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When the New York Knicks fired head coach Tom Thibodeau after falling to the Indiana Pacers in the playoffs for a second straight year, they made it clear what their expectations are: a Larry O'Brien Trophy. Mike Brown is coming in with the weight of the largest media market in the country on his shoulders.
A return trip to the Eastern Conference Finals will not suffice. All things being equal, this squad is supposed to contend for NBA supremacy.
Sportswriter David Dennis Jr. bluntly explained the standard that the franchise has set for itself going into the 2025-26 campaign.
“Mike Brown is now entering the most high-pressure job in all of sports right now,” he said on the Fourth of July edition of ESPN's “First Take.” “You are coming to a team in the biggest, wildest market — New York City — and your expectation is to do something that has not been done for this team since the [1970s]: it's win a championship.
“That is the boom or bust of Mike Brown. You are a failure for this season if you do not at least make the finals and win a championship.”
Even Knicks fans should acknowledge the fact that a healthy Oklahoma City Thunder squad will surely be the favorite to win the title next season. However, given the current landscape of the injury-ravaged East, Dennis is right. New York must at least find a way into the NBA Finals.
"You are a failure for this season if you do not at least make the finals and win a championship."@DavidDTSS feels expectations are high for Mike Brown going into the new season for the Knicks 👀 pic.twitter.com/NnK4npEjyn
— First Take (@FirstTake) July 4, 2025
Knicks' path to the NBA Finals could be as clear as it will ever be
The Knickerbockers will not have to worry about surviving a Jayson Tatum-led Boston Celtics squad for a second consecutive year, nor will they run into Tyrese Haliburton, the franchise's biggest nemesis since Michael Jordan and Reggie Miller gave the city lingering migraines in the 90s.
The Milwaukee Bucks are also in a state of uncertainty, and the Philadelphia 76ers are never healthy. There are teams on the rise like the Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons, and the Atlanta Hawks will probably be a trendy preseason pick to make some noise, but this is New York's conference to lose.
Knicks president Leon Rose assembled a core consisting of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart with the intention of reaching the pinnacle.
And now, they have the opportunity to do so. Although Tom Thibodeau revived the franchise and guided it to its first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 25 years, he did make lineup and other in-game decisions that opened himself up for criticism. The two-time Coach of the Year is not the first leader to be deemed “great but not elite.”
Can the Knicks follow in the footsteps of another NY club?
The New York Yankees switched from Buck Showalter to Joe Torre despite trending in the right direction, and they then proceeded to become possibly the greatest dynasty in modern baseball history.
There is no telling what would have happened if George Steinbrenner retained his manager, but that is a question that probably only Showalter himself ponders. Leon Rose is hoping the Knicks can enjoy the same fortune with Brown on the sidelines.
Many fans question if he is more credible than his predecessor, however. Thibodeau is a pillar of consistency who turned both the Chicago Bulls and Knicks into postseason mainstays.
Brown, who has two Coach of the Year awards in his own right, does not receive nearly as much praise for the success his squads have enjoyed. LeBron James is glorified for leading the fairly thin Cleveland Cavaliers to the Finals in 2007 with little credit being doled out elsewhere.
One must also acknowledge the job that Mike Brown did to end the Sacramento Kings' seemingly eternal playoffs dry spell in 2022-23. He is not just a “likable guy” as some skeptics are portraying to be following his hiring.
When Joe Torre took over the Yankees, he had just one National League Championship Series under his belt and was not considered a first-rate option. Sometimes, a talented group just needs the right man in charge to help unlock its full potential.
That is the role Brown is tasked with filling next season. It is an unenviable position to be in, but this veteran should know the madness he is choosing to walk into this year. If the Knicks can finish the mission they started with Thibodeau at the helm, executives around the sports world may reconsider the amount of leeway they extend to their head coach.
