Mike Brown, meet Madison Square Garden. Madison Square Garden, meet Mike Brown.

After opening the preseason with two wins over the Philadelphia 76ers in Abu Dhabi, the new Knicks head coach makes his long-awaited Garden debut on Thursday night — stepping onto the iconic hardwood for the first time since taking over in New York. For Brown, the moment is personal.

His family — everyone but his sons — will be in attendance. And while it’s only a preseason game, Brown knows exactly what this arena represents.

“Yeah, I’m excited. I’m excited about my family coming to the game. I got my sister-in-law, too, in town,” Brown said after practice Wednesday at the Knicks’ Tarrytown facility. “I’m excited for the guys to play at MSG.”

Brown is no stranger to the Garden. As a head coach, he’s 6-7 all-time in the building: 5-3 with LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers, 0-2 with the Sacramento Kings, 0-1 during his stint with the Los Angeles Lakers, and 1-1 in a separate return to Cleveland. He also appeared in 10 games at MSG as a player, going 2-8 while averaging three points and three rebounds — though he did shoot 50% from the floor under the Garden lights.

“MSG is such an iconic venue,” Brown said. “And whether it’s a preseason game or regular-season game, to be able to know that that’s your home court every night and to do it for the first time, it gives you goosebumps.”

Goosebumps are just the beginning.

Brown arrives in New York with a championship pedigree — and sky-high expectations. He’s a two-time NBA Coach of the Year with experience as an assistant on Steve Kerr’s Golden State Warriors staff during three of the franchise’s recent title runs. He replaces Tom Thibodeau, who led the Knicks to back-to-back 50-win seasons and their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in a quarter-century.

Now, it’s Brown’s turn to raise the ceiling. His system — built on pace, spacing and unselfish ball movement — is expected to unlock a higher level from a Knicks core already brimming with talent.

“These guys have been working hard, and so to be able to go out there and showcase their talents and showcase their work, and, now everything’s not gonna be pretty,” Brown said. “Minnesota’s a good team, and when you face another team or a different colored jersey, sometimes you take a step back a little bit, and I expect that.

“But that’s what the preseason’s about. It’s learning, growing one step at a time, but for our guys to be able to have a chance to go out there and showcase what they’ve been working on behind closed doors is an exciting thing for me looking at them — and it should be for them knowing that the fans and their families are gonna be in the stands and be able to see them for the first time at MSG.”

Brown enters his first season in New York with a 454–304 regular-season record across 11 years as an NBA head coach. He’s 50-40 in the playoffs, including a trip to the 2007 NBA Finals with LeBron in Cleveland. Most recently, Brown helped snap the Kings’ 16-year playoff drought, leading Sacramento to a 107–88 record before management dismissed him last season following a 13–18 start.