By James L. Edwards III | The Athletic, 2026-06-08 09:15:00
要理解迈克·布朗 (Mike Brown) 是如何来到纽约执教尼克斯的，你首先得明白主教练这个职业的脆弱性。
主教练往往是第一个承担指责、最后一个获得赞誉的人。他们是最容易被推出来的替罪羊。写一张支票，给球迷群体推销一位新主帅，远比引进一位新的明星球员要容易得多。在大多数情况下，教练们在某些时刻必须做到比“足够好”还要更好。
布朗和尼克斯对此都深有体会。这也是他们产生交集的原因。布朗于2024年在萨克拉门托被解雇，究其原因，竟然是因为他的工作做得太出色了，从而拉高了外界的期望值。在他执教的首个赛季，球队拿下了48胜。接下来的赛季是46胜。这是国王自2004-06赛季以来，首次连续两个赛季胜场数达到40场。然而，在布朗执教的第三个赛季中期，由于国王开局表现慢热，他惨遭解雇。
一个沦为笑柄长达二十年的球队，竟然想着去寻找更好的出路。自那以后，萨克拉门托再也没有打出过胜率过半的赛季。
去年夏天，纽约也做出了类似的豪赌，他们相信换掉主教练是推动球队更进一步所需的唯一改变。在汤姆·锡伯杜 (Tom Thibodeau) 的执教下，尼克斯同样从人们茶余饭后的笑料变成了备受尊重的强队。其巅峰是去年闯入东部决赛，这是该队25年来首次获此殊荣。然而，在球队于六场大战中不敌印第安纳步行者后不久，决策层便解雇了锡伯杜。据联盟消息人士透露，尼克斯想要一位合作者，一个愿意进行尝试并带来不同声音的人。
这就是布朗与纽约联姻的起点。照这个势头发展下去，谁知道这段蜜月期何时才会结束。
仅仅一个赛季，布朗就带领尼克斯自1999年以来首次杀入NBA总决赛，对手正是圣安东尼奥马刺——在21世纪初，正是这支球队给了布朗担任助理教练的机会。纽约距离总冠军仅差两场胜利。当布朗接下这份工作时，走到这一步似乎是一项必须完成的硬性任务。这也是纽约在漫长的选帅过程中释放出的信号。如果纽约在季后赛中功亏一篑，布朗可能会同样迅速地丢掉工作。然而相反的是，尼克斯在通往总决赛的道路上，打出了可以说是NBA历史上最具统治力的季后赛表现之一。
对于一个已经做好了可能再也无法担任主教练准备的人来说，这成绩相当不错。
“首先，我必须感谢（国王老板）维维克·拉纳戴夫 (Vivek Ranadivé) 给我这个机会。显然，结果并不尽如人意，”布朗说道，在2022年被萨克拉门托聘用之前，他自2014年起就再没担任过主教练。“当我被解雇时，我真的没想太多。我和妻子去了澳大利亚悉尼观看UFC 313。我们去了墨西哥的巴亚尔塔港。我们去了圣巴特岛……我当时只想好好放松一下。
“如果有机会出现，那太好了。如果没有，我也觉得很幸运、很满足、很感恩。我的职业生涯已经很不错了。我希望在未来的某个时候，能再次获得担任主教练或助理教练的机会。我只是顺其自然，没有想太多。”
去年夏天，当尼克斯联系布朗时，他们也向其他几支球队询问了其主教练执教的可能性。这并非罕见，但考虑到尼克斯联系的球队数量之多，这种情况确实少见。纽约敲响了芝加哥（比利·多诺万 (Billy Donovan)）、休斯敦（伊梅·乌度卡 (Ime Udoka)）、达拉斯（杰森·基德 (Jason Kidd)）等好几支球队的大门。所有人都婉言谢绝了纽约的请求，于是这支球队发现布朗成为了他们的首选候选人。（说来也怪，这三位教练中的两位——多诺万和基德——在本赛季结束时已经不再执教那些球队了。）
只有尼克斯管理层自己知道，在选帅工作开始时，布朗是否名列前茅。但他们确实知道，布朗在担任史蒂夫·科尔 (Steve Kerr) 助手以及在勇士任职期间，作为合作者和沟通者获得了极高的评价。他们还知道布朗有执教巨星的经验，因为他曾担任过勒布朗·詹姆斯 (LeBron James) 和科比·布莱恩特 (Kobe Bryant) 的主教练，并且在斯蒂芬·库里 (Steph Curry) 和金州勇士开创王朝时也是教练组的一员。这深深吸引了纽约。
布朗并不介意自己是不是第一选择。在远处，他看到的是一支有夺冠机会的球队，一支由杰伦·布伦森 (Jalen Brunson) 和卡尔-安东尼·唐斯 (Karl-Anthony Towns) 领衔、刚刚闯入东部决赛的经验丰富的队伍。他渴望这种压力。
