Mike Brown on coaching the Knicks: ‘Nobody has bigger expectations than I do’

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Mike Brown walked in confident and eager. His trademark thick glasses rested on the brim of his nose. A navy blue suit, orange pocket square and Knicks pin were part of his wardrobe. A smile as long as the ride from Madison Square Garden to Tarrytown, N.Y., where the Knicks practice, was plastered across his face. This was the look of a man in the moment, embracing each second.

A new journey was just beginning.

Brown has had several of those throughout his 25-plus years in the NBA. He coached Kobe Bryant. He coached LeBron James. He’s been to the NBA Finals. He was sitting in the passenger’s seat in Golden State, along for the greatest ride the NBA has seen in some time. He made a disastrous franchise respectable, only to be fired less than three years in. Brown has been fired several times, twice after a single season. He’s seen it all.

Well, not yet.

As Brown sits, he’s the new head coach of the New York Knicks, a starved franchise with as much support as any in sports. Comparing this job to others he’s held wouldn’t be fair. Winning a title with the Knicks would be an achievement that can’t be measured until it happens. New York was on the doorstep of its first NBA championship in more than 50 years and fired the man who helped build them up to that point. New York, a franchise with little to celebrate over the last two decades, decided that getting close under Tom Thibodeau wasn’t good enough.

Now, Brown becomes just the second head coach this decade to sit behind this exact microphone, and he becomes the first Knicks head coach in at least 20 years to face this kind of pressure.

Welcome to New York.

“Nobody has bigger expectations, first of all, than I do,” Brown said. “My expectations are high. This is the Knicks. I talked about Madison Square Garden being iconic. I talked about our fans. I love and embrace the expectations that come along with it. I’m looking forward to it.”

Brown’s name was circled at the start of the Knicks’ coaching search. His experience as both a head coach and assistant intrigued New York’s decision-makers. His work with some of the NBA’s biggest stars was appealing. When the two sides finally sat down, Brown’s willingness to collaborate with his assistants and the front office was a selling point that stuck with the people in charge, per league sources.

New York’s winding search for a head coach lasted several weeks. It featured the organization reaching out to currently employed head coaches and being denied by all of their teams. It featured interviewing current assistant coaches, as well as holding conversations with college coaches, such as South Carolina’s Dawn Staley. Ultimately, Brown was the only candidate to get a second interview for the head coaching vacancy, per league sources.

The Knicks want to win a championship as soon as possible, and they have the talent to do that. Now, they believe they have the right coach, even if the process to get there included knocking on other doors along the way.

“I respect Leon’s (Rose) process,” Brown said. “I feel like I’m a detailed guy, thorough with everything I try to do. It’s no different here. I was just myself throughout the process. I had great conversations with (James) Dolan and, obviously, Leon and his group. My whole thing is that I want to form a partnership with (Leon). I want to do this together. It’s impossible to do it on your own.

“The outcome, obviously, is exciting for me because I’m sitting in the seat that I wanted to be in.”

It’s not every day that a newly hired head coach walks into a locker room with the talent level of the Knicks. Jalen Brunson is Batman and Karl-Anthony Towns is an overqualified Robin. OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges are as good a wing trio as you’ll find without a single All-Star appearance. Miles McBride is a scorer and point-of-attack defender off the bench and Mitchell Robinson just wrapped up a postseason where he was as dominant as anyone on the roster. Over the last week, New York added more firepower to its second unit by bringing in Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele. The Knicks can still add one more veteran-minimum player to the roster this offseason.

The foundation is there, and it’s on Brown to best maximize the talent. New York finished the regular season with the fifth-best offense in the NBA, but that number was a bit deceiving. The Knicks had just the 16th-ranked offense from Jan. 1 to the end of the regular season (Brunson did miss a month in March due to injury).  The Brunson-Towns pick-and-roll never truly terrorized defenses like it was supposed to. The offense as a whole struggled against premier defenses when healthy, even in the playoffs. This New York team was designed to be one of the best offenses in basketball. It never consistently hit that point last season. For the Knicks to secure an elusive championship, they’ll need this offense to be humming.

And that’s where Brown comes back into play. While widely known for his defensive acumen, Brown coached one of the most efficient offenses in modern NBA history in his first season in Sacramento and has had a top-10 offense six times as a head coach.

“I thought what this group did this past year in the playoffs, it just shows their potential, not just defensively but offensively, too,” Brown said. “I’m looking forward to putting a plan in place and working with those guys on both ends of the floor. I love their length and I love their versatility. So, implementing my vision is very exciting for me and, hopefully, it is for everyone else. I think the ceiling is high on both ends for the group.”

There’s a lot beyond talent that goes into winning an NBA championship. Just ask the Thunder and Pacers. Injuries, luck and timing all play into the equation. Brown might have been brought here to win a championship, but only so much is in one man’s control. The Knicks made it clear that what the old head coach could dictate, despite being the most successful head coach the franchise has had in 20-plus years, didn’t get the job done and wouldn’t have going forward. New York’s braintrust believes that either Brown’s voice or the change in imagination — they’re hoping for both — will raise the franchise to where those in charge believe it should be.

Brown, who said he will collaborate with Rose throughout the offseason to finalize his coaching staff, enters a situation where the spotlight will be on him simply because of the expectations of his bosses. Whether that is fair or not, that’s the reality.

Brown will either be a hero in the greatest city in which to be one, or he’ll just be another coach trying to find room in the revolving door.

We’re just a few months away from beginning to see which direction this thing will go.

“Our goal, starting with (James) Dolan, to Leon, to the players, all the way down to the fans is to build a sustainable, winning culture that produces championships,” Brown said. “That’s why I’m here.”

(Photo: Ishika Samant/Getty Images)

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