New York Knicks Coach Mike Brown’s Wife Carolyn Wants to Get a Photo With Ben Stiller

Mike Brown has had one of the more well-traveled careers in NBA coaching, with stints leading the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, and a championship run as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors. Now in his first season with the New York Knicks, he has delivered the franchise its first trip to the NBA Finals in 27 years. Behind the scenes, his wife Carolyn has been a constant presence through all of it.

Below, get to know Mike Brown’s wife, Carolyn.

She grew up in Colorado.

Carolyn has a twin sister, Liz. The girls were adopted at 16 days old by a family in Evergreen, Colorado, about 45 minutes west of Denver. The sisters say they are best friends who speak several times a day. According to a profile from Cleveland.com, as adults, they connected with their biological mother and her family, though they never knew their biological father, who turned out to be a sports coach as well and has since died.

Carolyn went on to study psychology and then English at the University of Colorado.

The couple met at a bar in Denver.

Mike broke into the NBA as an unpaid video intern with the Denver Nuggets in 1992, eventually working his way up to a scouting role. It was during those early years in Denver that he met Carolyn at a local bar, and the rest is history.

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Mike Brown during Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals in May.

Years later, during his tenure with the Cavaliers, Mike was asked about the lessons he learned during his rookie season. “Back then, for me, it was my nose to the ground all the time. I slept in my office every night. I was pretty insane with that stuff when I was younger. I never left; I didn’t know anything else besides basketball. And it was tough,” Mike said in 2013. “But when I first met Carolyn, we were together because she pulled me away from being that way all the time. And that was a tough adjustment for me once I started a family–understanding the balance between family and work. Because you want to work your tail off, you want to be great. But at the same time, you don’t want to lose sight of what it means to be a person.”

They have two children together.

Both of their sons, Elijah and Cameron, played collegiate sports. Elijah also went into basketball, starting at Butler before transferring to New Mexico and later finishing his college career at Oregon. “They’re very similar,” Carolyn told The Indianapolis Star about Elijah and Mike. “They both have a yearning to get better, so settling is not an option. They both want to be the best in their craft.”

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Cameron (right) with 49ers linebacker Leonard Floyd at a game against the Minnesota Vikings in 2024.

Cameron played football at Case Western Reserve University. After college, Cameron coached and played professionally in Austria, then returned to Case Western to join the football team’s coaching staff in 2021. Two years later, he was hired by the San Francisco 49ers as a defensive quality control coach. “I didn’t do anything to be born to Mike Brown. I got lucky,” Cameron said in 2025. “So, I don’t see why I would treat someone differently just because I got lucky in where I was born. I have a lot of pride in my work ethic. I do my best each and every day to make sure I don’t fall into that [entitlement] trap and that I keep forging my own path.”

Carolyn is a fierce advocate against domestic violence.

Away from the basketball world, Carolyn has devoted significant time to community work, particularly around education and domestic violence prevention. During the Browns’ time in Cleveland, she became a regular presence at schools and community events, including volunteering at the Douglas MacArthur Girls Leadership Academy on Cleveland’s West Side.

“The first time she was on TV and the radio, it was a terrifying experience,” Carolyn’s sister Liz told Cleveland.com. “But she has learned, as silly as she thinks it is, that her voice actually can make a difference. She does wonder why people care. But she figures that since they’re listening, she might as well talk to them about what she’s passionate about.”

She is a fan of Ben Stiller.

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU//Getty Images

Ben Stiller high-fiving Timothée Chalamet (in the orange jacket) on the floor of Madison Square Garden after Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

After the Knicks clinched their NBA Finals berth last month, Carolyn spotted Hollywood actor (and longtime Knicks fan) Ben Stiller on the court during the celebration and nudged her husband to go say hello. Mike told her to get a photo with him herself. Her answer, as Mike later relayed to reporters: “No, I can’t do it!”

Stiller clearly saw the video of Brown recounting the story during the post-game press conference and responded via social media. “I am available for any picture any time with any member of Mike Brown’s immediate or extended family or friends,” Stiller wrote. “This man has taken us to the Finals. In his first year here.”

Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.