The timing of the Kings firing Brown raises several important questions originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Just six months ago, De’Aaron Fox told Sacramento media how grateful he was to I finally have something that was missing throughout its then seven years of NBA career with the Kings.
Stability.
His comments came after Mike Brown, who entered the 2024-25 NBA season with one year remaining on his original contract with the Kings, signed a three-year extension stay the man in charge until the 2026-27 season.
Instead, 163 days after signing this multi-year extension, Brown was fired after a 13-18 start to the season which reached a new low point with a 0-5 at home and losing 12 of their last 17 games. And instead of the stability that Fox praised, he will now see his fifth coach in eight years while Sacramento will see its eighth since Vivek Ranadivé bought the team in 2013.
No coach lasted more than three years under Ranadivé’s ownership.
Something had to change, there’s no denying it. A team with Fox, DeMar DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis should be better than the No. 12 seed in the Western Conference.
But that change — at least for now — shouldn’t have separated him from the man who brought winning basketball back to Sacramento for the first time in nearly two decades.
Brown joined a Kings team that hadn’t made the playoffs in 17 years. He left it nearly two and a half years later with a 107-88 record, joining Rick Adelman (395-229) as the only two Kings coaches with a winning record since the franchise moved to Sacramento in 1985. The team has had 21 coaching changes in this span.
Brown’s 107 wins are also the ninth-most in franchise history.
That wasn’t enough for Ranadivé and general manager Monte McNair, however.
But from the outside, it appears the Kings don’t have a coaching problem — they have a personnel problem. Over the past two offseasons, they haven’t addressed their biggest concerns: wing size and depth.
Keegan Murray is the do-it-all winger the team has long dreamed of, but as a 24-year-old third-year player, he needs help. He was tasked with defending some of the best players in the NBA while also being an effective scorer, shot creator, and playmaker on the other end of the court.
Sacramento’s star center, Sabonis, is about as reliable and durable as they come, but at just 6-foot-10, he doesn’t really threaten opposing offenses at the rim. The Kings need a big guy, like a real large that can help relieve Sabonis when needed.
These were two obvious areas of concern after Sacramento’s heartbreaking first-round loss in the NBA playoffs to the Golden State Warriors in April 2023. Nothing was done. Then concerns were raised again throughout the 2023-24 season. Nothing was done. ALL RIGHT. Enter the 2024-25 offseason. You land DeRozan in franchise acquisition. Great, but that still doesn’t address the initial concerns.
The fact is that an artist can only work with the palette he is given. A mechanic can only fix what’s broken with the proper tools. When this palette is missing or these tools are missing, the result reflects it.
Brown worked with what he had, which, to be clear, was by no means a horrible list. Once again, this team is more talented than their record shows. But they undeniably need more to be competitive in the stacked West. And by no means was Brown’s shape or form perfect this season. He made several mistakes, as many other coaches in the league and professional sports do.
But Brown wasn’t the one committing reckless turnovers on the court. He wasn’t the one lacking in wide-open, well-executed 3-pointers. He was not the one who failed to close out matches.
Hey, but that’s business, right?
No matter where the fingers point, the easy way out always goes to the head coach. It’s an all-too-familiar theme that hit several coaches again Friday night after learning of Brown’s firing.
From Warriors coach and former Brown boss Steve Kerr to former Kings assistant turned Brooklyn Nets coach Jordi Fernandez to Michael Malone’s fiery but personal remarks, Brown’s firing was another unfortunate reminder that no job is safe, even if Kerr acknowledged he might be in a unique situation with Golden State.
“When you think about where this franchise was before Mike came in, where they were the last two years, the work that he and his team have done, it’s really shocking,” Kerr told reporters in Inglewood before the Warriors. ‘ game against the Los Angeles Clippers. “I know they’ve been going through a tough time, but it’s the NBA. We all go through difficult times.
“I feel very lucky to work in an organization that really values continuity. This allows our team and our employees to get through difficult times. Every team in the league is going to face these tough times, like we’re going through them right now.
