Knicks' Mike Brown lands sunny side up after being fired by Kings
Knicks head coach Mike Brown shouts instructions to his players during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Suns on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Phoenix. Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin
SACRAMENTO — It’s been little more than a year since Mike Brown last was here at the Golden 1 Center. He walked out a day after losing a fifth straight game with the news that, just months after winning NBA Coach of the Year honors, he was fired.
But you wouldn’t know if he carried any animosity now, if the hurt still remained, if he’d circled Wednesday night’s return as he brought the Knicks into the arena for a practice day. When the Knicks finished off their win Sunday in Portland the team flew directly here and committed to three days in Sacramento. Outside the Golden 1 Arena, it’s hardly a destination for teams. There are shuttered businesses all around, and inside the arena, the Kings are struggling, too, mired in last place in the Pacific Division.
But if you listen to Brown, it is nothing but sunshine here.
“I still know my way around,” he said, standing in a corridor just off the court. “ ... Great memories here. Fantastic city. I enjoyed working with the people I worked with, too.”
If you’ve listened to Brown at all since he signed on as the Knicks coach you might be surprised if you heard anything else. Through his first 39 games in New York he’s rarely been anything but ebullient as he and the team have navigated their way through a new system that has taken the place of the very successful tenure of Tom Thibodeau.
So he showed no hint of animosity or uttered an “I told you so” as he landed on his feet while the Kings have gone into free fall since his departure. Sacramento's roster has been stripped and the rabid crowd lighting the beam is rarely given a reason to celebrate.
“Those situations are just part of life,” Brown said. “Sometimes things happen.
"You may think one thing and they may think another thing, but the best thing you can do in life is keep moving forward and that’s what myself and my family have done. We really love New York. We’ve embraced the change.”
He detailed his favorite restaurants in town, the experience his family had here, but also praised his new home. It’s just who he is, which is what made his departure maybe more surprising than some coaching changes. Brown had taken a long struggling franchise which had missed the postseason for 16 straight seasons and won 48 games in his first season and made the playoffs. He followed it with a 46-win season, but was 13-18 last season when he was fired.
Stories immediately surfaced trying to pin reasons for the firing and players, in the tightly-knit NBA community, talk. So when the Knicks decided to hire him, they’d already heard stories and what they heard was what they see.
“I was happy with it,” Jalen Brunson said of the hiring in New York. “I heard about him. I didn’t really have a relationship with him but he always says some nice words about me to the press. So when I got to get know him and everything, it just validated what I thought. Great guy, on and off the court. Just a blessing to be around."
“Honestly, I don’t know the ins and outs of how that transpired and all those kind of things,” Josh Hart said. “The stuff that was always reported wasn’t the most respectful stuff. I think he’s someone who’s a great human being, first and foremost, garners respect from all of his peers and everyone that looks up to him. …
“I think he’s always been seen in that regard, as a good human being. I’m sure he could talk a little bit more about the way that it happened . . .
"But I always knew from people that talked about him always talked about how great of a person he is, how good of a coach he is, how open he is to communication.”
Brown has moved on. When the firing came he didn’t spend too much time thinking why or what would come next. He went on vacation, heading with his wife to Australia, to Brooklyn, to Puerto Vallarta and St. Barts, noting, “You can really beat yourself up if you try to guess what should have happened, why it happened, all that stuff.
"Life is short. I try to embrace it. Try to be in the moment like I said and enjoy what I can enjoy, control what I can control, and if I can’t control it, find something else to do.”
The Knicks arrive with a 25-14 record and championship aspirations. The Kings are 10-30 and on their 13th coach in 20 years. So Brown seems to be doing just fine.
“Hopefully I think the crowd will be good, but you never know,” Brown said. “I enjoyed my time here. I enjoyed the fans here, and hopefully they appreciate what we accomplished while I was here.
“The reality of it is coming back here in a place we enjoyed. It’s a little emotional. But at the end of the day, the fans, if they cheer me or hug me when they see me during the game, after the game, trust me, they want to kick my [expletive], and the Knicks' [expletive]. And we want to do the same.”
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.
