The New York Knicks plan to add former Sacramento Kings assistant coach Riccardo Fois to Mike Brown’s staff, Fred Katz of The Athletic reports.
Fois is with the Knicks’ contingent in the 2025 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, according to Katz. The 38-year-old Italian coach worked under Brown for the first half of last season in Sacramento. Fois remained with the team after Brown was fired, but he was not retained after the season.
Brown is not only the connection Fois has to the Knicks organization. He has also worked with Mikal Bridges during their time together in Phoenix.
Fois started his NBA coaching career with the Suns as the director of player development from 2019 to 2021 after serving as director of analytics at Gonzaga, where he worked with future NBA players Domantas Sabonis, Rui Hachimura, Zach Collins and Killian Tillie. Following his stint with the Suns, he joined Arizona as an assistant coach and worked with future NBA players Ben Mathurin, Christian Koloko, Dalen Terry and Pelle Larson.
Fois is also an assistant coach with the Italian men’s basketball team, which reached the quarterfinals for the first time in 20 years. He also served as a video coordinator for Team USA, under Gonzaga coach Mark Few, which took home the bronze medal in the 2015 Pan American Games.
The 6-foot-2 Fois played college basketball for Pepperdine but went undrafted in the 2009 NBA draft.
Rick Brunson To Have a ‘Lesser Role’
Getty Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks talks with his father, New York Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson, during the second half against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Fois will join the holdovers from Tom Thibodeau’s coaching staff. Rick Brunson, Mark Bryant, Maurice Cheeks and Darren Erman are likely to remain, according to SNY’s Ian Begley.
However, Brunson will no longer be the Knicks’ lead assistant coach, a position he held last season, New York Post’s Stefan Bondy reported.
“Mike Brown is expected to hire a new associate head coach, The Post has learned, a move that will change the dynamics in the front of the Knicks bench by giving Rick Brunson a lesser role,” Bondy wrote on July 8.
After Thibodeau was fired, Sam Amico of Hoops Wire reported on Rick Brunson’s presence causing friction among the Knicks players.
“Per Hoops Wire sources, multiple Knicks players have been unhappy with the presence of assistant coach Rick Brunson, the father of star guard Jalen Brunson. What that issue is, exactly, has not been determined, though sources suggested that Rick has had too big a say in things,” Amico wrote on June 4.
Amico added in his report, citing one source, that Rick Brunson is “the person with the most power in the entire organization.”
But under Brown, Rick Brunson will have a lesser role, thus a smaller voice in the team.
“This is what’s best for the organization and the players,” Bondy wrote, citing a league source.
Mike Brown Embraces New York Challenge
Getty Head coach of Mike Brown of the New York Knicks speaks to media during his introductory press conference.
Brown, who is also a two-time NBA Coach of the Year like Thibodeau, is coming to New York with championship expectations, which team president Leon Rose made it clear when they fired Thibodeau.
But Brown is unfazed.
“Nobody has any bigger expectations, first of all, than I do. My expectations are high,” Brown told reporters during his introductory press conference. “This is the Knicks. We talked about Madison Square Garden being iconic. We talked about our fans. I love and embrace the expectations that come along with it. So I’m looking forward to it.”
Before Brown ended the Kings’ playoff drought — the longest in the NBA at 16 seasons — in 2023, he had been on teams with a championship-or-bust mandate.
Brown coached a young LeBron James to his first NBA Finals in Cleveland in 2007 but got swept. He succeeded Phil Jackson in Los Angeles with the late Kobe Bryant but was fired five games into his second season. He was more successful as an assistant coach, winning four championships with the San Antonio Spurs (2003) and Golden State Warriors (2017, 2018 and 2022).
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