Knicks Coach Mike Brown Says Beating the 76ers on Banner Night Would Have Been ‘Playing With Fire’

Most coaches would have taken it. A new banner in the rafters, rings fresh on the players’ fingers, the champions within a basket late and their best scorer with the ball. Mike Brown walked to the podium after the New York Knicks lost to the Philadelphia Sixers and said what coaches almost never say out loud: he did not want the version of the night where his team stole it.

The coverage calls it a championship hangover, the bill for an emotional ceremony and a summer of celebration. Fair, and incomplete. Brown was not apologizing for the party. He was warning his players off the very habit that won them the title: falling behind, playing loose, and trusting the closing minutes to fix everything that came before them.

Fire, and no water

Jalen Brunson had the ball in his hands on the possessions that mattered and missed. Brown’s answer afterward went where coaches rarely go. Had Brunson hit those shots and the Knicks won, he said, “for me personally as their coach, there’s going to be something inside of me” wishing it had not happened, ESPN reported. “It’s almost like you’re playing with fire and you ended up winning that time without any water,” he said, then reached for the fire blankets to finish the picture.

It is an odd thing to hear from a man who had just been handed a ring. It is also consistent. Before tip-off Brown had said the ceremony was “tough because, knock on wood, it could be a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” and added: “But in the same breath, we have a job to do tonight.” Afterward he called the game ugly and named the problem without decoration. “We put ourselves in a hole not doing the other little things,” he said, conceding that sometimes that works at the end of a game and sometimes it does not. To amNewYork he added: “I understand we’re human,” and that the point was “not giving any excuses.”

The habit that hung the banner

Here is why the line carries weight. As NBA.com’s John Schuhmann noted, it was the Knicks’ ability to erase fourth-quarter deficits and out-execute opponents down the stretch that won them the banner they raised a few hours before tip-off. The title’s signature moment is the Finals comeback against the San Antonio Spurs at the Garden, a 29-point hole climbed out of and finished by OG Anunoby’s tip-in with 1.2 seconds left, according to the Associated Press. When the arena’s highlight package replayed that tip-in, it drew some of the loudest cheers of the night.

A team that survives a hole like that learns it can survive anything. Brown spent his ring night trying to unteach it. This time the late surge came up short. Karl-Anthony Towns hit a 3 that cut Philadelphia’s lead to one with about four and a half minutes left, and New York scored only twice on its final eight possessions, by NBA.com’s count. Jaylen Brown switched onto Brunson and smothered an isolation. Joel Embiid blitzed a pick-and-roll. LeBron James closed out on Towns at the arc, Anunoby threw crosscourt, and Tyrese Maxey intercepted and ran it in for a dunk and a six-point lead.

The locker room heard it

The players did not argue. “I think it’s good for us to get knocked down off the mountain, humble ourselves, put our egos in check,” Brunson said, according to ESPN, after a 6-of-19 night that included 1-for-5 shooting in the fourth quarter. Josh Hart went further, as quoted by the Associated Press: “Right now we’re 0-1. We’re the worst team in the NBA, as of right now.” Brown gave the visitors their due as well. “[The Sixers] have at least four perennial All-Stars,” he said.

The numbers back the coach’s discomfort. Philadelphia won 106-100, and the Knicks scored fewer points than they had possessions, something NBA.com counts as having happened only six times in their 101 games last season. New York shot 37% from the field and went 5-of-21 in the third quarter. All game, Brown said, “we looked like we were running in mud.” The Brunson pick-and-rolls that hunted Embiid during New York’s sweep of the Sixers in last spring’s conference semifinals produced five points on 14 chances. Maxey scored 28 points, Jaylen Brown 19 in his debut after the summer trade from Boston, and James posted 14 points, nine rebounds and seven assists to open his 24th season. Embiid had 13 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks on 4-for-15 shooting.

The ceremony itself honored the Knicks’ first championship since 1973. Walt Frazier handed the players their rings, Willis Reed’s widow handed Brown his to a rousing ovation, and a surprise NBA Cup banner went up alongside the title banner. One ring went to the opposing bench: Ariel Hukporti, a title winner with New York last season who joined the Sixers in free agency and tore his Achilles in the preseason, received his on a scooter, leg raised. Philadelphia plays its home opener Thursday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Banner night ended with the champions at 0-1 and their coach strangely at peace with it. The ring on his finger came from a team that refused to lose late. What he wants now is a team that never needs to.

Tags: Jalen Brunson, new york knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Madison Square Garden, Mike Brown