Even though Knicks coach Mike Brown earned some of his coaching chops as a Spurs assistant under Gregg Popovich from 2000-2003, he didn’t dare to reach out to him ahead of the NBA Finals.
The fear? Sabotage.
“He’s savvy,” Brown said before Game 1 against the Spurs. “He’s very competitive. If I reached out to him and asked him for some advice, he’d give me some BS that worked against us.”
Brown’s joke had Popovich’s fingerprints all over it.
See, when you’re raised in Popovich’s coaching tree, certain values are emphasized above all others, namely humor.
During Popovich’s 29 seasons at the helm of the Spurs, he wanted people around him who could laugh at themselves. He turned to humor to cut through the weighty pressure of 82-game marathon seasons.
Though he was fiercely competitive, he emphasized that basketball is just a silly game. He has been known to cut people from his staff who couldn’t dish or take a joke.
Perhaps that’s why the partnership between Popovich and Brown worked.
Brown is deeply likable. He’s quick to laugh. He doesn’t hesitate to poke fun at himself.
And now, after leading the Knicks to a 105-104 win over the Spurs in Game 2 on Friday, Brown is two wins from his first NBA championship as a head coach.
It has been a long road for Brown, who has spent the last 29 years as either an assistant or head coach for eight NBA franchises, including getting fired four times as the leading man.
Brown has coached some of the league’s biggest stars, including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. He coached under some of the most venerated coaches, including Popovich and Steve Kerr. But now, for the first time in his career, the Larry O’Brien Trophy is within his grasp as the head of a locker room.
Brown points to his time under Popovich as one of the biggest reasons he has arrived at this moment.
“It was huge,” Brown said. “Pop — I talk about MSG being iconic, New York City being iconic — Pop is iconic, especially here in San Antonio. When you talk about the game of basketball, he’s iconic to everybody that enjoys the game of basketball.”
During Brown’s three seasons under Popovich, he watched firsthand how the winningest coach in NBA history operated. They won a championship together in 2003, the second of Popovich’s five rings amid his historic 22 straight years in the postseason.
Brown said his biggest takeaway from Popovich actually has very little to do with basketball.
“The neat part about him is it’s not just about the X’s and O’s that you learn,” Brown said. “You know you can never be him, but you learn people skills. You learn how to connect, not just the 15 or 18 players, you learn how to connect an entire city, maybe even an entire state.”
That insight has proven instrumental for Brown, who’s in his first season at the helm of the Knicks after being fired by the Kings in December 2024. In just a short period of time, Brown has won over Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the biggest-market city in the NBA.
But Popovich’s impact on Brown goes deeper than that.
When Brown separated from his wife in 2002, Popovich famously threatened to fire him if he traveled with the team instead of spending a little extra time with his two young sons, who were crying as he took them to the airport to say goodbye.
Popovich also famously offered Brown a lifeline after he was fired by the Cavaliers in 2014. He joined the Spurs as a volunteer consultant, which helped put him back on the map ahead of getting hired as an assistant with the Warriors in 2016.
“He’s second to none how [in] he treats people off the floor in their personal lives,” Brown said. “I grew a lot personally. Everybody goes through good times and bad times off the floor in their personal life. When I was here, I went through good times and bad times. He helped me tremendously with those.”
The 77-year-old Popovich is now watching the Spurs from the stands, having retired after suffering a stroke in November 2024.
After games, he regularly texts Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama, trying to help the future face of the league reach his full potential. But down the sideline, in enemy territory, sits another one of his protégés.
Brown is immensely grateful to Popovich for not only helping him reach the apex of his career but for being his friend.
“He’s a special human being,” Brown said.
