Mike Brown: The New York Knicks’ right man at the right time

You’ll often hear this phrase tossed around in several sports: “If it’s not the talent, it’s the coaching.”

Easy enough to understand what it means, right? A team could have all the talent in the world. But without steady, competent coaching to steer the ship? That means nothing. Granted, luck or fate sometimes strikes, but it’s a tale as old as time. If an otherwise strong team struggles to win a championship, it’s often blamed on the coach and a fresh voice enters the room.

And, in the case of the 2026 NBA Champion New York Knicks—No, we’re still not used to saying that—that was indeed the case. This time last year, New York was licking its wounds after getting outrun, outgunned, out-everything’d by the Indiana Pacers. The culprit: coach Tom Thibodeau insisting on an eight-man rotation and only expanding with his team’s back against the walls.

That was enough for the Knicks to fire Thibs despite signing him to a three-year extension a year prior. Enter journeyman Mike Brown, who utilized his “pace-and-space” style along with expanding the rotation. An NBA Finals win later, and team president Leon Rose looks like a genius.

Now, to be fair, is the Knicks’ win entirely on Brown? No, of course not. Jalen Brunson and the “Nova Knicks” established a new winning culture with Thibs at the helm. Brown just saw the foundation and saw holes that needed filling. Cue guys like Jordan Clarkson and, later on, Jose Alvarado getting serious bench minutes when Thibodeau wouldn’t have given them a second look.

Except sometimes? That’s all a team needs. If it’s not the talent, it’s the coaching. And there are numerous examples of teams making a change up top and reaping the benefits almost immediately.

The best recent example in basketball is Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors. The Dubs had been awful for years before drafting Steph Curry and experiencing something of a rebirth under former broadcaster and All-Star point guard Mark Jackson. However, despite winning 23, 47, and 51 games in his three seasons, Jackson clashed with both players and staff and was fired. Kerr was hired despite no prior head coaching experience, opened up the offense to let Curry run, and proceeded to win 67 regular season games en route to his first of four championship rings coaching the Warriors.

Another good example of this in basketball is, believe it or not, Phil Jackson first joining the Lakers. Del Harris was in charge when the team both traded for Kobe Bryant’s draft rights and signed Shaquille O’Neal in free agency. However, despite Harris taking the Lakers to the West Semis in 1997 and West Finals in ’98, he was cashiered after a slow start in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season.

Enter the Zen Master after assistants finished the season, and the Shaq-Kobe Dynasty was born. It was almost a sequel case, too. Pat Riley, before becoming basketball’s Don of Miami, took over the Lakers from Paul Westhead six games into 1981-82.

By season’s end, America was celebrating with the Riley and the Showtime Lakers as they hoisted the Larry O’Brien.

And who can forget Larry Brown winning his sole NBA Finals one year after succeeding Rick Carlisle in Detroit? As much as we might goof on fans online shouting for a coaching change, they’re sometimes right.

This isn’t exclusive to basketball either. Look at the Yankees winning four World Series in five years under manager eventual Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre. What’s often left out is that Torre was not well-received by New York media. He’d accumulated a losing record of 894-1,003 in spurts with the Mets, Braves, and Cardinals. A young Buck Showalter’s rebuilding effort was handed to one the press infamously dubbed “Clueless Joe.”

Safe to say, New York media ate its words four times over.

And what about Terry Francona joining the Red Sox in 2004 and immediately breaking the World Series curse? And winning another one three years later, to boot!

This doesn’t really happen in football, too much luck of the draw among other factors like injuries.

It’s weirdly common in hockey. John Tortorella took over the Las Vegas Golden Knights with eight games left in the season and just lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the Carolina Hurricanes. Similarly, Craig Berube was the St. Louis Blues’ interim coach and in last place when the calendar turned to 2019, and then the team went on its Cup run. The Pittsburgh Penguins hadn’t won a Stanley Cup since 2009 before Mike Sullivan, now with the Rangers, showed up in 2015 and immediately won two in a row.

This does not make Mike Brown one of a kind, nor the first of a kind. For all we know, former Spurs assistant Sean Sweeney will do the same with Paolo Banchero and the Orlando Magic next season. Imagine all the forced Disney content ESPN and ABC will tee up for everyone’s commercial breaks, right?

But at the end of the day, does it matter? Mike Brown, once unceremoniously kicked out of Los Angeles for failing to produce instant results with the Dwight Howard Lakers, just snapped the Knicks’ 53-year championship drought. Not to beat an old cliché, but neither he nor Jalen Brunson ever has to pay for anything in New York again.

The two are practically untouchable. Immortal. Immeasurable, and that’s after beating 7-foot-4 Victor Wembenyama! Here’s the part where lifelong New Yorker Wallace Shawn pops up and shouts, “Inconceivable!”

Mike Brown wasn’t what most would call an elite hire. Remember, he wasn’t even the Knicks’ first choice. They sought (and were denied) permission from the Bulls to interview Billy Donovan. And from the Mavericks and Jason Kidd, among others.

And yet, just like Riley, Brown, Torre, and so many before him, Brown was the right man at the right time. Especially for these New York Knicks. Same as Tom Thibodeau was six years ago when the team properly ripped everything out by the root and started anew. Brown simply took the foundation Thibs laid and built on top of it.

All it took was expanding the rotation. Safe to say that a championship ring and his players shouting “MIKE!” a la the seagulls in Finding Nemo later, Brown will be remembered as more than just a retread.