Mike Brown's Knicks and Kenny Atkinson's Cavaliers are set to open the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday, a matchup that will pit two coaches shaped in large part by the same mentor: Steve Kerr.
Brown and Atkinson were lead assistants on the Warriors' 2022 title team, and their résumés since then have pushed both into the conference final spotlight. Atkinson guided Cleveland to a 64-18 record in 2024-25 and won coach of the year; Brown earned coach of the year in 2022-23 after leading the Kings to their first playoff berth in 16 years. Brown was an assistant under Kerr for six seasons and three championships, while Atkinson spent three years with Golden State after one season on the Clippers' bench.
Their shared background is more than a footnote. Kerr has praised Atkinson’s approach: "I learned a lot from him, and you know, he looked at the game a little differently than I did." Kerr also said of Atkinson, "He had a much more analytical mind than I did, and it was one of the reasons I brought him in." Brown has been equally direct about the influence of his mentors: "I’ll tell you what, just being around Steve was very beneficial for me and my career. I’ve said this many times before, Steve and (former Spurs coach Gregg) Popovich are probably two of the best messengers I’ve been around." Those endorsements help explain why two coaches who spent time in supporting roles have climbed to the league’s biggest stage.
Context sharpens the matchup. Atkinson had been fired by the Nets during the COVID-19 pandemic before stops with the Clippers and then Golden State; Brown was fired after one season in Cleveland before becoming an assistant under Kerr. This season Brown replaced Tom Thibodeau in New York. On the court, the Knicks often use Karl-Anthony Towns as a facilitator out of the post, while the Cavaliers frequently have Donovan Mitchell play large swaths of the game off-ball. Atkinson even adapted Cleveland’s attack to incorporate James Harden after a midseason trade, and the Cavaliers have reached their first conference finals since LeBron James departed in 2018.
The friction in this series is not merely tactical. Both coaches carry Kerr’s imprint, but they translated that education in different directions — Brown toward steady defensive structure and a message-driven locker room, Atkinson toward analytic-driven spacing and role definition. Atkinson himself called his time under Kerr "It was like finishing school for me" and added, "Steve understands leadership as well as anybody, any coach I’ve been around." That shared admiration for Kerr complicates the simple narrative that one approach must beat the other: Kerr’s lessons can be deployed as discipline or as data, and both coaches have used them to construct teams that are now two of the four remaining in the playoffs.
Which application of the Warriors apprenticeship holds up under playoff pressure is the single contest everyone will watch, but the human detail frames the more consequential reality: Brown arrived in New York this season to steady a franchise, and he leans on the exacting standards he absorbed from Kerr and Popovich. If the series is decided by preparation, film work and the ability to message a team through adversity, Brown’s track record as a longtime assistant and a recent award-winning head coach suggests he has built the temperament to deliver it.