“我尊重（球队总裁）莱昂·罗斯 (Leon Rose) 的选帅流程，”布朗在去年七月说道。“我觉得自己是一个注重细节的人，做任何事情都力求彻底。在这里也是一样。在整个过程中，我只是展现了真实的自己。我和（詹姆斯）多兰 (James Dolan)，当然还有莱昂及其团队进行了非常愉快的交流。我的全部想法就是想和（莱昂）建立一种伙伴关系。我想和大家一起努力。单打独斗是不可能成功的。
“显然，这个结果让我非常兴奋，因为我坐上了自己梦寐以求的位置。”
布朗大约花了五场比赛的时间，才觉得自己是这支球队的主教练，而不是刚来的新人。承载着极高期望的尼克斯在赛季开局仅取得2胜3负的战绩。布朗试图推行的传切进攻在球员身上并不奏效。那种试图将一切进攻逼向中路的防守体系也同样运转不灵。他还做出了让乔什·哈特 (Josh Hart) 替补出场的决定，而这位老将前锋在上赛季作为首发时一直是球队最可靠的支柱。
布朗不得不进行自我反思。他必须去调和球员的个性。正是在那段艰难的时期，一切开始重新变得顺理成章起来。
“大家都非常欢迎我，我们也一致同意要保持公开和坦诚，”布朗说。“我们以2胜3负开局，当时我们进行了一些非常深入的交流。”
帮助布朗度过最初低谷的部分原因在于他的教练组，其中有几位在上赛季锡伯杜执教时就在队中。布朗非常依赖他们，通过他们来摸清球员的想法并做出相应的调整。他们经常集体对决策进行投票。布朗拥有最终决定权，但如果他很清楚大多数教练组成员都认为需要做出这一两处调整，布朗就会倾听。在与联盟内部人士的交流中，布朗最优秀的品质之一就是他不想成为房间里最聪明的那个人。这正是吸引尼克斯的合作流程的一部分。这不再是一言堂了。
在摸索阵容的过程中，布朗摒弃了许多东西。他开始运行与纽约上赛季类似的进攻战术。他将防守转变为更传统的“ICE”防守（即延阻防守，将持球人逼向边线和底线）。尼克斯在锡伯杜执教时也是这么做的。布朗倾听了球员的意见，也倾听了教练组的意见。
不过，布朗的合作态度并仅限于此。如果你仔细观察纽约的比赛，你可能会发现，在一场比赛中，好几次会出现布朗的某位助理教练在战术板上画战术的情况。而锡伯杜在暂停期间极少咨询助理教练的意见。布朗带着让每个人都有发言权的想法来到这里。听不听取决于他，但他往往倾向于接受并采纳他人的建议。
“他不会得意忘形，也不会垂头丧气，”哈特在谈到布朗时说道。“从倾听其他教练和球员意见的角度来看，他让自己保持着‘可执教性’。他将我们的建议融入到了我们的战术中。他一整年都是这样。这就是你对教练的期望；你不希望他情绪起伏太大。他在自己的角色中感到非常游刃有余。”
布伦森时刻保持的一种心态是“不要害怕失败”。他在布朗身上也看到了这种心态。
整个赛季，布朗都在不断尝试不同的阵容，就像他在进攻和防守原则上所做的那样。布朗在赛季的大部分时间里给了二轮秀新秀莫·迪亚瓦拉 (Mo Diawara) 一个轮换位置，随着出场次数的增加，他的进步显而易见。布朗有时也会倚重二年级控卫泰勒·科勒克 (Tyler Kolek)。这位控球后卫在尼克斯于12月夺得NBA季中锦标赛（NBA Cup）冠军的过程中发挥了重要作用。布朗在赛季开始时也将老将乔丹·克拉克森 (Jordan Clarkson) 放入了轮换阵容，但由于后者连续表现不佳，在交易截止日临近时将其撤出了轮换。然而，在3月的犹他之夜，当尼克斯被实力孱弱的爵士痛击时，布朗将克拉克森从板凳席上叫起，重新将他投入战斗，基本上就是对他说：“去解决这个问题！”这是布朗的助理教练之一莫里斯·奇克斯 (Maurice Cheeks) 极力敦促主教练考虑的举动。布朗采纳了。在那场比赛中，纽约一度落后多达18分。克拉克森在26分钟内砍下27分。最终尼克斯大胜17分。
季后赛首轮，兰德里·沙梅特 (Landry Shamet) 因膝伤影响基本掉出了轮换。在下一轮对阵费城的比赛中，布朗重新启用了他，就像克拉克森一样，沙梅特此后就再也没有离开过轮换阵容。尼克斯之所以能夺得季中锦标赛冠军，部分原因在于一套由布伦森、科勒克和克拉克森组成的阵容配合默契。在那天晚上之前，这套阵容几乎没有一起打过球，而且在仅有的配合时间里效果也并不好。
