NBA FINALS: KNICKS VS. SPURS

June 10, 2026

Mike Brown

New York Knicks

Game 4: Postgame

New York Knicks 107, San Antonio Spurs 106

MIKE BROWN: Good win by the guys, obviously. [Laughter].

I applaud all of them because we had different guys step up at different times. You take a guy like Jeremy Sochan, we threw him in the game and he gave us four to five great minutes. I don't even know when the last time Jeremy even played longer than 30 seconds. It was just a heck of a job keeping himself ready.

Ariel Hukpoti. KAT picks up fouls, Mitch is gassed. We throw Ariel out there. Ariel's minutes were unbelievable.

I challenged a lot of our guys today, and OG was one of the guys I challenged. I told OG, as big, as strong, as athletic as he is, he's got to be a monster on the offensive glass tonight. I don't know if there's a play bigger than any other play in the history of Knicks basketball. That was a huge offensive rebound. Huge offensive rebound. He took on the challenge, and he went and won the game for us doing exactly what I called him out for during shootaround today.

KAT, he picked up those early fouls. Was on the bench most of the half, and he had a whale, a whale of a fourth quarter, a whale of a second half for us. He was unbelievable.

Jalen, he's an MVP candidate. I say the same thing about Jalen every game: He does what an MVP is supposed to, and he did it again tonight.

Last person I'm going to talk about is Jose Alvarado -- clap for -- I know a lot of you guys can't because you're in the media but you've got to be neutral but I'm going to [expletive] clap for Jose. Sorry, Mom.

Jose was unbelievable tonight. He changed the game. His speed, his ability to touch the paint. Again, you give San Antonio a lot of credit. They are trying to throw a lot of different things against us defensively, matchup, man/zone, and if you don't close out on Jose, as hard as he works on his shot, he's going to make you pay. If you close out to him, he's quick enough to go by you and he made some great basketball plays offensively tonight, and then he was great defensively.

But you talk about a total team effort when we hit adversity. That's all we talked about all year, hitting adversity, hitting adversity, hitting adversity. I embrace it through the year. We have to hit it. Because we have to see if we're connected enough for moments like this.

And our guys showed their resiliency and showed their connected enough to handle a moment like that.

The series isn't over. It's going to be tough down in San Antonio. But I applaud all my guys and all my coaches for trying to find a way and finding a way to getting a win tonight.

Q. I mean, you talk about resiliency, you guys have come back from so many double-digit deficits over the last few weeks but to come back tonight from 29, what was said at halftime? Did anybody deliver a message to galvanize the guys or did you have a message to pull off the impossible today?

MIKE BROWN: We knew there was a lot of time. The coaches didn't show film. The coaches didn't want to show any film to the guys. We let them sit for a bit, talk amongst themselves for a bit and think about it. The biggest thing was, I told the guys, we can play better. Right now we are letting the ball get to the paint and we've got to do a better job of keeping the ball out of the paint. We have to play faster, so we're not going to be able to call any plays. We have to keep getting into actions right away, keep trying to move the ball, keep trying to keep the floor spaced.

And the reality of it is, not just in basketball, not just in sports but in life, too, I think you can all attest to this, you have to have a little luck in life. You've got to have a little luck in sports. But you can also make your luck, too. So, you've got to have some natural luck and some luck where you're going to make your own luck, and that was probably the biggest message. Long time to play still. We've got to get a little lucky. But let's do what we do, so we can make some of that luck happen.

And the last thing that we said to them was, let's cut it to around 15 to 17 going into the fourth, and if we do, we'll give ourselves a chance.

Q. You mentioned what you said about OG, but also, you were riding those guys right to the end. Him and Jalen, I don't think, sat maybe at all. To see what they were doing and probably exhausted, for OG to make that play, just how exceptional is that?

MIKE BROWN: It's unbelievable. You know, the tip, how he had to control it and tip it in, and then like I said, you know, that has to be the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball. I'm not you guys. You guys know better than me. But it was just unbelievable.

Jalen played the whole half. OG didn't. But we rode those guys, and they did a fantastic job of trying to play both ends of the floor, trying to play fast, while trying to give it to us defensively.

