After earning his first technical foul as Knicks head coach in Wednesday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Mike Brown doubled down on the missed offensive foul call that left him berating an official in front of a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd.
“You guys saw the play. SGA [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] had two fouls, and Jalen [Brunson] was there, and he ran him over,” Brown said after the loss. “I just don’t understand why that was a no-call, but that should have been his third [foul], the bucket shouldn’t have counted, and we should have gone the other way with the basketball.
“So to see that knowing Jalen is standing there and putting his body on the line, and our guys are fighting our asses off and our guys are fighting our asses off to try to win the ball game, it didn’t sit well with me.”
Gilgeous-Alexander picked up two fouls by the 7:36 mark of the first quarter, subbed out of the game, then checked back in with just over three minutes left in the opening period. With 1:57 left in the period, the Thunder guard got past OG Anunoby but charged through Brunson before finishing a layup at the rim.
Yet despite Brunson clearly beating Gilgeous-Alexander to the spot and positioning himself outside of the restricted area, no official called a foul on the play. A third foul could have kept the reigning league MVP on the bench a large part of the second quarter. Instead, Gilgeous-Alexander went on to play 35 minutes and finished with 26 points and 8 assists on 9-of-16 shooting from the field
Brown took it upon himself to light into the official—because he’s asked his team to lay off the referees, an area the team struggled with earlier in the season.
“One of the things I wanted to get across to our guys is we’re good enough to win regardless of whatever the officials are calling, and we need to have that mentality, and I give our guys a lot of credit,” he explained. “Our guys have done a pretty good job restraining themselves. The growth in that area of trying to leave the officials alone was something that I’d pointedly tried to do.”
Brunson finished with 16 points and 15 assists but appreciated his coach having his back.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I’m gonna have his back every single night. He has ours. Regardless of what he does or the tech he gets or whatever, I’m gonna have his back.”
