{"id":317269,"date":"2026-06-01T07:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/317269\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T07:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:36:11","slug":"mike-browns-spurs-ties-dont-change-his-knicks-mission-in-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/317269\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Brown’s Spurs ties don’t change his Knicks mission in NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another NBA Finals opens in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Mike Brown was on the bench \u2014 in what is now known as the Frost Bank Center \u2014 with Gregg Popovich during the 2003 NBA Finals, serving as a young assistant in the title series against the Nets, which ended with a parade along the San Antonio River. <\/p>\n

Four years later, Brown was a second-year head coach with a 22-year-old superstar (LeBron James), attempting to lead the Cavaliers to an upset of Tim Duncan\u2019s Spurs.<\/p>\n

Now, Brown, 56, is heading back to a city where his family still resides, needing to defeat the friends and the franchise that helped catapult his career to claim his first championship as a head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey definitely want to beat me and I want to kick their ass,\u201d Brown said following Sunday\u2019s practice. \u201cYou love \u2019em and you can always love \u2019em before and after \u2026 I got ties to San Antonio and you appreciate the people, you appreciate the journey and all that other stuff. But at the end of the day, just like they want to beat you, you definitely want to beat them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewMike Brown reacts on the sideline during the Knicks\u2019 May 23 game. Charles Wenzelberg<\/p>\n

Brown was a hard-working but relatively inexperienced 30-year-old when he arrived in San Antonio, where he\u2019d spend three years (2000-03) as an assistant who designed thorough scouting reports and color-coded practice itineraries. <\/p>\n

Popovich (the five-time title-winning head coach who serves as the Spurs\u2019 president of basketball operations) became a trusted mentor and close friend.<\/p>\n

After Brown was fired as a head coach for the third time in 2014, Popovich helped convince him to unofficially end his coaching sabbatical by offering him a role as a volunteer consultant for the Spurs, giving Brown an open invitation to attend every game, practice and meeting he desired.<\/p>\n

\"GreggGregg Popovich, Mike Brown and Tim Duncan are pictured after winning the NBA Finals in 2003. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Brown, who had recently gone through a divorce, took up part-time residence in San Antonio \u2014 sleeping in a double bed, beneath a Spiderman poster, in the former bedroom of Danny Ferry\u2019s son \u2014 and spent more than half a season with the Spurs, helping the coach he could never properly repay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe job that he\u2019s done, not only on the court with that team and the organization, but off the court too, is gonna be imprinted as long as the game of basketball exists,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe still has a huge presence. He\u2019ll always have a presence. His presence is very much felt all the time.\u201dI\u2019ve got a lot of respect for the organization for a lot of different reasons. I worked there, having an opportunity to work there and being part of a championship there and my family being down there too reminds me of good times.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another NBA Finals opens in San Antonio. Mike Brown was on the bench \u2014 in what is now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[46765,3080,6537,89148,91686,6396,82,84,83,1066,154],"class_list":["post-317269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-mike-brown","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-playoffs-2026","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}