NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Knicks liked Mike Brown's experience with championship teams, after he worked for four of them.
That sounds good to a franchise that's been stuck on two titles for more than 50 years but believes its time to win another is now.
The Knicks hired Brown on Monday, turning to the two-time NBA Coach of the Year after firing Tom Thibodeau.
The Knicks offered the job to Brown last week and announced Monday that he would be taking over the team that reached the Eastern Conference finals last season for the first time in 25 years. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
They decided to fire Thibodeau despite that playoff success and eventually picked Brown, who wasn't out of work long after getting fired by the Sacramento Kings during last season.
“Mike has coached on the biggest stages in our sport and brings championship pedigree to our organization,” Knicks president Leon Rose said in a statement. “His experience leading the bench during the NBA Finals, winning four titles as an assistant coach, and his ability to grow and develop players will all help us as we aim to bring a championship to New York for our fans.”
Brown led the Kings to a 48-34 record and the postseason in 2022-23 — their first appearance since 2006 — and was voted the Coach of the Year. He also won the award in Cleveland, where he led the Cavaliers to the 2007 NBA Finals.
He was on San Antonio's bench when the Spurs won the 2003 NBA title and was with the Golden State Warriors for their 2017, ’18 and ’22 championships, including going 12-0 as the acting head coach during the 2017 postseason when Steve Kerr was sidelined with a back injury.
Brown is 454-304 in 11 seasons, winning at least 45 games in seven of them.
He will take over a Knicks team with championship potential. The Knicks won at least 50 games in each of the last two seasons and knocked off 2024 champion Boston before falling to Indiana in six games in the East finals.
With the Pacers playing without star point guard Tyrese Haliburton next season after he tore his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the NBA Finals and the Celtics in transition with Jayson Tatum hurt and Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday traded, the Knicks will be one of the East favorites.
Their starting lineup is set with All-NBA selections Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, and they strengthened the bench Monday by signing former Utah guard Jordan Clarkson, one of the league's highest-scoring reserves, and Guerschon Yabusele, who played last season with Philadelphia.
Thibodeau's reluctance to use some of his bench players may have been a reason the Knicks decided to fire him after he led them to the postseason in four of his five seasons. They reached at least the second round in the last three seasons after not winning a single playoff series since 2013.
But they haven't won a championship since 1973. Their first title was in 1970, about two months after the 55-year-old Brown was born.
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FILE - Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown is pictured in the first half of an NBA preseason basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Oct. 15, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Spenser Heaps, File)
ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
