New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown is a household name today, but in the early 2000s, he was a little-known assistant for the San Antonio Spurs under Gregg Popovich. Brown learned a lot from Popovich, and during an appearance on the Roommates Show, he recounted a conversation they had regarding Tim Duncan.
“I learned this during my time in San Antonio,” Brown said. “Never forget, at the end of my first year there, we were meeting as a staff, and Pop says, he’s mumbling under his breath, he says, ‘I got to thank Tim Duncan.’ [I said], ‘You got to thank Tim Duncan? Why? Why are you saying that?’ And he said, he used to call me Mikey, he said, “Mikey, if your best player doesn’t allow you to coach him, you have no shot at coaching anybody else on the team. And Tim allows me to do it.’
“And I will say that this man to my left [Jalen Brunson] allowed me to coach him, which allowed me to coach the rest of the team,” Brown continued. “Made my job easier. So, thank you both.”
Popovich mellowed down a bit toward the end of his coaching career, but back in the day, he was notoriously tough on his players. Tony Parker once revealed that he pushed him to tears on multiple occasions during his rookie season.
What allowed Popovich to be so harsh was that Duncan didn’t take issue when he was hard on him. If the superstar was willing to get an earful and be coached hard, then everyone else had to as well.
The Popovich-Duncan partnership resulted in five championships for the Spurs. Brown was actually only there for one of those (2003). He was one of Popovich’s assistants from 2000 to 2003, and then became an associate head coach for the Indiana Pacers.
After two seasons with the Pacers, Brown earned his first head coaching job with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2005. He led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2007, but they got swept by the Spurs.
Brown would have to wait a very long time for his second trip to the Finals as a head coach. It finally happened in 2026 with the Knicks, and the Spurs were once again the team standing in his way.
This time around, Brown would come out on top, with the Knicks taking the Spurs down in five games. Jalen Brunson was a big reason why, and he ended up winning Finals MVP.
Brown thanked Brunson here for allowing him to coach him, the way Duncan allowed Popovich. We often hear today about how coaches have to walk on eggshells around superstars. They have to coddle the best player, or they’d lose their job.
It appears that wasn’t the case with the Knicks. With Brunson being willing to be coached, everyone else had to fall in line.
Now, Brown’s message didn’t always seem to be getting through to his team in the regular season, but the Knicks looked to have completely bought into whatever he was selling after they went down 2-1 to the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the playoffs. They took off in some style after that and never looked back.
The Knicks will now try to do what the Popovich-Duncan Spurs never did: defend the title. They’re not going to be the favorites to win it all next season, but this team has shown now that writing them off would be foolish.
