Jalen Brunson turned heads with his reaction to the latest news on the New York Knicks coaching search.
To no one’s surprise except for the Knicks star, his father, Rick Brunson, is returning to the Knicks bench next season despite Tom Thibodeau’s firing, NBA insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer reported on Tuesday, July 1.
“WHAT?!” Jalen Brunson posted on X, tweet-quoting the report.
WHAT?! https://t.co/TWzg9EiE1H
— Jalen Brunson (@jalenbrunson1) July 1, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
“The Stein Line has learned that Rick Brunson, father of Knicks star Jalen Brunson, is expected to remain part of the Knicks’ coaching staff when Thibodeau’s successor is officially named. The same is expected for some other key holdovers from Thibodeau’s staff,” Stein and Fischer wrote.
Perhaps, Brunson known for trolling on social media, knew this from the start and it’s just his funny way to poke humor into the coaching search that has dragged into more than a month now.
The Favorite to Become Next Knicks Coach
GettyMike Brown is widely regarded as the frontrunner in the New York Knicks coaching search.
The report also added that former two-time NBA Coach of the Year Mike Brown has jumped as the frontrunner in the Knicks’ coaching search after earning a second interview with the team.
“The Knicks, according to league sources, have been telling prospective free agents since the NBA marketplace opened Monday night at 6 PM ET that their search to replace Tom Thibodeau is nearing a resolution.
And former Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown is widely regarded now as the favorite to land the position,” Stein and Fischer wrote.
But Brown must need one last hurdle to pass to become Thibodeau’s successor.
“Yet sources briefed on the process stressed Tuesday that Brown, who has been in New York for the past two days, will require ultimate endorsement from Knicks owner James Dolan before he can be named Thibodeau’s successor,” Stein and Fischer added.
Furthermore, if Brown gets the job, the Knicks are also considering hiring James Borrego as his top assistant, according to Stein and Fischer.
Mike Brown’s Biggest Supporter
As in the last Knicks coaching search which Thibodeau eventually won, Brown again impressed the team’s lead decision-makers in his second attempt to land in the most high-profile coaching job in the NBA.
Brown has a known staunch supporter within the Knicks organization — executive vice president and Leon Rose’s right-hand man William Wesley aka “World Wide Wes,” according to Sam Amick of The Athletic.
“While [James] Dolan is the holder of supreme Knicks power, and team president Leon Rose is the undisputed leader of the front office, executive vice president William Wesley (aka “Worldwide Wes”) continues to have the kind of influence that matters a great deal during times like these. For Brown’s purposes, it certainly doesn’t hurt his case that his close relationship with Wesley dates back to the mid-2000s days when Brown was coaching LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers (Wesley, at that time, was a league-wide power broker and one of James’ primary confidantes),” Amick wrote on June 12.
Coaching Evolution
After losing to Thibodeau in the last Knicks coaching search, Brown remained with the Golden State Warriors and won his fourth championship as an assistant coach in 2022. He parlayed that into his fourth head coaching job when the Kings hired him ahead of the 2022-23 season.
In Brown’s first year, the Kings secured a playoff berth for the first time since 2006, earning him his second NBA Coach of the Year award. He became the first coach in NBA history to win the award by a unanimous vote.
Ironically, Brown, known as a defensive guru like Thibodeau, guided the Kings into becoming the league’s top offense in his first year in historic fashion. The Kings regressed from there, missing the playoffs in Brown’s second year at the helm.
Under his watch, the Kings’ defense never ranked higher than 18th because of their inability to defend the 3-point line, particularly wide-open shots, where they ranked 28th in the league before his firing. Ultimately, a 13-18 start in his third season cost Brown his job.
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