Coach Mike Brown REVEALS Knicks Playing Style and His Thoughts on the Upcoming Season

Coach Mike Brown REVEALS Knicks Playing Style and His Thoughts on the Upcoming Season

It’s got to feel great to have that kind of crowd that they have there. It’s one of the most knowledgeable crowds of basketball in the country. You love it because you know when you’re not playing well, they understand the nuances that you’re not doing to end up playing well or to get the win. And so you just appreciate that at all times. Winning to some people is a habit. And that’s what’s exciting for me because this team is primed and ready to go. Coach Brown, first of all, let me just tell you how happy I am to see you in New York. It’s good to be here. It’s good to be seen by you in New York. I have been a big fan of yours all the time and watching the way you’ve worked. You’ve been about success, championships, knowing how to do all of a sudden being in New York, you’re on the front stage right now, which got to feel good for you. Feels great, you know, to be in an environment where everybody cares. Not only do they care, but they bring the passion with the care is is unbelievable. You know that this job means something to everybody. Not just to me, but to everybody. And that’s what I enjoy the most about it. And this has happened to me more than any place uh that I’ve been. Walking down the street, fan greets me, gives me love, boom, boom, boom. you know, all that stuff. Smiling and then right before they walk away, they go, “You better win now.” But you know what? That either excites somebody or scares them. Oh, no. Absolutely. That’s what it’s all about. Yes. That’s what it’s about. It must feel like a good fit to you though because you know that’s about winning and and you are all about winning. You look back at your career. You’ve been winning your entire career and you bring that with you to this to this job. I tell you, you can call it fortunate, blessed, lucky, all of the above. Um, I’ve been in tremendous situations around tremendous people. And, you know, when I look at this job, I don’t see anything different. You know, Leon Rose and his group, they did a fantastic job putting this team together. Uh, these guys are great individual people first. On top of that, they’re great at their job. The one thing that they do is they bring the work ethic and the passion every single day and they’re selfarters. When you have that, that’s a fantastic recipe to start what we call winning at a high level year in and year out. So now when you look back at your career, tell me how big of a impact did Craig Papovic make on you? Oh, one of the great coaches of all time. Yeah. No, he he he was huge. You know, you try to take as much as you can from each person that you’re with. And even if the time that you were with him wasn’t great times, you could still learn and or grow cuz now it’s maybe I may not do this this way. Uh but with Pop, I don’t think there’s a single thing that I took away that I’m not trying to use. I can’t be him and I got to have my own philosophy at the end of the day. But there was a lot that I tried to take away, learn, grow from, and use in the future. Uh to me, you know, you talk about X’s and O’s and you know whether he’s the best X and O guy out there, I don’t know. But it’s nondatable that he’s the best people manager that I’ve ever been around. And he makes not only one through 15 in terms of the guys on the roster feel like they were a part. But when we won championships there, uh the custodian felt like he was a part of it. The the the the executive assistants felt like they were a part of it. Everybody in town that came to the ring, everybody felt like they were a part of it. And to have that type of leadership is what everybody strives for day in and day out. It’s a beautiful thing because people realize winning is about a team. It’s not an individual, it’s a team. And that’s what you guys do. That’s what 100%. You know, you need every piece to be together so that everybody’s on a string and can contribute at the highest level. So if you get that with the ultimate thing which is sacrifice then that’s a great recipe to win and win for many years to come. Hold it right hold it right here. What’s going to happen a lot of times when he turned the corner he going to stay right here or he going to go right here. So that’s what that I’m tell that going to be open a lot of times. Okay. How would you describe your coaching style? I like to make guys feel me. Okay. during during any process that we’re putting in front of them. But I’d hope to think that I’m a players coach from the standpoint that I give my guys ownership. It’s not about me telling them do this, do this, do that, do that. If Jaylen wants to, he can follow his pass right into a ball screen. You see him coming, you come off it, you use it. It’s okay. Hey, I’ve experienced this before. This is what I’m suggesting or what I believe in. And we’re playing the game. Tell me what you think. How can you add to it? Because the days of, you know, you do this, you do that, that that that’s over. Now, as a as a head coach or a guy in a leadership position, you got to figure out how we can have team goals and everybody can embrace those team goals while you’re trying to intertwine everybody’s individual goals. And if you can do that, again, that’s a fantastic recipe for success. I’ve watched every team that you’ve coached and you’ve had that teamship like that. I I’ve watched it from the first guy all the way to the early on the on the end of the bench that you guys come together as a team and that’s so so exciting. It’s not only is it fun for me to see guys that don’t think they’re going to play or don’t think they’re going to get a part to be engaged and so when their numbers called they’re able to perform well that that is extremely exciting for me but also