Q. Against Cleveland in Game 1 -- when you hear that crowd start to roar and you can kind of feel that wave coming, what's that like for you on the bench, what's that like for the guys, and as you're going in and out of timeouts and stoppages of play there?

MIKE BROWN: It was a little tough. I couldn't see much. And I say that because, like, Fat Joe is sitting there with all his chains on, and every time he jumped up, the freaking lights with those chains, they blinded me, so it was a little hard. Fat Joe, keep wearing the chains, because you look smooth, but you can't replace this crowd, man.

The building's already electric but during a run like that, to see, you know, people like Fat Joe and all the others just enjoying themselves at a basketball -- you know, just being human, jumping up and down, high-fiving, screaming, the vibe is just -- it's hard to describe, and the energy in the crowd had a lot to do with our comeback, too. It was fantastic. Unbelievable.

Q. 30 second-half points, you allow 8-for-39 shooting with nine turnovers. How were you able to turn things around defensively that way?

MIKE BROWN: Really, we didn't change much. We basically kept the same game plan. But defensively, we just did it harder for longer stretches, and we were really in tune to what we were supposed to be doing. Our level of physicality increased without sending them to the free throw line, as well, which is huge.

Q. Before the game, your team owner did an interview with WFAN where he essentially guaranteed victory tonight and in the series. Were you aware of that before the game, and what was your reaction to it, and if you weren't, what's your reaction to hearing that now?

MIKE BROWN: No, I wasn't aware of it. You know, he owns the team. He can say whatever he wants to say. You know, maybe he feels something, I don't know. But I'm a hundred percent okay with him saying whatever he feels like he needs to say.

Q. What were you looking for when you brought Jose in to share the backcourt with Jalen in the fourth quarter? What was your thinking then?

MIKE BROWN: You know, just to mix it up. Jose has been good in the pick-and-roll. Jose has been good touching the paint, and if Jalen wanted to get off the ball for a few possessions, Jose could handle it, and he could touch the paint and make the game easier for others.

If Jalen was on the ball and the ball got sprayed and it found Jose, Jose can then touch the paint with his speed. So that's all I was trying to do, is see if we can touch the paint a little bit more with the two guards out there while the floor was spaced right way. See if we can get some easy looks, especially from the three-point line while trying to play faster.

Q. Your team is full of a lot of guys that have been overlooked at various stops and even yourself, you've had moments where you've been doubted. Do you think there's something to kind of having that underdog journey to this point or having -- being overlooked at times that can be a super power in a way?

MIKE BROWN: You know, it's a great question. I think everybody to a certain degree at some point in life is overlooked, you know. I mean, I've had people in my own family who I see more potential in them than maybe what the world sees.

And you know, just to have the ability to stay with it, stay with it, stay with it, stay with it, especially when you get knocked down, to me, that defines who you are. Even if you don't have the quote, unquote, ultimate success that you think you deserve, if you get knocked down in life, and you're able to get back up and keep fighting, that's a freaking win.

You know, most of our guys have probably had to go through that, but I think most people in the world have to go through it. And it's fun to be around a group of guys that are resilient like that because I know it gives me hope watching these guys, not just for myself but my family and a couple of my friends, too.

Q. Finals could be very emotional. And the psychological part, coming from 25, 26 down, what does that do to your team going forward? And were you surprised Fox drove to the basket with only seconds left, when all he had to do was hold the ball, foul and go to the free throw line? Were you surprised on that action?

MIKE BROWN: Again, on that action, you never know what a player is thinking. You know, maybe he was going to drive and wanted to keep the dribble to run out the clock. I don't know. You would have to ask him.

Coming from 29 down or 27 down, whatever it is, it gives you the confidence to know that, okay, hey, we are never out of a game. And if we're down again, which you hope you don't get down that much, let's just keep fighting. Let's keep doing what we're doing. But maybe try to do a little better. Make an adjustment here. Make an adjustment there and see what happens.

So it just adds to one of our huge standards, which is the overall belief in the process, but more importantly, the overall belief in each other.