OG Anunoby Has High Praise for Knicks Coach Mike Brown

Winning a championship changes how people talk about a coach, and forward OG Anunoby thinks Mike Brown has earned every bit of the attention coming his way.

The New York Knicks won the 2026 NBA title in Brown's first season, beating the San Antonio Spurs in five games for the franchise's first championship since 1973, and Anunoby was asked during training camp what it has been like to watch his coach get so much love since then.

Anunoby called Brown a special coach, and he said the praise is nothing new in his eyes.

"He deserves all the praise...he's always been a great coach. When you win, you get more recognition. Everything is coming together for him," Anunoby said in a video shared by SNY.

He also said he hopes Brown keeps getting more recognition, which lines up with what others inside the building have been saying.

Assistant coach Rick Brunson, the father of guard Jalen Brunson, has already said Brown deserves more credit for keeping this group connected.

When a coach hears that from his players and from his own staff, it usually means the respect inside the locker room is real.

New York hired Brown in July 2025 to replace Tom Thibodeau, and his first year could not have gone much better.

Several coaching greats reached out after the title, including Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr, and it is easy to see why.

The Knicks went 53-29 and finished third in the Eastern Conference, won the NBA Cup in December, and then went 16-3 in the playoffs.

They swept the Philadelphia 76ers and the Cleveland Cavaliers on the way to the Finals, and Brunson was named Finals MVP after scoring 45 points in the 94-90 win in Game 5.

Anunoby was a big part of that run too.

He averaged 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals during the regular season and made the All-Defensive Second Team, and then he raised his scoring to 20.1 points per game in the playoffs while making 48.9 percent of his threes.

The best part of his answer is that he gave Brown credit for more than the title, saying the coaching was always good and the results finally caught up, and that level of trust between a coach and one of his best defenders is exactly what a team needs when it is trying to repeat.

The hard part now is doing it again, because every team will be gunning for the Knicks this season and Brown will have to keep the same group hungry.

That is often harder than winning the first one, because the pressure and the expectations both go up at the same time.

That work starts tonight, when New York opens the preseason in Philadelphia.

Brown has said he plans to ease his starters in during the preseason, so fans should not expect heavy minutes from Anunoby or Brunson right away.

The regular season opens Tuesday, Oct. 20, against the 76ers at Madison Square Garden, and if Anunoby keeps playing the way he did in the spring, Brown will have another strong season of results to point to.