Mike Brown Is Coaching Like the Knicks Won Nothing
"Everybody else in this gym, you're fighting. Either to make the team or for minutes."
Mike Brown took the starting five aside at practice today, looked at the rest of the roster, and said that. In the gym. In front of everybody.
I can't believe Sacramento got rid of this man.
He wasn't my first choice last year. I'll say it. I had my doubts when they brought him in after the title run felt like it needed a steady hand, not a new voice. He's already shut me up. One preseason game, one practice, and he's got the whole city behind him.
Because this is what a championship coach does. Five rings, and he coaches like he's chasing his first. He sat on Steve Kerr's bench for back-to-back titles in Golden State in 2017 and 2018, won another one there in 2022, and then won one as the head man in New York in June. He doesn't walk into a building that just hung a banner and act grateful. He walks in and demands more. The banners are being stitched four months later and he's in a preseason gym telling grown men their minutes aren't promised. That is the mentality running through the whole organization right now. They don't want a title. They want a repeat. Everyone in that building wants more. That's exactly why I think they run it back.
Now, Begley says Drew Eubanks is the safest play for the last roster spot. I don't buy it. The safe pick is the pick that gets you fired when the talent walks out the door. Wiseman is younger, bigger, and just gave them the best minutes of anyone fighting for that chair. You don't cut the guy with upside for the guy with a floor in a development spot. I think the front office knows it too.
Look at the list. Knicks head coaches who won a title in New York.
Red Holzman. Mike Brown.
That's the whole list. And Brown is coaching like he wants the second name on there twice.
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