The New York Knicks are giving Mike Brown a very big payday to become their new head coach.
The Knicks agreed to a four-year, $40 million contract with Brown this week, according to Ian Begley of SNY. Coupled with the payoff for Tom Thibodeau, that means the Knicks have roughly $70 million committed to coaching salaries over the next four years.
The Knicks’ deal with Mike Brown is for four years and $40M in total, per league sources familiar with the matter. The Knicks chose Brown as their new head coach earlier this week after a roughly four-week search. Taylor Jenkins, James Borrego, Micah Nori and Dawn Staley were…
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) July 5, 2025
Thibodeau was making $11 million a year with the Knicks, according to Sportico, so the Knicks certainly aren’t saving any money in making the move to Brown. In fact, Brown will actually make as much with the Knicks as he did with the Sacramento Kings when they fired him.
Brown is seen by many as a fairly uninspiring choice for the Knicks’ job, but the organization clearly liked him. The team is essentially giving him a top-10 coaching salary even though they faced no competition for him, though the payoff Brown got from the Kings meant he did not have to take the first job offer that came his way.
The Knicks are coming off a 51-31 season that saw them reach the Eastern Conference finals, where they lost in six games to the Indiana Pacers. Brown will be getting a lot of money to try to take the team further than that.