“I know I am probably the exception rather than the rule when it comes to organizational support and continuity. That doesn’t mean it’s going to last forever, but it does mean I’ve been very fortunate to coach here and work for this organization, because it’s not easy. This work, this profession, is quite hard.
The Kings’ five-game skid at Golden 1 Center came at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers (twice), Indiana Pacers and more recently (and painfully), the Detroit Pistons. Detroit’s game Thursday night was one where Sacramento led by as many as 19 and as many as 10 with three minutes left.
But an inexcusable defensive error by Fox with 10 seconds remaining cost them the game. Overall, this simple play didn’t cause them to lose the game, as the Kings should never have been in this position in the first place. But that perfectly describes the kind of mental mishaps a team full of veterans shouldn’t have.
In the end, the Kings lost this game. Less than 24 hours later, Brown lost his job.
Change seemed imminent. But the question is: why now? Will Doug Christie, the interim head coach, or whoever they hire full-time afterward, magically give them the wing or center depth they desperately needed? Will the root of the struggles suddenly change with Brown’s departure?
The timing just doesn’t make sense. And maybe it doesn’t need to make sense right now, maybe time will tell. But that still doesn’t explain why Brown woke up Friday morning, coached an entire practice at the Kings facility, spoke to the media for over 16 minutes and then, bam, the basketball world collectively gasped in front of their phones reading the report from ESPN’s Shams Charania of Brown fired.
Maybe he knew that when talking to reporters. Maybe not. But an answer can be listened to again while scratching your head and digging deeper.
“That’s part of it. That’s why I get the money I get,” Brown said in response to the pressure mounting on a coach after a tough time. “But at the end of the day, you also know that when you go through tough times, you know who was really there for you. People will quickly leave the train. Support, wherever it comes from, is not always there. But that’s part of what I have to deal with. Not just for me, but to bring everyone together. And that’s what I’m going to do.
“And I’m OK with anyone who criticizes me because, again, I’m paid to deal with this. I’m getting paid to help us get through this. But when it comes to someone close to you – whether it’s staff, players, friends, family – you’ll be able to tell who jumped when you were going through tough times. And you always remember that as you move forward, because you know who’s really in the hole with you and who’s not.
“But at the end of the day, you better believe I’ll handle all the smoke.” It doesn’t matter where that smoke comes from.
That outspoken presence was who Brown was as a coach and as a person. He is honest. Direct. Responsible. It’s one of the key traits he’s implemented since arriving in Sacramento, and accountability has always been a two-way street between him and his players.
He pushed players, challenging Fox, Murray and Malik Monk like they never had before, providing a glimpse of their true NBA potential.
After Brown earned his 400th career regular season victory last November, Murray praised Brown’s impact on his young career with words that hit harder after the coach’s departure.
“He’s always pushing me,” Murray said of Brown. “Even last year, he didn’t treat me like a rookie. He treated me like a guy who’s been in the league for five, six years. That’s all I could have asked for in my rookie season.
“So he’ll be a guy that I’ll always remember early in my career and hopefully throughout my coaching career it’s had a big impact on me.”
Brown also left a lasting impact off the field.
He loves basketball, but he loved this team and probably more than anything else, the city. He was always all over the community supporting local middle or high school sports, shouting out Sacramento athletes by name or displaying school gear during media scrums and press conferences.
But none of that matters in the grand scheme of things when your team is losing and underperforming. Brown isn’t the reason the Kings are 13-18, but he took the hit. The Kings will now turn to Christie to help resolve any further uncertainty that awaits Sacramento over the coming months.
Mid-season coaching changes usually don’t end well, except for a few. For now, fans can cherish what Brown brought back to a deserving, basketball-loving city and wait patiently for the rest to play out.
Of course, the question now turns to what this means for Fox, whose future already seemed uncertain with Sacramento. Just a few days ago, Fox went on Draymond Green’s podcast to discuss his future and basically said that all he wants to do is win at a high level. Since then, the Kings have: continued to lose, reportedly met with Fox’s agent to discuss what happens next, and, just hours ago, parted ways with a coach he loved and respected.
We keep shrugging it off saying, “We’ll get there when we get there,” but, following a rapid turn of events, it seems we’ve gotten there.
And now ?
