NEW YORK - The New York Knicks will pay former coach Larry Brown $18.5 million to settle a dispute over his firing in June, the NBA team's owner, Cablevision Systems Corp., said Wednesday.

The settlement was reached Oct. 30, but the Knicks were forbidden to release the amount that the team agreed to pay Brown. Cablevision, which owns the Knicks through its Madison Square Garden unit, disclosed the amount in its third-quarter report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The settlement is less than half of what the Hall of Fame coach had left on the remaining four years of his contract.

The Knicks still owed Brown more than $40 million when they fired him in June after the team went 23-59 in his only season in New York. Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan refused to pay the remainder of the deal, saying the team had cause to fire Brown for violating MSG policies.

Representatives for Brown and the Knicks testified before NBA commissioner David Stern for more than 15 hours over two days. A clause in Brown's contract made Stern the final arbiter in case of a dispute, but he got the sides to settle in a decision announced Oct. 30.

Stern prevented either side from discussing terms of the settlement.

Cablevision reported a narrower third-quarter loss Wednesday as the cable TV operator signed up more customers for premium services like high-speed Internet access and digital phone.