to see the end result as a whole uh because I like I tell everybody I if we win everybody eats that is true and we all get rings we all get everything we are part of this team yeah but so what excites you the most about leading this team. Oh man, there’s a lot. Again, they it’s just a veteran team that’s extremely professional. They’re they’re all a bunch of selfstarters. So, I don’t have to tell them, hey, make sure you’re doing this, make sure you’re doing that, because they’re most likely doing it. And they’ll do it before practice, early in the morning. They’ll do it after practice, late at night. And so, when you have guys that are self-otivated, now you just got to find a formula and continue to help them believe in that process in each other. and then the end result will take care of itself based on that. Having watched this team over the years, it looks like they’re in this group is on the edge of something special. Do you feel that way as you look around the guys that you have on this team now? You feel like you’re on the edge of something special? I do. You know, it’s it’s a it’s a diverse group from the standpoint of their skill sets. And not only that, they have got they’ve got size, they’ve got intelligence, and they had a little taste last year. So that hunger is there. And so having that uh again, in my opinion, means that hey, you’re close, but it’s going to be a lot harder than what most people think. We’re going to have to go through some adversity and figure out how to get through that adversity together in order to make this run and finalize it the way we want to finalize it. What kind of identity do you want the team to have from the start? We want to be fast. We want to play fast. We have a lot of length, a lot of athleticism. We got guys that can get out and finish in transition. If they’re not finishing, uh once they get their feet set, if that balls pass ahead, I want to let it fly. Uh because we got great shooters on this team. So, again, the first thing is we want to play with pace. Not just in the full court, but even in the half court, too. Uh we want to be known as a team that spaces the floor well so that we can touch that paint and get spray threes. We want to put up a lot of threes. And then defensively, uh, you know, just like we feel we want to take somebody’s heart offensively with our pace and our our our relentless pace, uh, we want to take their heart with our physicality and our communication on the defensive end of the floor. And we want to do that all without fouling. So, we want to be a physical team where every possession, you going to feel us, all right, while we’re talking. You know, one of the guys that could be out in front of Jaylen has that sort of attitude now. He He does. He You know what? He opened up a can of worms. I didn’t know how fast he was, but he is quick. He is, but he brings it every night. He’s one of those guys of respect because this dude plays hard every single night. I I tell you this amount. So we you you know before the season started uh the guys had optional workouts and during optional workout days you know we did individual stuff we did some team stuff and then the guys ended up playing pickup and I’ve never been around a a a person as competitive as Jaylen. you know, the last minute to play six-minute games. The last minute we’d stop the clock, you know, on dead ball situations. And his team, one time they were down like six or seven and there was 30 seconds to go when the when the clock finally stop. this guy is playing steel foul steel f like trying to win a pickup game right in the summertime that really at the end of the day doesn’t matter but he is that competitive and and you know they ended up losing but I was just impressed seeing him trying to get his team to do that the next time they stepped on the court it was over it was over his competitiveness is out of this out of this world it really is that’s always impressed me about him and we both know people like that that are some of the biggest stars ever played thing. They just couldn’t stand losing. I don’t care what it was. It was like the first one to the door. Whatever. Whatever it was, they weren’t going to lose none of that stuff. You and I might lose that now. That’s right. Right now, I still feel like that, but I ain’t going to try it. That’s fantastic. Uh, let me see. I I got some quick questions I want to ask you real quick. Little rapid fire things and you can just answer them however you want to. All right. First food you had in New York? Bagel, slice of pizza, or something else? Slice of pizza. All right. Who were your favorite Knicks legends when you grew up watching? Clyde. What’s more intimidating, New York fans or parallel parking in the city? Parallel parking. Uptown or downtown? Uptown. Yellow cab or walk? Walk. Central Park or Time Square? Time Square. Summer or winter in New York City? Summer. Chess or checkers? Chess. Earbuds or headphones? Earbuds. If your coaching style were a movie, what genre would it be? Action, drama, comedy, or thriller? Oh, action. I want to just say, man, I’m so happy to see you here at the Knicks. I’m excited about the whole thing. And man, let’s get this thing going. Let’s get it started. Thank you very much, brother. Always appreciate you. I like the beard. Even though even though I even though I know you and I walk right by you, I like the beard. That was part of it. I can now walk. That’s right.

Ahmad: “If your coaching style was a movie genre, what would it be?”

Coach Brown: “Action.”

Knicks Head Coach Mike Brown sits down with Basketball Hall of Famer, Ahmad Rashad to discuss his championship philosophy throughout his coaching career, his excitement for the 2025-26 Knicks, embracing the energy of Knicks fans and Madison Square Garden.

New York Legacies | @Lenovo

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