So much for Larry Brown's honeymoon at Madison Square Garden.

The boos started when the Knicks fell 19 points behind in the first quarter of their home opener Friday night, and although they roused the passion of a sellout crowd with a comeback that gave them a fourth-quarter lead, the Knicks walked off to a chorus of boos at the end of an 86-75 loss to Washington.

That's not the way management pictured it when they signed Brown to a five-year contract worth upwards of $50 million.