在本赛季的大部分时间里，尼克斯都摒弃了布朗最初的进攻计划。直到在季后赛首轮以1-2落后于亚特兰大老鹰。布朗回归了他的战术本源，但这一次他让队员们欣然接受了他最初想要推行的传切进攻。这种战术以唐斯在肘区策应传球为特色，多名球员进行无球掩护，其他球员进行空切。这减轻了布伦森在几乎每一次进攻中都试图通过运球单打突破对手的负担。
纽约随后以16分的优势赢下了第四场比赛，将大比分扳平。自那以后，尼克斯已经取得了季后赛12连胜，其中有10场比赛赢了对手两位数，还有几场大胜30分以上。
布朗创造了一个以灵活性为基础的环境。球员们时刻做好了准备，因为有太多队友在坐冷板凳后重新获得机会的先例。根据对手的不同，进攻端可以展现出多种风格。防守端也展现出了多年未见的凝聚力。
“这展现了迈克对我们的信心和信任，他相信我们能解决问题，”布伦森说。“他自己也不害怕失败。这种不惧失败的心态对我们很有好处，因为它能让我们继续战斗，而不去担心结果。我们可能会在场上防得很出色，但对手却投进了一个难度极高的球。我们可能整场比赛都打得很好，但却在终场哨响时输掉比赛。”
“我们不害怕失败，我认为这是我们身上一个非常了不起的特质。”
56岁的布朗兑现了他上任时所说的一切承诺。在此过程中，他还让他的老板们看起来像个天才。解雇锡伯杜，加上外界极高的期望，原本感觉像是一个随时会产生反噬的局面。然而相反的是，尼克斯如今挺进了总决赛。
许多教练都曾尝试过，但大多数都失败了。布朗却并非如此，这是因为他愿意让参与其中的每一个人，都在这个故事的结局中拥有发言权。
由生成式 AI 翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
点击查看原文：Mike Brown and the Knicks found redemption together on magical NBA Finals run
Mike Brown and the Knicks found redemption together on magical NBA Finals run
To understand how Mike Brown ended up in New York coaching the Knicks, you must first understand the fragility of his profession.
Head coaches are often the first to blame and the last to receive praise. They’re the easiest scapegoat. It’s easier to cut a check and sell a new head coach to the fanbase than it is to acquire a new star player. Coaches, more often than not, at some point, have to do better than good enough.
Both Brown and the Knicks have experience with this. That’s how they became intertwined. Brown was fired in Sacramento in 2024 because, ultimately, he did too good a job and raised the bar. In his first season, 48 wins. The next was 46. It was the first time the Kings had won 40 games in back-to-back seasons since 2004-06. Midway through Brown’s third season, though, he was fired after the Kings got off to a slow start.
