Mike Brown Explains Why He Has So Much Respect for Knicks Fans

The New York Knicks wrapped up a 4-0 sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday with a 144-114 blowout in Game 4 at Xfinity Mobile Arena, punching their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals for a second straight year.

The win was lopsided from the jump, but the atmosphere inside the building told an even bigger story than the final score.

Knicks fans showed up in force for both games in Philadelphia, raising brooms outside the arena and waving "Always Knicks" towels while chanting "Knicks in 4!" loud enough to drown out whatever was left of the home crowd.

After the final buzzer, head coach Mike Brown talked about what that type of support means to him and the rest of the roster.

"I got a lot of respect for fans," Brown said. "They're knowledgeable. More than anything else, they're knowledgeable. You respect that just as much as their passion shows."

Brown said he used to sit at home and watch videos of Knicks fans climbing light poles after first-round wins and just think, "Wow."

Now that he is coaching the team and seeing it up close, he gets why the energy around this franchise feels different from anywhere else he has been.

The crowd energy fed right into one of the best offensive nights in recent playoff memory.

Jalen Brunson put up 22 points in Game 4 and has averaged 28.0 points and 6.1 assists per game through two rounds of the 2026 playoffs.

Miles "Deuce" McBride, filling in for the injured OG Anunoby, went off for a career playoff-high 25 points on 7-for-9 shooting from three, rattling off four straight triples in the first quarter that put the game out of reach before it really even started.

New York hit 25 threes in the game, tying the NBA postseason record, and their 19.4-point average margin of victory through two rounds is the largest since the league expanded to 16 playoff teams in 1984.

The 53-29 regular season team has turned into something else entirely in the postseason, riding seven straight wins dating back to the tail end of their first-round series against Atlanta.

The thing that separates Knicks fans from every other fanbase right now is that the energy travels.

Madison Square Garden is already one of the toughest places to play in the postseason, but when thousands of New York fans can turn a road building into what feels like a home game, that gives this team an edge nobody else in the playoffs has.

Nick Nurse noticed it too after the loss, pointing to the gap in energy between the two fanbases as something that was hard to miss.

Brown has only been on the job since last July, but he already understands what this team means to this city.

The fans bring real passion and real basketball knowledge, and that mix isn't something most coaches get to experience.