4. Larry Brown’s disastrous season with the Knicks
After Zeke’s first season in charge of the team, the Knicks hired Larry Brown to be their head coach. The 65-year-old had won the Eastern Conference in three of the last five years, including leading the Pistons to the championship in 2004 when they upset Kobe and Shaq’s Lakers in the finals. Brown was flirting with other jobs after 2005, so the Pistons let him walk.
He signed a massive deal to be the head coach of the Knicks that was set to pay him over $50 million over the next five years. New York was coming off a 33-win season, but they believed Brown could help them return to the playoffs and make a run.
The result was utter turmoil. The Knicks finished with just 23 wins and the second-worst record in the NBA. Brown feuded with players, including Knicks starting point guard Stephon Marbury, and the team was a disaster. The veteran head coach was fired after just one season in New York, and things got so bad that the Knicks tried to withhold the remaining money left on his contract.
Ultimately, Larry Brown got an $18.5 million settlement on top of the $10 million he received for his disastrous season in the Big Apple. He has the second-worst winning percentage of a head coach in Knicks history, and the entire situation turned into a disaster.