A franchise that had been a laughingstock for two decades thought to explore greener pastures. Sacramento hasn’t had a winning record since.
New York made a similar bet last summer, believing a new coach was the only change needed to propel the franchise even further. Under Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks, too, went from the butt of jokes to respectability. The peak was last year’s trip to the Eastern Conference finals, the organization’s first in 25 years. Decision-makers pulled the plug on Thibodeau shortly after his team fell in six games to the Indiana Pacers. Per league sources, the Knicks wanted a collaborator, someone willing to experiment and bring a different voice.
This is where the marriage between Brown and New York begins. And at this rate, who knows when it’ll end.
Brown, in one season, has the Knicks in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, facing the San Antonio Spurs, the organization that gave Brown an opportunity as an assistant coach in the early 2000s. New York is two wins away. Getting to this point felt like a mandate when Brown took the job. That was the vibe coming out of New York during its extensive coaching search. Brown could have been out of a job just as quickly if New York had fallen short in the postseason. Instead, the Knicks have put together, arguably, the most dominant postseason run the NBA has seen en route to the NBA Finals.
Not bad for a guy who had come to grips with the possibility of not being a head coach again.
“First of all, I have to thank (Kings owner) Vivek Ranadivé for giving me an opportunity. Obviously, it didn’t work out,” said Brown, who hadn’t been a head coach since 2014 before being hired by Sacramento in 2022. “When I got fired, I really didn’t think much of anything. My wife and I, we went to Sydney, Australia, to see UFC 313. We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We went to St. Barts … I just wanted to have fun.
“If an opportunity came up, great. If it didn’t, I felt lucky, blessed and fortunate. I had a good run. I hoped at some point I’d get another opportunity as a head coach or assistant coach. I just rolled with it and didn’t think much about it.”
Last summer, when the Knicks called Brown, they also called several teams to inquire about the availability of their head coaches. It’s not uncommon, but it was rare given the volume of teams the Knicks reached out to. New York knocked on the door of Chicago (Billy Donovan), Houston (Ime Udoka), Dallas (Jason Kidd) and several others. All kindly declined New York’s request, and the franchise found itself staring at Brown as the lead candidate. (Oddly enough, two of those three coaches — Donovan and Kidd — are no longer with those teams at the end of this season.)
Only the Knicks’ front office knows if Brown was high on the list when the search began. They did know that he came well-recommended as a collaborator and communicator from his time as an assistant with Steve Kerr and the Warriors. They also knew that Brown had experience coaching stars, as he was once the head coach of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and was part of the staff when Steph Curry and Golden State were a dynasty. That appealed to New York.
Brown didn’t care if he was the first choice. From afar, he saw a team with a chance to win a championship, a veteran team led by Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns that just made it to the Eastern Conference finals. He wanted the pressure.
“I respect (team president) Leon’s (Rose) process,” Brown said back in July. “I feel like I’m a detailed guy, thorough with everything I try to do. It’s no different here. I was just myself throughout the process. I had great conversations with (James) Dolan and, obviously, Leon and his group. My whole thing is that I want to form a partnership with (Leon). I want to do this together. It’s impossible to do it on your own.
“The outcome, obviously, is exciting for me because I’m sitting in the seat that I wanted to be in.”
It took about five games for Brown to feel like he was the head coach and not the new kid on the block. The Knicks, with sky-high expectations, started the season with a 2-3 record. The movement offense Brown was trying to implement wasn’t working for his players. The defense that wanted to push everything middle wasn’t, either. He had made the decision that Josh Hart would come off the bench, after the veteran forward had been ol’ reliable last season with the starters.
Brown had to look in the mirror. He had to massage personalities. It was during a rough patch that everything started to feel second nature again.
“Everyone was real welcoming, and we all agreed to be open and honest,” Brown said. “We started 2-3 and had real conversations at that time.”
Part of what got Brown through that initial dip was his coaching staff, which featured several voices who were with the team last year under Thibodeau. Brown would lean on them heavily, using them to get the pulse of the players and tweaks that could be made. They would often vote on decisions as a group. Brown would have the final say, but if it was obvious to him that the majority of his staff believed a change or two needed to be made, Brown would listen. In talking to people around the league, one of Brown’s best qualities is that he doesn’t want to be the smartest guy in the room. That’s part of the collaborative process that attracted the Knicks to him. It was no longer a dictatorship.
