Brown is the only coach in basketball history to win both an NCAA national championship (Kansas Jayhawks, 1988) and an NBA title (Detroit Pistons, 2004).

[4] His maternal grandfather Hittelman was from Minsk, Belarus, and his mother's family immigrated to the United States in 1910 and opened a bakery in Brooklyn.

[7][8][9] Brown attended University of North Carolina, where he played basketball under legendary coaches Frank McGuire and Dean Smith.

[3] After a two-year stint (1965–1967) as an assistant coach at North Carolina, Brown joined the upstart American Basketball Association, playing with the New Orleans Buccaneers (1967–68), Oakland Oaks (1968–69), Washington Caps (1969–70), Virginia Squires (1970–71), and Denver Rockets (1971–72).

[13] Brown moved on to the ABA and coached with the Carolina Cougars and then the Denver Nuggets, who later joined the NBA in 1976, for five and a half seasons from 1974 to 1979.

He then moved on to coach for UCLA (1979–1981), leading his freshman-dominated 1979–80 team to the NCAA title game before falling to Louisville, 59–54.

Brown began his tenure at the University of Kansas (1983–1988), replacing the fired Ted Owens, who had overseen back-to-back losing seasons in 1981–82 and 1982–83.

In the 1987–88 season, Kansas got off to a mediocre 12–8 start, including 1–4 in the Big 8, and the end of the Jayhawks' 55-game homecourt winning streak in Allen Fieldhouse.

Ultimately, behind the high-scoring of Danny Manning, KU rallied to win nine of their next twelve games to finish third place in the Big 8 and qualify for the 1988 NCAA tournament as a 6-seed in the Midwest Regional.

Once there, Kansas upset the East Region's #2 seed Duke, 66–59, avenging an overtime loss at home to the Blue Devils earlier in the season.

Two nights later, the Jayhawks, who became known as "Danny and the Miracles", upset the Southeast Region's #1-seed and fellow Big 8 rival Oklahoma, 83–79, to avenge a regular-season sweep by the Sooners and win the 1988 NCAA championship.

Two months later, Brown opted to return to professional coaching, departing KU for the San Antonio Spurs.

As harsh as these sanctions were, the infractions committee seriously considered imposing a "death penalty" on Kansas, which would have resulted in canceling the entire 1989–90 season.

However, the committee opted against imposing a death penalty because Askew was the only player who received impermissible benefits, and because Brown had returned to the NBA by then.

[17] He described his tenure later as a rocky one in his press conference for his next coaching position, saying "In San Antonio, we won 21 games my first year, and that never satisfied our owner (referring to Red McCombs).

[19] He took a sub-.500 team in 1992 and guided them to their first winning season since the franchise moved to Los Angeles and their first playoff berth since they were the Buffalo Braves in 1976.

Brown claimed he resigned in February, which they accepted, although he stated that they tried to later offer him a contract for life (with a request from owner Donald Sterling himself) that they did not follow up on.

He was the first fulltime Clippers coach to finish with a winning record in his tenure and the only one until Vinny Del Negro twenty years later.

[23] He resigned his position on April 30, 1997, citing his frustration with the team's inability to advance past the conference finals, which he felt was his responsibility.

The 76ers had lost 60 games prior to Brown's arrival, but they were brightened by the emergence of Allen Iverson, who won Rookie of the Year.

They dispatched the Pacers in four games but had to deal with tough opponents in the Toronto Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks in the Semifinals and Conference finals, respectively.

They faced the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in the 2001 NBA Finals, who had not lost any of their postseason games that year.

Brown was chosen as the head coach for the United States men's basketball team at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

On the play, Wallace trapped Manu Ginobili, who passed it away to Horry, who found time to shoot the game-winning three for the Spurs.

Brown's season with the Knicks was marred by public feuds with his own players, most notably point guard Stephon Marbury.

[35] After the firing, the Knicks declined to pay the remaining sum (more than $40 million) under Brown's contract on the grounds that he had been terminated for cause.

Before the contract dispute was to be heard by NBA Commissioner David Stern, Brown reached an agreement with the Knicks wherein the team agreed to pay him $18.5 million.

[42] After a rebuilding season in 2012–2013 (15–17), Brown brought SMU into the national conversation the following year, as the school made its first appearance in The Associated Press Top 25 rankings since 1985.

[46] On September 29, 2015, Brown was suspended by the NCAA for 30% of the Mustangs' games in the upcoming 2015–2016 season, and the team was banned from 2016 post-season play, placed on probation for three years, and lost nine scholarships over a three-year period.

[48] On June 12, 2018, Brown accepted the proposal of Auxilium Torino to become the new head coach of the Italian basketball club of the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA).