SACRAMENTO — Muscle memory lasts longer than revoked keycard access.
Mike Brown might not be able to open every door inside the Golden One Center’s winding corridors anymore, but he still knows the building by feel. The turns. The shortcuts. The places where seasons were saved — and where one eventually unraveled.
“None of my stuff works,” Brown said with a boisterous laugh after Knicks practice on Tuesday. “But great memories here. I enjoyed working with the people I worked with, too.”
Brown replaced Tom Thibodeau as the Knicks’ head coach during the offseason after spending two-plus seasons resurrecting a Kings franchise that once owned the NBA’s longest playoff drought. He snapped that 16-year skid with a 48-win season and a first-round playoff appearance in 2023. But in Sacramento, progress has a short shelf life.
Injuries sabotaged the Kings’ follow-up season in 2024. They still won 46 games — but missed the playoffs. Thirty-one games into the 2025 campaign, with the Kings sitting at 13–18, management fired Brown anyway.
One team’s trash is another team’s treasure. The Knicks are betting they struck gold.
Brown’s early tenure in New York has delivered mixed but promising returns. Under his watch, the Knicks have undergone a full schematic overhaul — modernized offense, more pace, more aggression, a defensive identity built on pressure and trust. The highs have been real: an NBA Cup championship and one of the league’s most dangerous offenses. The consistency needed to win a title, however, remains a work in progress.
Now, midway through a four-game road trip, Brown, for the first time, is revisiting the place where his reputation was rebuilt — and abruptly reset.
“The reality of it is coming back here in a place [my family] enjoyed, yeah it’s a little emotional,” Brown said. “But at the end of the day, the fans, if they cheer me or hug me when they see me during the game, after the game, trust me, they wanna kick my ass, and the Knicks’ ass.
“And we wanna do the same.”
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Only Brown, Kings leadership, and the players in that locker room know exactly why Sacramento felt compelled to pull the plug.
Some pointed to a rumored rift with De’Aaron Fox. Fox, however, embraced Brown’s accountability-driven approach — and his firing eventually preceded Fox’s own trade to San Antonio.
Others cited tension surrounding DeMar DeRozan. Brown reportedly floated the idea of bringing the veteran scorer off the bench for the first time in his career as Sacramento struggled through the opening stretch of what would be Brown’s final season. DeRozan, 36, has seen his production steadily decline over the past five years.
And then there’s precedent.
Kings ownership has a history here. Mike Malone lasted all of 106 games in Sacramento before being fired. He went on to coach the Denver Nuggets for a decade — and win the 2023 NBA championship.
Malone didn’t mince words when asked about Brown’s dismissal.
“I’m not surprised that Mike Brown got fired, because I got fired by the same person,” Malone said the next day. “No class, no balls. That’s what I’ll say about that.”
Malone was one of five head coaches who publicly pushed back against the move, joined by Thibodeau (“You hate to see it,” he said), Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle, Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley, and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.
Knicks players conducted their own quiet due diligence once Brown emerged as Thibodeau’s successor.
“I was happy with [the hiring]. I heard about him. I didn’t really have a relationship with him but he’s always said some nice words about me to the press,” said Jalen Brunson. “So when I got to know him and everything, it just validated what I thought. Great guy, on and off the court. Just a blessing to be around.”
Josh Hart said the version of Brown he’s encountered doesn’t resemble the reports that followed his firing.
“I don’t know the ins and outs of how [Brown’s firing] transpired,” Hart said. “The stuff that was always reported wasn’t the most respectful stuff. I’m sure he could talk a little bit more about the way that it happened. But I think the way that it happened was reported kind of unfair and unprofessional.”
Brown, for his part, isn’t interested in litigating the past.
“I can’t control what things are being said,” he said. “Anybody can jump on the internet and post something and to some degree, you may think it’s real. You can’t control that. You’ve just gotta put your head down, keep pushing forward and be the best you can.”
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The Knicks, of course, had their own questions — on the court.
They had just reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 years. Two straight 50-win seasons under Thibodeau suggested stability, even if the ceiling remained unclear. The front office chose disruption anyway.
“You know, it always takes a little bit of time to [change systems],” Hart said on Tuesday. “It’s the same nucleus, same group of guys. Roles are a little different, situations that we’re placed in are a little different, those kind of things. We knew it was always going to take a little bit of time I think, but we’re figuring it out. There’s highs and lows. We’re learning and progressing.”
At their best, Brown’s Knicks touch the paint and spray out, play faster, turn defense into offense, and let the ball do the work.
At their worst, the offense stalls. The ball sticks. Effort wanes. And bad habits bleed into the defensive end.
“I feel like we’re not a finished product,” Brunson said. “There will always be constant adjustments. You’re never a finished product.”
That’s precisely why the Knicks hired Brown — to finish it. To lift the ceiling that once felt fixed.
In Sacramento, success meant making the playoffs. Brown did that. In New York, the bar is higher — and so are the expectations.
Which is why he can smile, laugh about his deactivated credentials, and walk back into Golden One Center with his head high — hoping his Knicks can hand the Kings one more reminder of what they let walk out the door.
“I’m sure there’s a human side to [wanting to play the team that fired you],” Hart said. “He hasn’t shown that at all. We always say it’s just another game, but there’s always a little bit behind it.”
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