The New York Knicks are working to rent Mike Brown as their subsequent head coach, in line with ESPN. Brown has been provided the job and the 2 sides are attempting to finalize the deal, per a number of stories. The choice marks the top of a prolonged course of that adopted New York’s shocking resolution to fireplace former Coach of the 12 months Tom Thibodeau following a six-game loss to the Indiana Pacers within the Jap Convention finals. 

The Knicks explored a lot of candidates, however in the end landed on Brown to steer them into the 2025-26 season. They fired Thibodeau in early June, days after their playoff exit in opposition to the Pacers. Thibodeau gained 56.5% of his regular-season video games as Knicks head coach, going 226-174 general over 5 seasons. The Knicks have been 51-31 within the 2024-25 season and earned the East’s No. 3 seed.

The Knicks have been reportedly curious about a number of present head coaches, together with Ime Udoka (Rockets), Jason Kidd (Mavericks), Billy Donovan (Bulls) and Quin Snyder (Hawks) however by no means appeared near prying any of them away from their groups. Taylor Jenkins, Pelicans assistant James Borrego and Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, together with Brown, reportedly interviewed for the job. The Knicks additionally reached out to South Carolina ladies’s coach Daybreak Staley, however she was reportedly not a finalist.

Brown has had a comparatively uncommon head teaching profession. Moderately than beginning out with a younger crew and rising slowly, he was thrown into the fireplace as the top coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers proper as LeBron James started to develop right into a celebrity. He took the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2007, however after a number of playoff disappointments within the aftermath, he was fired shifting into the 2010 offseason through which James left Cleveland. 

One 12 months later, he took on one of many few jobs in all of basketball that comes with extra stress: the Los Angeles Lakers. He changed Phil Jackson for the 2011-12 marketing campaign and tried to benefit from what remained of Kobe Bryant’s prime. They reached the second spherical of the postseason in his solely full season on the job, however he was fired following a 1-4 begin to the 2012-13 season. He proceeded to educate yet one more 12 months in Cleveland, however was once more fired proper earlier than James returned.

From there, he spent six seasons as an assistant underneath Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are, in some ways, a crew the Knicks are hoping to emulate. Two of Thibodeau’s largest weaknesses as a coach have been his comparatively stale offense and his hesitance to make use of his bench. The Warriors run a singular offense constructed round movement and passing, and their philosophy is “energy in numbers.”

Brown took the teachings he discovered in Golden State to the Sacramento, the place he led the Kings to their solely playoff look in 19 years. On the time, the Kings posted essentially the most environment friendly offense in NBA historical past to get there. They pushed the Warriors to seven video games within the first spherical, and have been it not for a hand harm suffered by De’Aaron Fox and a 50-point Recreation 7 explosion by Stephen Curry, the Kings might have gained that collection.

Nonetheless, normalcy has eluded the Kings for 20 years, and positive sufficient, their dysfunction caught up with Brown within the years that adopted. Sacramento’s 2023-24 season, on paper, was pretty much like the previous 2022-23 marketing campaign. They gained 46 video games in comparison with the 48 they’d gained a 12 months prior, however a decent Western Convention dropped them from a No. 3 seed to a No. 9 seed. They missed the playoffs from there, and following a 13-18 begin to final season that included a number of disappointing late-game losses, the Kings fired him and promoted Doug Christie to move coach.

Although Brown has by no means gained a championship as a head coach, he’s a two-time Coach of the 12 months (2009 and 2023) who isn’t any stranger to the scrutiny that can come along with his new job. Expectations are going to be monumental for New York subsequent season. With the Pacers and Celtics seemingly out of the Jap Convention operating following the Achilles tears suffered by their greatest gamers, the Knicks see a clearer path to the NBA Finals than they’ve ever had earlier than. They in the end determined Thibodeau was not the person to steer them on that path, so now, New York is betting its title hopes on Brown.