Tony Kornheiser got used to mocking the New York Knicks during his career and he took the lazy way out after they hired Mike Brown as their next head coach.
The Knicks’ long and exhaustive coaching search appears to have ended this week, culminating with Brown replacing Tom Thibodeau. With a resume that includes taking a young LeBron James to the NBA Finals, coaching the Cleveland Cavaliers to 66 wins, working in a large market like Los Angeles and leading the Sacramento Kings out of their playoff drought, Brown is seemingly a very good hire for the Knicks.
But for Kornheiser, the hire almost seems too good, better than the Knicks deserve. Wednesday evening on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, Kornheiser ranted about the move to co-host Mike Wilbon, ripping the Knicks with seemingly old narratives.
PTI takes on the Knicks hiring Mike Brown as head coach…
Tony Kornheiser: “He’s a professional coach, and he’s being hired, if it happens, by a management that is amateurish… Mike Brown is on some level better than the Knicks deserve right now.” #NBA pic.twitter.com/APFFHTQLib
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 2, 2025
“He’s a professional coach, and he’s being hired, if it happens, by a management that is amateurish,” Kornheiser claimed. “Every single thing the Knicks have done, including firing Tom Thibodeau, has made them look worse. Day by day, worse. So, he is…Mike Brown is on some level better than the Knicks deserve right now.”
This would have been a great rant five years ago, when the Knicks hired Thibodeau to lead a team that hadn’t been to the playoffs in nearly a decade. It would have been a good rant when they hired Mike D’Antoni or brought Phil Jackson in as team president. Because they were all better than the Knicks deserved at that point in the franchise’s history. But where has Kornheiser been the last five years that he’s still rehashing these lazy narratives about the Knicks being an amateurish organization?
The Leon Rose-led Knicks have been patient and careful in building a winning a team, proving to be anything but amateurish. Yes, the decision to fire Tom Thibodeau after the team’s best season in a quarter-century was curious. But if history is any indication, Thibodeau has a shelf life. And the decision to go after coaches who were already employed by other teams was also curious, but the Knicks’ search ultimately led them to Brown.
The Knicks have won playoff rounds in three straight years and most recently, they went to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. They’re a win now team in a wide-open Eastern Conference. If Brown is too good for the 2025 Knicks, what NBA team is worthy of him?