Mike Brown understands the Knicks pressure cooker he’s inherited

This was a few Fridays back, on the night that Scarsdale High School opened its football season with a home game against New Rochelle High. There are few things that Mike Brown enjoys more than a football game (his son, Cameron is a defensive quality-control coach for the 49ers).

So Mike and his wife, Carolyn, decided to take in the Scarsdale Raiders’ home opener. At the half, Carolyn wandered back to the parking lot where an ongoing tailgate party was taking place. Mike stayed in the stands. And it was there when one of the players’ mothers recognized that sitting in their midst was the new coach of the New York Knicks.

“My gosh,” she said, after a few minutes of small talk. “How do you deal with the pressure? Your job is on the line all the time.”

Brown laughed. He’s been coaching a long time. The first gig was 1997, assisting Bernie Bickerstaff in Washington. The first time he ran his own show was 20 years ago, the 2005-06 Cavaliers. He’s coached 758 games. He’s won 454 of them. That’s a tick below a .600 winning percentage. By the measure of almost all professions, that’s a hell of a run.