In his first season with the New York Knicks, head coach Mike Brown is off to the second round of the NBA Playoffs. He is one of several recent members of the Sacramento Kings franchise doing big things in the postseason, proving that the problem with the Kings wasn't the coaching.
The Knicks have just finished off their first-round matchup against the Atlanta Hawks in epic fashion. Credit where credit is due to a young and reinvigorated Hawks team, which actually gave a more seasoned Knicks team a run for their money. At first, at least. Atlanta managed to win two games.
Then, game six happened. The Knicks had absolutely blown the Hawks out by halfway through the second quarter. By the end of the first half, it was the largest halftime lead in the history of the NBA Playoffs. A final score of 140 to 89 was about as embarrassing as it gets.
It got so bad that Dyson Daniels may have picked a fight with Mitch Robinson so he could get ejected from the game and go home early just to beat the traffic. Despite some criticism throughout the series, Brown coached the heck out of the Knicks and got them to the second round.
The Kings have to know firing Brown was a mistake
There's no doubt that Brown has a better, more balanced roster to work with on the Knicks than he did in Sacramento. Still, he took that dud of a team all the way to the first round of the playoffs. No one could have done better. De'Aaron Fox is having a similar experience in San Antonio.
Naturally, repeating even that limited level of success was highly improbable. When Brown couldn't get Sacramento back to the playoffs immediately, he was fired. Really, it was the Kings' management playing the blame game instead of dealing with the real problems and fixing the roster.
It's been apparent since the day that the Kings turfing Brown was a terrible decision. The playoffs are just shining an even brighter light on the situation. Brown is on his way to the second round of the playoffs with a contender, while Sacramento barely avoided being the worst team in the league.
For now, the Kings are sticking with Doug Christie as head coach, though he has a long way to go before he's up to Brown's level. In the meantime, Sactown fans will continue to watch Brown lead the Knicks through the postseason and wonder what might have been.
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