Jason Burgos
A new rumor has added more fuel to the speculation that many New York Knicks players have already soured on head coach Mike Brown after just a few months.
Over the first few months of the season, the NY Knicks looked like one of the best teams in the league and a real title contender. Especially after they beat the San Antonio Spurs in the finals of the Emirates NBA Cup, however, they have started to worry their fans during a disastrous January.
Following an embarrassing Martin Luther King Day defeat to the lowly Dallas Mavericks, the team has lost nine of its last 10 games and is closer to the play-in tourney than to the No. 1 seed in the East. It has created a lot of trade speculation, as well as a narrative that forward Karl-Anthony Towns is the biggest problem with the team, and is the player most likely to be moved before next month’s trade deadline.
However, there is growing chatter that there is a growing divide between the majority of the team and its head coach.
On Tuesday, SNY’s Ian Begley reported, “Players haven’t fully bought into their roles under head coach Mike Brown. Those reasons are cited often when you talk to people about the Knicks’ flaws. Now, these issues aren’t unique to this year’s team. They existed to a degree in the locker room last season. But the Knicks coaching change hasn’t rooted them out.”
NY Knicks angered by Mike Brown’s PDA moment with Draymond Green
Well, following that report, ESPN’s Ramona Shelbourne claimed that Brown’s public show of affection for Draymond Green after the NY Knicks 126-113 loss to the Warriors last week, which included a dangerous technical foul by Green against Towns, did not go over well with his players.
“From what I understand, that did not land well with a lot of folks there in New York,” she said. “In that locker room or even in the organization. While you can understand why he might have a bond with Draymond Green, I don’t think that landed well, especially in the middle of a losing streak for a guy who’s not felt as much a part of the organization.”
Brown was an assistant coach for the Warriors from 2016 to 2022 and won three championships along with Green.
