Mike Brown gets a win and a hug from Spike Lee in his first game as Knicks coach

NEW YORK (AP) — Mike Brown had a welcome to Madison Square Garden moment Wednesday night, courtesy of a fan dressed in an orange-and-blue suit.

“Spike Lee came over and gave me a hug before the game,” Brown said. “I’m like, ‘Spike, do you know who I am?’”

Brown is the guy the New York Knicks are counting on to take them across the finish line after Tom Thibodeau got them all the way there. So of course Lee, one of the Knicks’ most famous fans, and just about everyone else in the building knew the coach.

And they had to be happy with what they saw after the Knicks opened the season with a 119-111 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Good first win knowing that we’ve got a lot of room to grow,” Brown said.

The Knicks reached the Eastern Conference finals last season for the first time