NBA
Former Knicks Coach Announces Final Game
Former New York Knicks coach Hubie Brown will get the last word in on Feb. 9.
ESPN revealed the destination for Brown’s NBA final game on Tuesday, as the 91-year-old is set to call the Milwaukee Bucks’ showdown against the Philadelphia 76ers. It will be the final NBA endeavor for Brown, who has been a sideline staple as either a coach or broadcaster since 1972.
He put his headset on for the final time for the afternoon game broadcast on ABC, which will serve as an indirect lead-in to Super Bowl LIX, alongside the Knicks’ primary television play-by-play voice Mike Breen, who also served as his broadcast partner when he called the 2006 NBA Finals on ABC.
Brown was at the helm of the Knicks for parts of five seasons (1982-87). He amassed a 142-202 record in that span and took the team to the playoffs twice. The 142 wins currently rank sixth-most in Knicks coaching history and he’s one of eight men to reach the century mark in Manhattan.
Things are set to end where they began for Brown: his first NBA job was staged in Milwaukee when he served as an assistant coach under Larry Costello. Since then, Brown has had a nearly-uninterrupted streak of five decades patrolling NBA hardwood, which included head coaching tenures with the Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, and Memphis Grizzlies.
Brown won two Coach of the Year titles, as well as an American Basketball Association championship with the Kentucky Colonels in 1975. Along with current Knicks boss Tom Thibodeau, Brown is one of 11 men to win the Coach of the Year honor at least twice and the 26-year gap between such triumphs is the longest in the history of the award.
Per ESPN, the game will recognize Brown’s lasting contributions to the game with further details emerging in the coming weeks.