Knicks Hire Mike Brown as Head Coach

The New York Knicks will look to see what Brown can do for them.

Per Shams Charania, the Knicks will name Mike Brown the 32nd full-time head coach in franchise history, succeeding the fired Tom Thibodeau. It’s the third head coaching stop for the 55-year-old Brown, who previously served at the helm of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Sacramento Kings.

Like Thibodeau before him, Brown has multiple NBA Coach of the Year titles to his name. Brown most recently stood as the head coach of the Kings for two-plus seasons, the first of which produced his latter COTY award. In that 2022-23 campaign, Brown oversaw the end of the Kings’ 17-year playoff drought, the longest in NBA history. His first such award came when he guided the Cavaliers to a franchise-best 66 wins in 2008-09.

While Brown has fallen short of a championship despite some talented rosters — overseeing the heyday of LeBron James’ first Cleveland term and the 2011-12 Laker group that featured an All-Star starting five headlined by Kobe Bryant and newcomers Dwight Howard and Steve Nash — he earned rave reviews for his work as the associate head of the Golden State Warriors under Steve Kerr. 

That six-year tenure (2016-22) saw Brown partake in three championship triumphs, giving him four for his career after he served as an assistant on the San Antonio Spurs' staff in 2003. Of note, Brown was at the helm for most of the Warriors' 2017 title run, posting a 12-0 record while Kerr was out due to a back injury.       

“He sees the game like a chess board," Kerr said of Brown in 2022, per CJ Holmes of the San Francisco Chronicle. "He’s constantly sort of messing around with schemes and looking at how things might play out. He’s somebody I think is among the best in the league at trying to figure out what’s happening and figuring out the best game plan to beat a team.”

Elsewhere on his resume, Brown has also been an NBA assistant in Washington and Indiana. He also served at the helm of the Nigerian men's national basketball team, overseeing the 2021 Olympic run in Tokyo that featured current Knick Precious Achiuwa.