Detroit — During the 2025-26 season, the Eastern Conference was viewed as wide open due to injuries and various other factors. Each team that finished in the top six of the standings had its moments when it seemed poised to emerge as the favorite from the East.
One such team was the Detroit Pistons, who took the lead in the standings in November and maintained the No. 1 seed throughout the season after putting together a 13-game winning streak.
By late May, the New York Knicks had emerged from the conference to represent the East in the 2026 NBA Finals to face the San Antonio Spurs.
The Knicks have reached the championship round for the first time in 27 years, following one of the most dominant postseason runs in league history. They are on an 11-game winning streak, having swept the Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers in the last two rounds. New York hit a hot streak after battling back from a 2-1 deficit against the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the playoffs. They would go on to win the series in six games.
The Knicks’ journey to the NBA Finals might have surprised many, but Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff was well aware of the team’s potential. He recognized their capabilities early on, drawing on his knowledge of coach Mike Brown’s history and believing that his good friend could lead them to new heights in his first season with the Knicks.
“At the core of it, it comes down to putting their best players in position to be successful, and I think Mike has done a great job of that,” Bickerstaff said in January. “I think offensively there is more tempo, more side-to-side movement. You know, getting the ball out of (Jalen) Brunson’s hands, getting them to another side, and then getting the ball back to him. Obviously, because of injuries, they’ve been forced to play a few different types of lineups, or quite a few different lineups.”
Bickerstaff’s understanding of the impact Brown would have on New York comes from the relationship the two built over 30 years ago. Brown started his NBA career as a college intern video assistant with the Denver Nuggets under Bickerstaff’s father, Bernie, who served as coach during the early 1990s.
In his role, Brown was responsible for looking after Bickerstaff, who was 12 years old at the time. Over the next three decades, they developed a strong friendship and a deep understanding of one another, which would later foster mutual respect as opposing coaches.
Their relationship is part of why Bickerstaff showcased his displeasure with the Sacramento Kings following Brown’s abrupt firing in December 2025.
“Mike is one of the most classy guys that we have in our profession. He is one of the brightest coaches we have in our profession — just as a human being period,” Bickerstaff said at the time. “The way that it was handled was classless. When Mike pours himself into his job as he does, he deserves better than that. … I thought it was s—-y, to be honest, the way it was handled.”
The admiration Bickerstaff has for the former two-time Coach of the Year winner (2009 and 2023) is shared by Brown.
When the Pistons hired Bickerstaff as coach in July 2024, Brown understood from the start that he had all the intangibles to help turn the franchise’s fortunes around. This season, Bickerstaff became the first head coach in league history to lead a franchise from 60 losses (68 losses in 2024) to 60 wins within a two-season span. Bickerstaff won the regular-season series against Brown’s Knicks, 3-0.
“J.B. Bickerstaff is doing a heck of a job,” Brown said. “J.B. has the team believing not just in the process, but in each other. You can feel it. They have an identity they hang their hat on every single night. That’s physicality, their ability to rebound, their ability to guard. Those things are second to none when it comes to looking at this team.”
The Knicks finished the regular season third in the Eastern Conference after putting together a 53-29 record. They performed well throughout the regular season, including a win over the Spurs in the NBA Cup championship in December. Brown has since elevated the Knicks throughout their recent run to the NBA Finals.
The Knicks are entering the final round of the playoffs with the league’s top-rated offense and defense, boasting net ratings of 123.3 and 103.5, respectively. A victory over the Spurs would catapult Brown into basketball lore, marking the Knicks’ first championship since 1973.
If Brown can lead the Knicks to the championship, they will certainly do everything possible to become the first team in nearly a decade to win back-to-back titles next season.
However, if anything were to get in the way of New York, there is a strong sense that Brown would be rooting for Bickerstaff, especially given that he believes his good friend has already laid the groundwork for championship success in Detroit.
“When they hired J.B., I just knew it was going to happen because of who he is and his relationships with players and all that other good stuff,” Brown said. “They’re set up for a long time. With players and with J.B. as their head coach, as young as their players are, they can go on a long, long, long run.”
coty.davis@detroitnews.com
@cotydavis_24
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Pistons’ J.B. Bickerstaff connected to NBA Finals through Mike Brown