The month-long process is coming to an end, as the New York Knicks are set to hire Mike Brown as their next head coach, as ESPN’s Shams Charania first reported on Wednesday.
The 55-year-old had emerged as the favorite in recent days after being brought in for a second interview, beating out the likes of Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori and former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins.
Brown has nine full seasons of NBA head-coaching experience with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Sacramento Kings. He is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, winning with Cleveland in 2009 and Sacramento in 2023.
He has been on NBA benches, however, for 27 years.
This is his second attempt at landing the Knicks job. He was a finalist in 2020, but lost out to Tom Thibodeau, who held the position until last month when he was fired just days after New York was eliminated in six games from its first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 25 years.
Despite leading the franchise to its most successful spell in decades, Thibodeau was unwilling to expand his rotations, often putting too large a workload on his starters. Team president Leon Rose has already begun to address the Knicks’ depth issue this summer, most notably bringing on veteran guard Jordan Clarkson to provide a secondary scoring option behind Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges.
Brown now enters a franchise that clearly has championship aspirations with some notable star power in the form of Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. That is nothing new for him, though, as he was the head coach of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. He was also an assistant on Steve Kerr’s Golden State Warriors staff, which was led by Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant.
Known for his defensive acumen, Brown will look to restore what had been the Knicks’ identity in previous years, but waned in 2024-25 when Mitchell Robinson missed the majority of the season while recovering from ankle surgery. Karl-Anthony Towns simply could not provide strong enough play on that end of the floor, and it was something that ultimately derailed the Knicks in the playoffs, especially when Thibodeau was stubborn to change his starting five.
He certainly has the pieces to build one of the better defenses in the league. Robinson is one of the most imposing presences under the basket in the league when healthy, and should be the team’s starting center next season. Bridges and forward OG Anunoby are also significant plus defenders, though it made the opposition’s philosophy of attacking Brunson and Towns an obvious one that could not be stopped.
An offensive-minded top assistant should be a necessity, and New Orleans Pelicans assistant James Borrego has been linked to New York, which would create an intriguing duo running things in Madison Square Garden.
