Mike Brown is an NBA champion coach with Knicks, 18 months after controversial Kings firing

The head coach of the 2025-26 NBA champion New York Knicks, a team that will be remembered for mental toughness, is the same man who was told 18 months ago he was not fit to coach the Sacramento Kings.

That man is Mike Brown and he has been on a journey, which ended with him boisterously leading a "Who let the dogs out?" chant with his players on the podium while holding a confused child.

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Brown just capped off a dream first season with the Knicks, leading them on a run in which they won 15 of 16 games in one of the most dominant stretches in NBA history. This was no superteam, but a team of well-defined role players and, of course, the unflappable Jalen Brunson. They fell behind in every game and never blinked. The right buttons were pressed, such as the revamping of Karl-Anthony Towns' offensive role.

It was a great coaching job, and also exactly what one of the most moribund franchises in the NBA decided Brown was incapable of doing less than two years.

The Kings' firing of Mike Brown has looked worse with every month

Rewind back to 2024 and Brown was the head coach of the Kings and seemed to be doing a pretty good job at it. He joined the franchise after winning three rings as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors and led a turnaround that saw Sacramento go from 31 wins or fewer in its previous three seasons to 48-34 in 2022-23.

Under Brown, the Kings reached the NBA playoffs for the first time, ending a 17-year drought that was the longest in major North American sports.That earned him the first unanimous Coach of the Year honors in NBA history.

The Kings went on to win 46 games in 2023-24, falling short in the play-in tournament, but they were still a competitive team. Then they began 2024-25 with a 13-18 record and, well, panic set in. Panic that they might be the same old Kings again.

So they made the most Kings move possible.

The Kings' firing of Brown, after a practice and before a team flight, left the NBA stunned. Coaches around the league were publicly befuddled that a team could so quickly fire the coach who delivered their best season in two decades, most notably then-Denver Nuggets coach Mike Malone.

Malone has his own history with the Kings, having been fired in 2014. His judgement on how Brown was handled: "No class, no balls."

The Knicks swooped in months later, hiring Brown as their replacement for the fired Tom Thibodeau. We can now safely say that decision has been vindicated, while the Kings have looked worse for their part with every passing month. They finished this season 22-60 and will be picking seventh in the NBA Draft after losing the lottery.

The Kings didn't think Mike Brown could get them over the hump. So he did it for the Knicks instead.Gregory Shamus via Getty Images

Knicks starter Josh Hart is certainly thankful for how it worked out, effusively praising Brown's coaching after Game 5:

"Mike was invaluable to this run. He understands what it is to be a champion. He understands how to build a team, how to build habits that will put you in this position. We're so grateful, so thankful to have him at the top. He kept us even so many times. He's brought the best out of us as people first. I'm so happy for him. He's the reason why we're here."

To be clear, it wasn't the smoothest ride for Brown this season. It was a bumpy regular season for the Knicks en route to 53 wins, but they were a different team once the playoffs began. A major reason, via SNY, was a team meeting in which Brown encouraged his starting lineup to air their grievances with him and each other.

Brown's NBA journey is longer than just the Knicks, Kings and Warriors. He got his start as an assistant in 1997 with the Washington Wizards, Spurs and Indiana Pacers before becoming LeBron James' second NBA coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He failed to break through with the ascending superstar, got fired and ended up coaching the Los Angeles Lakers for a season and a half before going back to Cleveland for one more season.

All of that experience added up to the coach the Knicks needed. And maybe the coach the Kings needed too.

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