In figuring out his squad, Brown scrapped a lot of things. He started running an offense similar to what New York ran a season ago. He switched the defense to a more traditional “ICE” coverage, which means funneling ballhandlers to the sideline and baseline. The Knicks did that under Thibodeau, too. Brown listened to his players. He listened to his staff.
Brown’s collaboration doesn’t stop there, though. If you watch New York closely, you’ve probably seen that there are several instances throughout a game where one of Brown’s assistant coaches is drawing up a play in the huddle. Thibodeau rarely consulted with his assistants during timeouts. Brown came in with the idea to give everyone a voice. It was up to him to listen or not, and he more often than not tended to receive and apply the input of others.
“He’s not too high, not too low,” Hart said of Brown. “He allows himself to be coachable in the sense of listening to other coaches and players. He has our input instilled into what we do. He’s been the same all year long. That’s what you want as a coach; you don’t want him to get too high or too low. He has a real comfort in his role.”
One mentality that Brunson carries with him at all times is “Don’t be afraid to fail.” He sees that mentality in Brown, too.
Brown experimented with lineups all season long, just like he did with offensive and defensive principles. Brown gave a second-round rookie in Mo Diawara a rotation spot for a large chunk of the season, and he improved noticeably as his reps increased. Brown also leaned on second-year point guard Tyler Kolek at times. The point guard played a big role in the Knicks winning the NBA Cup in December. Brown also started the season with veteran Jordan Clarkson in the rotation, only to take him out around the trade deadline when he started to stack poor performances. Then, one March night in Utah, when the Knicks were getting beaten by the lowly Jazz, Brown pulled Clarkson off the bench and tossed him back into the fire, basically telling him, “Go fix this!” It was a move that one of Brown’s assistant coaches, Maurice Cheeks, urged the head coach to consider. Brown obliged. New York trailed by as many as 18 points in that game. Clarkson scored 27 points in 26 minutes. The Knicks won by 17.
Landry Shamet was largely out of the rotation during the first round of the playoffs, as a knee injury had hampered his play. Brown dusted him off in the next round against Philadelphia and, like Clarkson, Shamet hasn’t left the rotation. The Knicks won the NBA Cup in part because a lineup featuring Brunson, Kolek and Clarkson played well together. That lineup had barely played together before that night, and it wasn’t very good when it did.
For much of the season, the Knicks had scrapped Brown’s initial plans for the offense. That was until New York found itself down 2-1 in the first round to the Atlanta Hawks. Brown reverted back to his roots, but this time got the guys to embrace the movement offense that he wanted to initially implement. It featured Towns in the pinch post as a passer, several players setting off-ball screens and others cutting. It took the burden off Brunson to try to beat his man off the dribble every other possession.
New York would go on to win Game 4 and tie the series behind a 16-point victory. Since then, the Knicks have won 12 straight playoff games and have won 10 of their games by double digits, multiple by 30-plus points.
Brown has created an environment founded in flexibility. Players stay ready because there are several examples of teammates getting another shot after sitting on the bench. The offense can play several styles depending on the opponent. The defense is as tied together as it has been in many seasons.
“It shows the confidence and trust Mike has in us to figure things out,” Brunson said. “He’s not afraid to fail either. Having the mindset of not being afraid to fail is good for us because it allows us to continue to fight and not worry about the result. We might go out there, play good defense and then they hit a tough shot. We may play a great game all game and then lose at final buzzer.
“We’re not afraid of failure, and I think it’s a big-time thing about us.”
The 56-year-old Brown has done everything that he said he would do when he got the job. He’s made his bosses look like geniuses in the process. The firing of Thibodeau, combined with those expectations, felt like a situation waiting to backfire. Instead, the Knicks are in the NBA Finals.
Many coaches have tried and most have failed. Not Brown, and it’s because he’s been willing to have everyone involved have a say in how this story will end.
By James L. Edwards III, via The Athletic