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WATCH: Former Knicks Head Coach Signs Off for Final Time

The basketball world bid farewell to one of its longest-lasting staples and a former New York Knicks head coach.

Geoff Magliocchetti

Feb 9, 2025; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; ESPN broadcaster Hubie Brown acknowledges the crowd after being honored with a video presentation during the first quarter of the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
Feb 9, 2025; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; ESPN broadcaster Hubie Brown acknowledges the crowd after being honored with a video presentation during the first quarter of the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
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After five-plus decades, the buzzer has finally sounded on former New York Knicks head coach Hubie Brown's legendary career.

Brown, who served at the helm of the Knicks for four-plus seasons (1982-86) capped off his NBA service by calling the Milwaukee Bucks' Sunday tilt against the Philadelphia 76ers at Fiserv Forum. Milwaukee took the game by a 135-127 final, but the result was mostly an afterthought as both sides bid Brown fare thee well after he narrated alongside Mike Breen for ABC.

"I know he started when he was 24 years old and now his last game, when he's 91, that's a lifelong investment of care and love into the game," Bucks star Damian Lillard told Brown's ABC colleague Lisa Salters. "It's mandatory that we pay our respect to him."

Brown's NBA career ended where it began: following a successful coaching career on the amateur levels, Brown made the Association leap in 1972 when he was called upon to serve as an assistant on Larry Costello's staff. Save for a two-year term at the helm of the American Basketball Association's Kentucky Colonels (which yielded a championship in 1975), Brown remained stationed in NBA arenas for the next 53 years as either a coach or a broadcaster.

Tributes to Brown poured in on site, on the broadcast, and on the league's social media platforms throughout the game. ABC's coverage, for example, opened with Brown's debut on a microphone, when he called a 1981 preseason game between the 76ers and New Jersey Nets alongside Eddie Doucette for USA Network. Brown was showered with praise and tributes throughout the afternoon with broadcast partners like Mark Jones, Dave Pasch, Ryan Ruocco, Dick Stockton, and Mike Tirico paying respects through recorded messages.

When the clock hit zeroes for the final time in Brown's career, players from both teams approached the broadcast table to shake his hand. Sunday's referee, James Williams, presented Brown with the game ball, much to the latter's amusement.

"[Fellow head coach] Kevin Loughery and I used to lead the league in technicals every year," Brown told Williams. "Now you're actually giving me a present, representing the refs? Just go back to the old-timers that used be working a two-man crew."

Breen, the Knicks' primary play-by-play voice on MSG Network, referred to Brown as "our NBA father" to himself and many colleagues. ESPN's stat department revealed an astonishing fact behind Browns' longevity during the game, remarked that he had coached against or called a game featuring 80 percent of the total players in NBA history.

The event culminated in Brown's emotional final sign-off, which can be viewed in its entirety below:

“I have so many things to be thankful for, but my family and I can never thank everyone enough,” Brown said in part during his final monologue. “We just want to send them the love that I’ve seen today right back with a big hug. It was a fantastic ride.”

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Geoff Magliocchetti
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI

Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks

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