{"id":146874,"date":"2026-02-27T01:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T01:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/146874\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T01:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T01:41:10","slug":"mike-brown-sees-whats-holding-knicks-back-from-winning-a-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/146874\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Brown sees what’s holding Knicks back from winning a title"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE \u2014 A substantial tumble since New Year\u2019s Eve hasn\u2019t diminished Mike Brown\u2019s belief in a Knicks championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the coach understands there are factors beyond talent that will help hoist the Larry O\u2019Brien trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly believe it [that we are championship team],\u201d Brown said Thursday. \u201cNow, having said that, there are things that have to go right. You got to be playing your best basketball. You have to be connected. The things that I talk about. You got to sacrifice. If you got guys on your team that aren\u2019t sacrificing, you could be in trouble. Because it\u2019ll mess with your connectivity. Which is huge. You got to have a competitive spirit. You got to want to compete every night. And you got to believe. You got to keep believing. Even when things are going bad. Even when you go through stretches of 2-7 or 2-9. You got to believe not just in the process \u2014 because it is a process \u2014 but you got to believe in each other. And then at the end of the day, in anything you do, starting with me, everybody has to be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mike Mike Brown of the New York Knicks reacts one the baseline during the first half when the New York Knicks played the Houston Rockets Saturday, February 21, 2026 at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, NY. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

The Knicks (37-22) haven\u2019t looked the part of a title contender over most of the past two months, amassing a pedestrian 14-13 record starting Dec. 31. Heading into Thursday, it was tied for the NBA\u2019s 18th-best winning percentage during that stretch \u2014 and it included bouts of ugly defense, disjointed vibes and blowout defeats<\/a> against the East\u2019s top dogs. The No. 1 Pistons (48-13) have created space in the standings that feels insurmountable, while the Celtics (38-20) surpassed the Knicks for No. 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lately, New York, just a half-game above Cleveland for No. 3 in the conference, has been more pretender than contender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before New Year\u2019s Eve, though, the Knicks were 23-9 and NBA Cup champs. They carried the look of an NBA Finals team, after nearly reaching that point last year. So the talent has shown it\u2019s capable, and there\u2019s a public mandate from owner James Dolan to at least win the East.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Brown, who was on the coaching staff of four NBA championship squads in San Antonio and Golden State, said the Knicks need to quickly find the other stuff first \u2014 sacrifice, accountability, competitiveness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose things, which are our standard, are huge for us,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThose things are not necessarily what the outside world can see. The outside world sees the shots, the points, the defense and all that. If you want to win a championship, you gotta have a team that\u2019s talented. We have that. Can we make sure we maximize and embrace our standard every time we step on the floor? And if we can, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to get us over the hump.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 23 games remaining there\u2019s still time to rediscover a title form<\/a>, but the door is no longer wide open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Knicks head coach Mike Brown with New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson #11, during the 2nd half. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to be a final product by Game 60,\u201d Jalen Brunson said after Tuesday\u2019s nasty loss to the Cavs. \u201cI know how good we can be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After Friday at the Bucks, the Knicks begin the toughest five-game stretch of the season<\/a> \u2014 vs. San Antonio, at Toronto, vs. OKC, at Denver and at the Lakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All those opponents are top six in their respective conferences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be a good test of Brown\u2019s \u201cstandard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is geared toward being your best toward the end of the season and going into the playoffs and hopefully throughout that run,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI\u2019ve never been a guy who puts stock in everything and it\u2019s the end of the world if it doesn\u2019t happen in this particular game. That\u2019s not life in general. Things are going to average out to however they need to at the right time. And hopefully after 70 games, or whatever it is, you feel pretty good where you are going into that postseason.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 A substantial tumble since New Year\u2019s Eve hasn\u2019t diminished Mike Brown\u2019s belief in a Knicks championship.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1556,21,9,11,1104,10,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-146874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-mike-brown","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}