the 76ers and the rest of the Eastern Conference that seemed to try to remake their rosters to catch up to the Knicks.
“I think that’s what makes coach a great coach, just holding us accountable,” Bridges said. “It can be human nature to relax a little bit. As a player, as a coach, as a fan, you can relax after having a lot of success. It’s difficult to do something great and continue to try and get better.
“And that’s our goal. We did something great last year, it was last year and I think the biggest thing coming into this year is that we know what it takes.
"It’s just great that coach did that, holding us accountable because we want to be the best team we can be. And the best team we can be, we can’t be the same exact team that we were last year. It’s a different team, we gotta be even better. Those lapses where we might get a little human nature in us, where we play a game and have a little day in between and we’re kind of, maybe sometimes going through the motions, it was great for coach to do that to us because the thing about us, we're all competitors and we all want to win. So as soon as coach says something like that, none of us are going to back down and be like ‘whatever.’ We’re going to pick it up and keep fighting and get better.”
Bridges pointed out that everyone on this team — the starting five in particular — have come here with something to prove. Brunson was a second-round pick who has been doubted. Towns has been scrutinized since the Minnesota Timberwolves made him the No. 1 overall pick. Bridges had to live with questions about the price the Knicks paid to get him here. Anunoby has never been an All-Star. Hart floated from team to team until he found his place in New York and even last season had to earn his starting spot and minutes.
But Bridges and Brunson repeated as champions in college and Brown was a part of a staff in Golden State that repeated, so they know what it takes.
“There was no slippage,” Brown said of the Golden State group led by Steph Curry and Draymond Green. “And when I say no slippage, there was no slippage in our process from Year One to Year Two. Guys embraced the details. They embraced the little things. They knew we couldn’t just show up and turn the light switch on and think just because we won last year, we’re going to win this year.
“That group was very, very good, and it started with the core players. The core players didn’t allow it to happen, which made it easy for our staff to say what we needed to say when we did start having slippage, because everybody is human, so it’s going to happen.
"We have to embrace all the work and the details that go into it along with the effort every single day.”
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.
