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The Athletic has live coverage of Spurs vs. Knicks<\/a> in Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Finals.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n To understand how Mike Brown ended up in New York coaching the Knicks, you must first understand the fragility of his profession.<\/p>\n Head coaches are often the first to blame and the last to receive praise. They\u2019re the easiest scapegoat. It\u2019s easier to cut a check and sell a new head coach to the fanbase than it is to acquire a new star player. Coaches, more often than not, at some point, have to do better than good enough.<\/p>\n Both Brown and the Knicks have experience with this. That\u2019s how they became intertwined. Brown was fired in Sacramento in 2024 because, ultimately, he did too good<\/em> a job and raised the bar. In his first season, 48 wins. The next was 46. It was the first time the Kings had won 40 games in back-to-back seasons since 2004-06. Midway through Brown\u2019s third season, though, he was fired after the Kings got off to a slow start.<\/p>\n A franchise that had been a laughingstock for two decades thought to explore greener pastures. Sacramento hasn\u2019t had a winning record since.<\/p>\n New York made a similar bet last summer, believing a new coach was the only change needed to propel the franchise even further. Under Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks, too, went from the butt of jokes to respectability. The peak was last year\u2019s trip to the Eastern Conference finals, the organization\u2019s first in 25 years. Decision-makers pulled the plug on Thibodeau shortly after his team fell in six games to the Indiana Pacers. Per league sources, the Knicks wanted a collaborator, someone willing to experiment and bring a different voice.<\/p>\n This is where the marriage between Brown and New York begins. And at this rate, who knows when it\u2019ll end.<\/p>\n Brown, in one season, has the Knicks in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, facing the San Antonio Spurs, the organization that gave Brown an opportunity as an assistant coach in the early 2000s. New York is two wins away. Getting to this point felt like a mandate when Brown took the job. That was the vibe coming out of New York during its extensive coaching search. Brown could have been out of a job just as quickly if New York had fallen short in the postseason. Instead, the Knicks have put together, arguably, the most dominant postseason run the NBA has seen en route to the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n Not bad for a guy who had come to grips with the possibility of not being a head coach again.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, I have to thank (Kings owner) Vivek Ranadiv\u00e9 for giving me an opportunity. Obviously, it didn\u2019t work out,\u201d said Brown, who hadn\u2019t been a head coach since 2014 before being hired by Sacramento in 2022. \u201cWhen I got fired, I really didn\u2019t think much of anything. My wife and I, we went to Sydney, Australia, to see UFC 313. We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We went to St. Barts \u2026 I just wanted to have fun.<\/p>\n \u201cIf an opportunity came up, great. If it didn\u2019t, I felt lucky, blessed and fortunate. I had a good run. I hoped at some point I\u2019d get another opportunity as a head coach or assistant coach. I just rolled with it and didn\u2019t think much about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Last summer, when the Knicks called Brown, they also called several teams to inquire about the availability of their head coaches. It\u2019s not uncommon, but it was rare given the volume of teams the Knicks reached out to. New York knocked on the door of Chicago (Billy Donovan), Houston (Ime Udoka), Dallas (Jason Kidd) and several others. All kindly declined New York\u2019s request, and the franchise found itself staring at Brown as the lead candidate. (Oddly enough, two of those three coaches \u2014 Donovan and Kidd \u2014 are no longer with those teams at the end of this season.)<\/p>\n Only the Knicks\u2019 front office knows if Brown was high on the list when the search began. They did know that he came well-recommended as a collaborator and communicator from his time as an assistant with Steve Kerr and the Warriors. They also knew that Brown had experience coaching stars, as he was once the head coach of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and was part of the staff when Steph Curry and Golden State were a dynasty. That appealed to New York.<\/p>\n Brown didn\u2019t care if he was the first choice. From afar, he saw a team with a chance to win a championship, a veteran team led by Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns that just made it to the Eastern Conference finals. He wanted the pressure.<\/p>\n \u201cI respect (team president) Leon\u2019s (Rose) process,\u201d Brown said back in July. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m a detailed guy, thorough with everything I try to do. It\u2019s no different here. I was just myself throughout the process. I had great conversations with (James) Dolan and, obviously, Leon and his group. My whole thing is that I want to form a partnership with (Leon). I want to do this together. It\u2019s impossible to do it on your own.<\/p>\n \u201cThe outcome, obviously, is exciting for me because I\u2019m sitting in the seat that I wanted to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n It took about five games for Brown to feel like he was the head coach and not the new kid on the block. The Knicks, with sky-high expectations, started the season with a 2-3 record. The movement offense Brown was trying to implement wasn\u2019t working for his players. The defense that wanted to push everything middle wasn\u2019t, either. He had made the decision that Josh Hart would come off the bench, after the veteran forward had been ol\u2019 reliable last season with the starters.<\/p>\n Brown had to look in the mirror. He had to massage personalities. It was during a rough patch that everything started to feel second nature again.