Head Coach Mike Brown Fired By Sacramento Kings, Sparking Backlash

Coaches around the league, including Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone, who formerly coached for the Kings, responded with ire at the sudden firing of Brown

Mike Brown, the 2023 NBA Coach of the Year, was fired by the Sacramento Kings on Dec. 27 after leading the Kings to the playoffs for the past two years. Brown’s tenure came to an end as the Kings finished up a homestand, which saw them go 0-5 and drop to the 12th seed in the Western Conference.

According to The Athletic, Brown ended the Kings’ 16-season playoff drought in 2023, bringing playoff contention to a franchise, which had long gone without hope.

Brown’s last game on Dec. 26 was an encapsulation of the Kings season up to that point, as the team found a way to blow a 19-point lead, capped by star guard Dearron Fox’s defensive lapse and panicked close-out which led to a game-sealing four-point play for the Detroit Pistons’ Jaden Ivey.

Following the game, Brown was understandably critical of Fox’s play and of the team’s inability or refusal to lock in defensively at the end of games this season.

The next day, after an extended conversation at practice with Fox, Brown gave his typical post-practice interview session to reporters and was preparing to board the plane to Los Angeles for the team’s game against the Lakers when word came down that he had been fired.

Coaches around the league, including Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone, who formerly coached for the Kings, responded with ire at the sudden firing of Brown.

Malone told reporters that he initially was “shocked and surprised” but after reflecting, those feelings gave way to an understanding of how life is as an NBA head coach.

Malone continued, “Then I caught myself. I said, ‘Why am I shocked and surprised? [I’m not] for two reasons. One, because as an NBA head coach, ultimately, you’re going to get the blame. When they win, it’s gonna go to Sabonis and Fox, and when you lose, it’s gonna go to Mike Brown. That’s the way it works. And two, who he works for,” Malone said. Malone coached the Kings from the 2013 season to the 2014 season. “So I’m not surprised that Mike Brown got fired, because I got fired by the same person.”

Steve Kerr said he talked to Mike Brown today after the Kings let him go: “When you think about where that franchise was before Mike got there, where they’ve been the last couple years, the job he and his staff have done, it’s shocking.” pic.twitter.com/9IljjWN0Ys
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 28, 2024

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, whose staff Brown left to take the job in Sacramento, called the firing of Brown “shocking” during the course of his comments to reporters.

“When you think about where that franchise was before Mike got there, where they’ve been the last couple years, the job that he and his staff have done, it’s just really shocking,” Kerr said.

Brown was replaced on an interim basis by key assistant coach Doug Christie, a beloved member of the 2001 Sacramento Kings squad that pushed the Shaq and Kobe led Lakers squad to seven games.

It is believed that the rest of the season will be Christie’s audition to show that he is worthy of a longer look, and potentially becoming the official next coach of the Kings. However, if tradition holds, he too could be swapped out for yet another coach if he falls out of favor with Kings ownership.