New York Knicks Offer Mike Brown Head Coach Role, Deal Expected Soon

The New York Knicks have offered Mike Brown their head coaching job, and the two sides are expected to finalize a deal soon, league sources told The Athletic on Wednesday.

Brown would be the 32nd coach in the franchise’s history.

The Knicks, per league sources, went into the interview process knowing that Brown was going to be a top candidate. New York liked his extensive résumé and the fact that he has been part of four NBA championship teams as an assistant/associate head coach.

With stars in place like Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, Brown’s work with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Stephen Curry, as well as the fact that Brown came up under the Gregg Popovich coaching tree, were enticing factors to New York throughout the process.

The Knicks are hoping to get candidate James Borrego as Brown’s lead assistant, per league sources, but it is believed that New Orleans would rather keep Borrego next to head coach Willie Green. League sources told The Athletic in June that New York had requested permission to interview Borrego for the head coaching job.

After a lengthy public process, New York views Brown as the coach to help the Knicks build on this season’s trip to the Eastern Conference finals, the franchise’s first in 25 years. New York fired Tom Thibodeau just days after that playoff run ended.

The 55-year-old Brown, who was fired by the Kings after 31 games this season, has a career head coaching regular season record of 454-304, split between his previous employers, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers.

Brown played a big part in bringing the Kings back to relevancy, as the franchise posted back-to-back 45-plus-win seasons under his watch for the first time since 2005. Sacramento ended a 16-year playoff drought in Brown’s first season.

Brown was the coach of the 2006-07 Cavaliers team that lost in the NBA Finals. With James by his side, Brown and Cleveland never lost more than 45 games during the regular season. Brown had one successful season in Los Angeles before getting fired five games into his second season. He then returned to the Cavaliers in 2013-14 to be the head coach but was let go after just one year. Brown spent time on Steve Kerr’s staff with the Golden State Warriors in between his final stop in Cleveland and becoming the head coach in Sacramento.

The Kings had the NBA’s top-ranked offense in Brown’s first season. However, the team ranked 24th defensively in that same year. In Brown’s second season on the sideline, Sacramento had the 13th-ranked offense and 14th-ranked defense.

Brown will look to take over a franchise in the Knicks that has made it clear that a championship is the expectation, providing pressure for a head coach who has experience in those situations, having coached both James and Bryant.

(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

According to the source: The New York Times.