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone was real welcoming, and we all agreed to be open and honest,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe started 2-3 and had real conversations at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of what got Brown through that initial dip was his coaching staff, which featured several voices who were with the team last year under Thibodeau. Brown would lean on them heavily, using them to get the pulse of the players and tweaks that could be made. They would often vote on decisions as a group. Brown would have the final say, but if it was obvious to him that the majority of his staff believed a change or two needed to be made, Brown would listen. In talking to people around the league, one of Brown\u2019s best qualities is that he doesn\u2019t want to be the smartest guy in the room. That\u2019s part of the collaborative process that attracted the Knicks to him. It was no longer a dictatorship.<\/p>\n In figuring out his squad, Brown scrapped a lot of things. He started running an offense similar to what New York ran a season ago. He switched the defense to a more traditional \u201cICE\u201d coverage, which means funneling ballhandlers to the sideline and baseline. The Knicks did that under Thibodeau, too. Brown listened to his players. He listened to his staff.<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s collaboration doesn\u2019t stop there, though. If you watch New York closely, you\u2019ve probably seen that there are several instances throughout a game where one of Brown\u2019s assistant coaches is drawing up a play in the huddle. Thibodeau rarely consulted with his assistants during timeouts. Brown came in with the idea to give everyone a voice. It was up to him to listen or not, and he more often than not tended to receive and apply the input of others.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not too high, not too low,\u201d Hart said of Brown. \u201cHe allows himself to be coachable in the sense of listening to other coaches and players. He has our input instilled into what we do. He\u2019s been the same all year long. That\u2019s what you want as a coach; you don\u2019t want him to get too high or too low. He has a real comfort in his role.\u201d<\/p>\n One mentality that Brunson carries with him at all times is \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to fail.\u201d He sees that mentality in Brown, too.<\/p>\n Brown experimented with lineups all season long, just like he did with offensive and defensive principles. Brown gave a second-round rookie in Mo Diawara a rotation spot for a large chunk of the season, and he improved noticeably as his reps increased. Brown also leaned on second-year point guard Tyler Kolek at times. The point guard played a big role in the Knicks winning the NBA Cup in December. Brown also started the season with veteran Jordan Clarkson in the rotation, only to take him out around the trade deadline when he started to stack poor performances. Then, one March night in Utah, when the Knicks were getting beaten by the lowly Jazz, Brown pulled Clarkson off the bench and tossed him back into the fire, basically telling him, \u201cGo fix this!\u201d It was a move that one of Brown\u2019s assistant coaches, Maurice Cheeks, urged the head coach to consider. Brown obliged. New York trailed by as many as 18 points in that game. Clarkson scored 27 points in 26 minutes. The Knicks won by 17.<\/p>\n Landry Shamet was largely out of the rotation during the first round of the playoffs, as a knee injury had hampered his play. Brown dusted him off in the next round against Philadelphia and, like Clarkson, Shamet hasn\u2019t left the rotation. \u00a0The Knicks won the NBA Cup in part because a lineup featuring Brunson, Kolek and Clarkson played well together. That lineup had barely played together before that night, and it wasn\u2019t very good when it did.<\/p>\n For much of the season, the Knicks had scrapped Brown\u2019s initial plans for the offense. That was until New York found itself down 2-1 in the first round to the Atlanta Hawks. Brown reverted back to his roots, but this time got the guys to embrace the movement offense that he wanted to initially implement. It featured Towns in the pinch post as a passer, several players setting off-ball screens and others cutting. It took the burden off Brunson to try to beat his man off the dribble every other possession.<\/p>\n New York would go on to win Game 4 and tie the series behind a 16-point victory. Since then, the Knicks have won 12 straight playoff games and have won 10 of their games by double digits, multiple by 30-plus points.<\/p>\n Brown has created an environment founded in flexibility. Players stay ready because there are several examples of teammates getting another shot after sitting on the bench. The offense can play several styles depending on the opponent. The defense is as tied together as it has been in many seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cIt shows the confidence and trust Mike has in us to figure things out,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cHe\u2019s not afraid to fail either. Having the mindset of not being afraid to fail is good for us because it allows us to continue to fight and not worry about the result. We might go out there, play good defense and then they hit a tough shot. We may play a great game all game and then lose at final buzzer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not afraid of failure, and I think it\u2019s a big-time thing about us.\u201d<\/p>\n The 56-year-old Brown has done everything that he said he would do when he got the job. He\u2019s made his bosses look like geniuses in the process. The firing of Thibodeau, combined with those expectations, felt like a situation waiting to backfire. Instead, the Knicks are in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n Many coaches have tried and most have failed. Not Brown, and it\u2019s because he\u2019s been willing to have everyone involved have a say in how this story will end.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n