Our Long National Nightmare Is Over: The Knicks Are Reportedly Hiring Mike Brown As Their Next Head Coach

7/02/2025 5:45 PM

First of all, thank you Shams for including that Mike Brown is a TWO-TIME, TWO-TIME, TWO-TIME NBA Coach of the Year so that a few of the people who blindly hate the hire wouldn't chirp the Knicks even though the Coach of the Year Award doesn't always go to the best actual coach in the league or that the Knicks just fired a guy who won Coach of the Year for them four years ago.

I know a good chunk of Knicks fans are going to be underwhelmed by this hiring considering their team was apparently trying to interview every decent NBA coach under contract and Mike Brown has always just been "meh" in most peoples' eyes at best. The way things have shaken out in the East since Tom Thibodeau got fired has the same people who couldn't stand him wishing he got a chance to coach the Knicks in a wide open conference now that the Knicks actually have a bench worth a damn. But what's done is done and you can make a case that the fatal flaws in Thibs' coaching style would've stopped the Knicks from reaching their potential as an NBA Champion. Also for all the love Thibs got for bringing the Knicks back to respectability, I think we have to acknowledge that Mike Brown took the Knicks West coast sister franchise in despair (the Sacramento Kings) to back-to-back 46+ win seasons as they lit the beam on everyone's ass, which were BY FAR the best seasons the Kings have had since those early 2000s glory days under Rick Adelman.

I'm also not going to sit here and act like Mike Brown was my first, second, or fifth choice for the job, while acknowledging that could be the same case for Leon Rose. But Mike Brown is the coach hat Leon ultimately chose to hire to take the Knicks to the promised land for the first time since 1973 and everything Leon has done since taking over the Knicks has me believing in the hire (outside of that weird Kemba/Fournier offseason).

It's easy to say #InLeonWeTrust, but it's another thing to do it once the big moves are actually made, especially when they are unpopular like signing Jalen Brunson to a $100+ million contract, trading away Immanuel Quickley, or moving on from the dominant January 2024 Knicks in a deal sending Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the Timberwolves for KAT the night before training camp begins. As is the case with most things the Knicks do under Leon, I am interested to see the moves that come after the big move, namely the assistants brought in to help Mike Brown coach up the incredible talent on this team to become a Top 3 offense as well as a respectable defense. Well, most of the assistants since we know there is one coach that will definitely be on Brown's staff.

If there are any Knicks fans that need to be convinced this is the right hire, I won't send you any fancy stats or nice words said about Mike Brown. Instead I will leave you with this picture of the man running the Knicks who has turned the franchise from a laughingstock to a title contender in five years and is the man who HIRED the great Tom Thibodeau, who seemed to be getting all the credit for the Knicks turnaround in the media only after he was fired.

P.S. Obligatory #hmmmmm tweet that is only going to pick up steam the longer these Rich Paul quotes get picked apart word for word:

P.P.S. Yes I chose this thumbnail of Mike Brown on purpose because my baseball savior Uncle Stevie is in the background and I feel like the Knicks need all the good juju they can get during this pivotal offseason.