NBA FINALS: KNICKS VS. SPURS

June 9, 2026

Mike Brown

New York Knicks

Practice Day

MIKE BROWN: I'd like to pass my condolences on to Stacey King's family. Obviously, it happened a couple of days ago. I wanted to say something yesterday, but I did not. So, my thoughts and prayers are out to the Bulls organization, his family and his friends.

I didn't know him well, but being in the business as long as I've been in, I coached against him, then obviously coached against the Bulls many games with him announcing games for them.

He was a great guy. He's going to be really missed.

Q. KAT hasn't scored in the fourth quarter of this series. Are you surprised to hear that? How important is it that you guys are making sure he's getting touches, involved in the fourth quarters?

MIKE BROWN: It's extremely important that he's getting touches, that he's involved, not just in the fourth quarter, but obviously throughout the ballgame.

I got to continue trying to do a better job of getting him involved throughout the course of the game, as well as late.

Q. You've talked so much this year about starts to games, that you liked it better towards the end of the year. Three times this series you got off to early deficits. What do you have to do better at the starts of games?

MIKE BROWN: Our level of physicality was not good last night to start the game. We knew down in San Antonio they were going to come out with a bunch of energy, especially with the crowd that they have down there. They do a good job feeding off the crowd.

We wanted to make sure our level of physicality was there. If they hit some shots, we wanted to weather the storm. We didn't do a good job coming out last night, not just in the first half but in the second half, as well.

We have to up our level of physicality, especially at the start of the games, and try to maintain it throughout the course without fouling.

Q. Taking a step back from Game 3, you've talked about the great personality fit with a lot of guys on these teams. The other day you talked about Josh being the ultimate wildcard player you see with a lot of great teams. When you look at how Leon has built out this club, aside from the X's and O's, what people are capable of on the court, what do you see as his ability to gauge a personality that will make a good fit for this team? You also worked with Bob in Golden State.

MIKE BROWN: I worked with Pop, you said as an agent?

Q. Bob Myers, Golden State, came from the agent side as well. Do you see a link there?

MIKE BROWN: Usually, those guys have a pretty good feel, the entire profession, because they've dealt with the GMs for many years. Then they're agents themselves, so they've played both sides of the coin, so to say, when it comes to doing deals and making trades.

Then on top of that, because they represented players, and usually it's the bigger agents that make that transition, so they had some pretty good players that they represented, they have the relationships there.

All those things are similar. Good feel on both sides, then the relationships. Leon has a ton of them across the league.

But Josh, when I talk about that wildcard, meaning connector, a guy that doesn't necessarily have to score or have the stat sheet look pretty to impact the game, but more importantly is our emotional hub.

We had guys, even in Golden State, even in San Antonio, that are pretty even-keeled. To have a guy that shows emotion, plays off of emotion, is really good because it can allow others to ride that wave, too.

Q. It seems like a lot of times this season when you don't play your best basketball, ball movement tends to be a focal point. What is your process for addressing that?

MIKE BROWN: Well, just telling the guys the truth. Not just verbally, but doesn't matter if it's Jalen, KAT, OG, Mikal, we'll show them what we feel we need to show them on film. Then we'll walk through certain things to make sure that the spacing's right, the timing's right of our execution.

Q. Obviously it's been a long time since your team has had to deal with defeat and recovering from it. Do you feel like the belief that was created during the 13-game winning streak is a powerful asset to carry into tomorrow night?

MIKE BROWN: Yeah, obviously I'm a firm believer that you can grow and learn a lot in wins, but you can do the same in losses, too.

We have a veteran group. Nobody is 'panicking' or anything like that. Everybody is disappointed that we didn't go out and execute and play to what we feel our standard is. That's not taking anything away from San Antonio, but we feel like we can play a lot better than what we did.

We're looking forward to going out on the floor and showing it.

Q. You talk a lot about process mattering more than the result. With the process yesterday, what was the gap for you guys with regard to how you view a healthy possession playing out and what the process was on a play-by-play basis? What was missing?

MIKE BROWN: I'm not understanding your question. Are you talking offensively?

Q. Offensively, yes.

MIKE BROWN: We just didn't execute well. Like I said, I got to help them a little bit better on the fly by putting them in better positions with stuff that they're comfortable with. But then we have to play what our concepts or play to what our strengths are.

It's been pace, it's been space, it's been getting the ball reversed, it's been touching the paint, and more importantly it's been making quick decisions.

There were a lot of times where the decisions weren't made quick last night. One guy caught, held, held, held, held, held. Now the defense settles in. Now you're in trouble.

Making quick decisions while doing all those other things can help us out a lot, on top of me trying to help make sure that these guys are organized a little bit better.