The Sacramento Kings fired head coach Mike Brown on Friday and his NBA colleagues don’t appear to be too pleased with the organization’s mid-season move.
Monte McNair, Kings general manager, called the firing a “difficult decision” after Sacramento got off to a 13-18 start this NBA season and was in the midst of a five-game losing streak.
The team blew a 10-point lead with just three minutes left before losing to the Detroit Pistons 114-113 on Thursday.
The Kings snapped a 16-year playoff drought under Brown back in 2023 and he coached the team to an overall 107-88 record in just over two seasons.
He was named NBA Coach of the Year for the 2022-23 season, becoming the first coach in league history to win the award by a unanimous vote.
He agreed to a multiyear contract extension before the start of this season. Doug Christie has since been named the Kings interim head coach.
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, in remarks to the media on Friday, said he was initially “really shocked and surprised” by the news before he questioned his reaction.
“[I’m not] for two reasons. One, because as an NBA head coach, ultimately, you’re gonna get to blame. When they win, it’s gonna go to [Kings players Domantas] Sabonis and [De’Aaron] Fox, and when you lose, it’s gonna go to Mike Brown. That’s the way it works,” Malone said.
Malone, a former Kings head coach before heading to Denver and coaching the Nuggets to an NBA championship in 2023, later said that who Brown “works for” is another reason for the firing.
“Because I got fired by the same person,” revealed Malone, who noted that Brown got the news over the phone when he was in his car going to the airport to fly to Los Angeles ahead of the Kings game against the Lakers on Saturday.
Brown had just “ran a full practice” with the Kings and spoke to the media afterward before he was fired, according to Matt George, a sports anchor and reporter for Sacramento’s ABC affiliate.
“No class, no balls. That’s what I’ll say about that,” said Malone of the firing.
Elsewhere in the NBA, Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle told the media that Brown is “one of the standard bearers for integrity for our profession.”
“And I’m just, just absolutely shocked,” he said.
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, in remarks to reporters, said the firing was “so shocking” due to Brown’s unanimous NBA Coach of the Year award win less than two years ago.
“When you think about where that franchise was before Mike got there and where they’ve been the last couple years, the job that he and his staff have done, it’s really shocking,” Kerr said.
“And I know they’ve been in a tough spell but this is the NBA, we all go through tough spells. And I just know I feel very fortunate to work in an organization that really values continuity and that allows our team and our staff and our group to get through the rough patches.”
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Former Kings head coach George Karl — who was fired from the organization after the team missed the playoffs in the 2015–16 season — appeared to make a dig at Vivek Ranadivé, who became owner of the Kings in 2013.
“Same owner. Same ways,” he wrote in a post to X. “Isn’t gonna change.”
