Steve Popper: Mike Brown, ignoring the pressure, has met the moment in first season coaching Knicks
Knicks head coach Mike Brown speaks during a press conference before Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday in Cleveland. Credit: AP/Tim Phillis
At Madison Square Garden there is a zero-sum world for coaches. There is one coach who has a number honoring him hanging in the rafters, the 613 banner for Red Holzman, who led the franchise to its only two NBA championships and those hundreds of victories.
Anything less, you leave and the history is pushed aside, no matter how great the coach was, how impressive the accomplishments. Pat Riley left with a fax informing the team he was out. Jeff Van Gundy went for a long walk after a practice session and returned to announce he was done. Tom Thibodeau was fired just days after finishing last season two wins shy of the NBA Finals. Don Nelson and Larry Brown are in the NBA Hall of Fame and departed in the midst of chaos.
Mike Brown knew what he was stepping into and he knew how these goodbyes work, having been fired four times despite earning a pair of NBA Coach of the Year honors in his prior stops. But maybe nothing was like the pressure he was stepping into when he accepted the Knicks job last summer. Thibodeau brought the Knicks deeper into the postseason than they’d been in a quarter-century, ending decades of dysfunction, and he was fired, the successor tasked with making the NBA Finals and anything short would be a failure.
Now, after a season that might feel like a lifetime, Brown sat on a stage Monday night having beaten that barrier, guiding the Knicks to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1999, and reflected on his coaching journey.
“I never really thought about it like that,” Brown said. “I mean, you know, again, our business is funny. My previous job [with Sacramento], supposedly took them to a point that was higher and, you know, it didn't work out. So, you know, again, I truly felt that this team was an NBA Finals team. I thought we had a true opportunity. Because some jobs you take, you're like, ‘OK, we can get better. We have a chance to make the playoffs right now.’ But this one, I felt we legitimately had a chance if we could help them figure it out, and the players could stay together during the process, especially when we hit adversity. Because we hit adversity at different times during the season, not just us as a whole group, but even some guys individually, including myself.
“So, you know, I did have that belief from Day One. I didn't know how it was going to turn out, but we're here.”
Every coach knows the Xs and Os of the game and even if fans may criticize them, they all have embraced analytics. But to take the job in New York, it takes something more than just the offensive schemes or defensive strategies. While Brown may have sold himself to team president Leon Rose and Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan with his thoughts on collaboration and analytics, what really is needed to survive was a demeanor that could endure the pressure.
And that was something Brown had, a lifetime in the game teaching him the fickle whims of the decision-makers and what life is like for coaches, often the first to absorb the blame for any struggles. He was let go in Sacramento just 31 games into the 2024-25 season after winning the Coach of the Year award two seasons earlier and compiling a 94-70 record in two seasons. He didn’t retreat into film to study what-ifs or task his agent with injecting him into job hunts.
“When I got fired, I really didn't think much about anything,” he said. “My wife and I, Ro and I, shoot, we went to Sydney, Australia, to see UFC 313. We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We went to St. Barts — fantastic island, man, I can't wait to go back.
“We actually came to New York City, too, and ran around New York for like four days. We went to this one club and we met these young dudes that work on Wall Street, and I was there with them till like five in the morning. They sent me some pictures and stuff. I'm surprised that they haven't sent them to you guys yet.
“But, you know, I just wanted to have fun, and if an opportunity came up, great,” he added. “If it didn't, you know, shoot, I felt lucky, blessed, fortunate. I had a good run, you know? And I felt that at some point, I'd get another opportunity, whether it was a head coach or an assistant coaching position. So I just kind of rolled with it. Didn't think much about it. And, you know, obviously, this opportunity came up. You know, from afar, I just felt that this team was ready. And I'm just thrilled to death that Mr. Dolan gave me an opportunity, and Leon Rose gave me an opportunity, to be a head coach again, especially here in New York.”
That attitude has carried him through the awkward moments of the season, the adjustments he tried to make and the ones he made when he found fits that didn’t quite work with the group. There were simmering moments with star players as they tried to find their roles, but in the end, the blend has worked.
“It's kind of a weird deal because I think everybody that becomes a head coach, and I'm not belittling other positions in the world, but you have to have some sort of fight in you,” he said. “I remember when I took this job, everybody was like, ‘oh my God, the pressure, oh my God, the pressure.' I've said it before. It doesn't matter where you are. There's pressure when you're sitting in the seat. And it's warranted because of what we get paid, you know, so you have to have a thick skin to a certain degree in order to sit in this seat . . .
“You find stuff that you can hold onto to to help lift you up through some tough times and when you do, you understand that at the end of the day, yes, we get paid a lot of money and yes, this is a big business, and you respect everybody has to have an opinion, because we're in the public eye, and you respect that there's gonna be change and you just embrace it and understand that this is just a game at the end of the day, so I try to keep all that in mind to help me with my perspective as I've been going along with my journey,”
It’s a journey that is still going, having hopped past the bar set in place when he arrived, and a journey that could determine how the Garden history will remember him.
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.
