Mike Brown delivers for the Knicks under immense win-or-else pressure

Atlantic76ersCelticsKnicksNetsRaptorsCentralBucksBullsCavaliersPacersPistonsSoutheastHawksHeatHornetsMagicWizardsSouthwestGrizzliesMavericksPelicansRocketsSpursNorthwestJazzNuggetsThunderTimberwolvesTrail BlazersPacificClippersKingsLakersSunsWarriorsScores & ScheduleStandingsThe Bounce NewsletterNBA DraftPodcastsFantasyNBA OddsNBA PicksFirst-Round PredictionsHollinger's Playoff PreviewThe Bucks' Season From HellPlayer Poll: Who Will Win Title?NBA Postseason Mike Brown reacts during the second half of the Knicks' 113-102 victory in Game 1 of their playoff series against the Hawks. Vincent Carchietta / Imagn Images Share articleNEW YORK — By any measure, Mike Brown has lived a charmed basketball life. He has been hired as a head coach five times by NBA franchises, and as an assistant has made made six trips to the Finals, landing on the winning side four times. He worked with LeBron James and Steph Curry, Tim Duncan and Kevin Durant. And at a time when many men his age are going through a midlife crisis, Brown was gifted a dream job. He was handed the New York Knicks and a roster good enough, perhaps, to end a championship drought stretching beyond a half-century. If Brown pulls it off over the next two months, he will be lionized forever. If he becomes the first Knicks coach to win it all since Red Holzman won a second title in 1973, they will build a statue for him. They will name a highway after him. They will hang a banner carrying his name in the Madison Square Garden rafters. But all along, there was a severe downside to all these wonderful possibilities. Brown has no margin for error. It’s written in invisible ink near the bottom of his four-year, $40 million contract. If he doesn’t at least lead the Knicks to their first Finals appearance since 1999, he might be in danger of being fired. So that had to make Saturday night in the Garden, Game 1 against the Atlanta Hawks in Round 1 of the playoffs, a unique experience. The third-seeded Knicks could not afford to lose the opener to the sixth-seeded Hawks, who had finished the season by winning 19 of their final 24 games and by resting starters in the punctuating loss to Miami that secured this matchup. Hawks coach Quin Snyder repeatedly swore that his team wasn’t dodging a series with Cleveland in favor of one with the Knicks, but in these cases, actions are more impactful than words. The Hawks clearly weren’t afraid of New York, and if they seized Game 1 with their youthful athleticism and perimeter defense, the walls would’ve already started to close in on the Knicks, and especially on their 56-year-old leader. Brown, Tom Thibodeau’s replacement, had his team ready to play Game 1. His best player, Jalen Brunson, scored 19 points in the first quarter and dropped Atlanta’s best defender, Dyson Daniels, on his rear end with a behind-the-back bounce pass that ultimately led to a Mikal Bridges corner 3. Brown’s second-best player, Karl-Anthony Towns, provided the necessary firepower late to protect what would be a stabilizing 113-102 victory that saw all five Knicks starters score in double figures, led by a combined 53 points from Brunson and KAT. “We feel like the team is deep and anybody can get going at any time,” Brown said. “For us, it’s about sacrificing and not worrying about shots, minutes or anything like that. Just try to go do what you can to help the team win.” It was an important night for Brown, who was supposed to have the big-city stage to himself … at least until the newest self-proclaimed Knicks fan and Garden lover, John Harbaugh, pulled off a stunning trade for the Giants, sending star defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence to Cincinnati for the 10th pick in the draft. Harbaugh isn’t messing around, not after he told The Athletic on arrival that he expects his first Giants team to make the playoffs. He put a fair amount of pressure on himself with those words. Brown? Though he did speak about building “a sustainable winning culture that produces championships” in his introductory news conference, it was his employer, James Dolan, who took it to the next level in a WFAN radio interview in January, when the Knicks owner explained why there was no need to memorialize the NBA Cup title in those Garden rafters. “We are going to raise the banner,” Dolan said. “We’re going to raise the NBA championship banner.” Thibodeau had led the Knicks to regular postseason appearances, including a trip to the 2025 Eastern Conference finals, but that was no longer good enough. Dolan said in the interview the team “needed to make a change to go the rest of the way. … We want to get to the Finals, and we should win the Finals.” Brown, the one ultimately chosen to complete the mission, likely didn’t expect to hear his boss put it that way on the record and on the air. Dolan rarely grants interviews. But when he does, the owner usually tilts his basketball universe one way or the other. Over the decades, a lot of New York coaches have faced a lot of pressure in Year 1. But I can’t remember one facing as much as Brown is right now. George Steinbrenner sure expected a World Series trip/title out of Joe Torre in 1996, yet The Boss said that every year about every manager. Brown knew what he was signing up for, especially after Thibodeau got the Knicks to the final four. But Dolan’s mandate turned up the heat a few degrees and reinforced the magnitude of his gamble. Nobody (outside of a couple of players) would have complained had the Knicks brought back Thibs for one last go at it. Dolan decided his coach had already crashed into his ceiling and made a bold move. If he’s right, wow, just think of the Knicks floating in their own ticker-tape parade. Hard to picture, right? But if Dolan is wrong and the Knicks lose again in the Eastern Conference side of the draw, watch out. There will be consequences. Will team president Leon Rose pay the price this time? Will KAT and/or Bridges be sent away? Will Brown end up a one-and-done proposition? Time will tell if the Knicks don’t win at least three series this time around. But Saturday night, Brown found himself in very good standing. By beating Atlanta in the Garden in his first Knicks playoff game, Brown did something his predecessor failed to do in 2021. Asked afterward if the night felt different than his previous 90 postseason games as a head coach, Brown said: “It always feels special walking into MSG. I pinch myself every time I walk in.” In his first day on the job, Brown said he needed four things from his Knicks — individual sacrifice for the betterment of the team, connectivity, a competitive spirit and a high level of belief in the process and one another. The Knicks gave Brown all four in Game 1, Round 1. Under tremendous stress, it was a hell of an opening act. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Ian O’Connor is a columnist for The Athletic. He is the author of six straight New York Times bestsellers. O’Connor was a columnist at various major outlets who earned multiple first-place finishes in contests run by the Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Press Sports Editors, Pro Football Writers of America, and Golf Writers Association of America. He is a proud former copy boy at The New York Times. Follow Ian on Twitter @Ian_OConnor