New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown won his fifth NBA Championship when the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.
The Knicks defeated the Spurs 94-90 on the road in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Saturday night to capture the 2025-26 NBA Championship with a 4-1 series victory.
It was the Knicks’ first NBA Championship since 1973, and their third overall in franchise history, with the other coming in 1970.
But for Brown, it’s his fifth NBA ring.
Mike Brown Wins 5th NBA Championship
By guiding the Knicks to this year’s NBA Championship, Brown won his first ring as a head coach in the NBA. He had previously gone to the finals as a head coach in 2007 with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they lost to the San Antonio Spurs.
With the Spurs, Brown won his first NBA ring in 2003 as an assistant coach under the great Gregg Popovich.
Then, in 2017, 2018, and 2022, Brown won three more rings as an assistant coach to Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors during their dynasty years.
Brown now has five rings to his name, meaning he can fit one on each of the five digits on one of his hands. And he’s not done, as he’ll still be the Knicks’ head coach next year as they look to run it back and try to defend their NBA Championship.
Knicks Made a Genius Decision Hiring Mike Brown
Last summer, the Knicks fired former head coach Tom Thibodeau and replaced him with Brown, who was coming off being fired by the Sacramento Kings.
At the time, it was a bit of a risky move by the Knicks, as they had fired one of the better coaches the franchise had in recent memory, Thibodeau, and replaced him with Brown, who was fired by the Kings, one of the worst franchises in the entire league.
But the move has turned out to be a brilliant one for the Knicks, as they went all the way to the NBA Finals and won the championship this season to snap a 53-year drought by the franchise.
The decision to hire Brown looks absolutely brilliant in hindsight. He proved to be the perfect man to lead the Knicks both on and off the court, as he is a brilliant strategist when it comes to the basketball part of the game, but he is also skillfully adept at handling the cutthroat New York media.
The Knicks made, literally, a perfect hire with Brown, who proved that he is one of the best coaches in the league by defeating the Spurs and capturing this year’s NBA Championship.
For a coach who was fired by the Cavaliers twice, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Kings in his career, he must feel very vindicated right now.
We already knew Brown was a great assistant coach, because he had four rings as one. But now he’s got the ring as a head coach to shut up any of the doubters during his potentially Hall of Fame NBA career.
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