Coach Mike Brown has the Knicks performing at a level not seen in more than three decades.
Tom Thibodeau did not deserve to be fired. But James Dolan made the right call by letting him go and bringing in Mike Brown. In the bizarre world of professional sports, both statements can be true—and they are today, with the Knicks back in the Eastern Conference finals and playing basketball that hasn’t been seen since the early 1990s, if not longer.
Brown orchestrated a masterclass in the final three games of the first-round series against Atlanta, then delivered another in the four-game sweep of Philadelphia in the second round. The Knicks won those seven games by an average of 26.4 points, and their two closeout victories came by a combined 51 points.
Now the challenge intensifies, as the Knicks face either Detroit or Cleveland in their second straight conference finals appearance. Unless they suddenly collapse—which seems far less likely than the Mets making the playoffs—Dolan deserves credit for the move.
On Mother’s Day, while his team trounced the 76ers 144-114 to complete the sweep, Dolan stood in his baseline seats during a first-quarter timeout, scanning the arena as fans turned it into a raucous Knicks rally. After the game, he walked toward the tunnel with businesslike calm, knowing his team still has work to do to reach the NBA Finals, as he has stated as a minimum goal.
Brown is giving the Knicks a better chance to achieve that than Thibodeau would have in a sixth season. Why? Brown made a stunning, transformative move with star Karl-Anthony Towns—essentially turning a traditional big man into a point-center, much like converting Gronk into Tom Brady in the middle of a win-or-else series. Since that shift, the Knicks haven’t lost.
Towns had 24 assists in 18 playoff games under Thibodeau last year. Under Brown this year, he has 66 assists in 10 playoff games, including 10 in 20 minutes Sunday.
If the Towns experiment had backfired and cost the Knicks their season, Brown would have faced heavy criticism, perhaps even losing his job. But he took the risk anyway because he wasn’t afraid of failure, and because Dolan and team president Leon Rose hired him to be less traditional and more flexible than his predecessor.
“We made a lot of moves throughout the course of the year and throughout the course of the playoffs, and you just keep trying to do what’s best for the team,” Brown said. “I don’t care what team I’m with. When you’re talking about being in the NBA, even if you do stuff right, you’re going to get criticized. So you just embrace whatever’s out there and you keep going.”
