The first two interviews are in.
Ten days after the dismissal of Tom Thibodeau as the New York Knicks’ head coach and ten days into a highly publicized coaching search, the interview stage has officially begun.
As initially reported by James L. Edwards III of The Athletic and later confirmed by ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Knicks will be bringing in former Kings head coach Mike Brown and former Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins for formal interviews next week.
The New York Knicks are planning to meet with ex-Memphis Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins and former Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown next week for their head coaching job, sources tell ESPN. First formal interviews for the Knicks vacancy, and more could come.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 14, 2025
Brown, 55, got his start in the NBA as a video coordinator and scout for the Denver Nuggets in 1992 after concluding his collegiate career with the University of San Diego. Brown would get his first assistant coaching gig under Bernie Bickerstaff, father of JB, with the Washington Wizards in 1997.
When Bickerstaff parted ways with the organization two years later, Brown latched onto Gregg Popovich’s staff in San Antonio for three years before becoming associate head coach under Rick Carlisle in his first stint with the Indiana Pacers after the Spurs won the 2003 Finals.
After two years with the Pacers, Brown got his first head coaching gig with the Cleveland Cavaliers in June 2005. In his second year, he coached LeBron James and a band of misfits to the franchise’s first-ever Finals appearance, only to be beaten in five games by Brown’s old boss in San Antonio. The Cavs never got back to the Finals despite winning a combined 127 games in 2008-09 and 2009-10, being bounced in consecutive years by the Magic in the ECF and by the Celtics in the second round.
Despite winning Coach of the Year in 2009 and plenty of regular season success, Brown was fired in an attempt to appease LeBron as he entered free agency (didn’t work).
After one year away, Brown was hired by the Los Angeles Lakers following the retirement of 11-time champion Phil Jackson. Despite ageeing to a three-year deal, Brown coached just 71 games for the Lakers. After a 41-25 season in 2011-12 that ended in a second-round exit, Brown was fired just five games into the following season. A desperate Lakers’ brain trust had added Dwight Howard and an aging Steve Nash to desperately squeeze one more title out of the career of Kobe Bryant and Brown was cast aside after a 1-4 start followed an 0-8 preseason. Brown would be re-hired by the rebuilding Cavaliers in 2013-14, but was fired after one mediocre season.
Two years later, Brown joined the coaching staff of Steve Kerr in Golden State after their record-breaking 73-9 campaign ended up in smoke. Luke Walton had left to coach the Lakers and Brown became Kerr’s associate head coach. With Golden State, Brown won three championships and went an incredible 13-0 in the playoffs as an interim coach when Kerr was unable to coach due to chronic back pain in 2017 and later, COVID-19, in 2022. After a great tenure in Golden State with a generational offense, led by Stephen Curry, Brown got another gig in Sacramento.
In 2022-23, Brown led the Kings to their first playoff berth in 17 years with a 48-34 season, powered by a league-best 119.4 offensive rating. He won his second Coach of the Year Award for his After a disappointing exit at the hands of another former boss (Steve Kerr), the Kings were bounced in the play-in in 2024 after a 46-win campaign, before stumbling out of the gate in the most recent season, being fired on December 27th after starting 13-18.
He has a 454-304 record as head coach with a .599 win percentage and a 50-40 playoff record with three different franchises over parts of 11 seasons.
Michael McLoone-Imagn Images
Jenkins, 40, never played the game past high school. He began as an intern with the San Antonio Spurs before becoming an assistant with the D-League affiliate, the Austin Toros, in 2008. After four seasons as an assistant (and a D-League title), he spent the 2012-13 season as head coach, going 27-23 with a semifinal exit.
After one season in charge, he joined Mike Budenholzer’s staff with the Atlanta Hawks in 2013. Under Bud and his staff, the Hawks would be contenders in the Eastern Conference, notching the No. 1 seed in 2015 with four all-star selections before infamously being swept by LeBron James and the Cavaliers. Jenkins followed Budenholzer to his next job, coaching Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks for the 2018-19 season. After one year in Milwaukee, Jenkins was hired at the age of 34 as the head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Jenkins led the Grizzlies to the postseason in 2020-21 for the first time in the Ja Morant era. After an expected first-round exit, the Grizzlies broke out in 2022, winning 56 games, with Jenkins being the runner-up in Coach of the Year voting. A second-round exit to Golden State would unfortunately be the highlight of his tenure, as Memphis regressed to a first-round exit in 2022-23 before dealing with a mountain of injuries in a lost 2023-24 campaign.
Jenkins appeared to have righted the ship in the 2024-25 season, but behind-the-scenes disputes with the personnel led to his dismissal just seven games before the postseason, with the Grizzlies getting swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder weeks later. Jenkins went 250-214 with Memphis, 9-14 in the playoffs.
The Knicks will likely add several more names to their interview list, as they did in 2020. Be sure to check P&T’s coaching candidate tracker for the latest updates.