Former Knicks Coach Nervous for Final Broadcast

A former New York Knicks head coach will be stepping away from the game after over five decades of work.

Nov 14, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; ESPN broadcaster Hubie Brown during the NBA game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

After over five decades on NBA sidelines, former New York Knicks head coach Hubie Brown still gets nervous on game day.

Brown's hardwood patrol is nearing its end, as he's set to call one of final game for ABC/ESPN on Sunday: working alongside Knicks voice Mike Breen, Brown's swan song will be staged at Fiserv Forum, where the Milwaukee Bucks host the Philadelphia 76ers (2 p.m. ET, ABC).

"You're always nervous," Brown said, per the Associated Press. "That's me. I don't worry about anybody else. Because you want to be able to paint the picture, you want to be able to educate the fan to another level of expertise, and you realize it's a team doing it, not yourself."

Brown has been a basketball staple since the late 1940s, when he starred for St. Mary of the Assumption High School. He made the leap to the Association in 1972 as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks and has been a staple ever since. The tenure includes four stops as a professional head coach, with his second NBA stop in that department being a five-year term with the Knicks (1982-87).

Brown won 142 games with the Knicks, part of a final NBA tally of 528. In addition to the Knicks, he also served at the helm of the Atlanta Hawks (1976-81) and Memphis Grizzlies (2002-04) after winning an American Basketball Association championship with the Kentucky Colonels in 1975.

Since retiring from coaching, Brown has been a mainstay on NBA broadcasts, working with USA, CBS, TNT, ESPN, ABC, and ESPN Radio. The two-time NBA Coach of the Year Award winner called 13 consecutive editions of the NBA Finals on the radio (2007-19) after getting four on TV (1989-90, 2005-06).

One more call awaits in Milwaukee, where he hopes to make his family, those he has mentored, and those he has worked with proud.

"I have to say, it’s a long way from 126 Burnet St. in Elizabeth, N.J., where I grew up," Brown said in an interview with Ben Lambert of NBA.com. "You can’t be at this level, and doing it for 35 years, without appreciating the people who opened the doors. In life, you’re advancing, you’re doing the best. As you move up, from coaching at the different levels, to television, you’re constantly moving, but you’re constantly moving financially, for your family."

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