Kings fire former NBA Coach of the Year Mike Brown
The Sacramento Kings unexpectedly parted ways with head coach Mike Brown amid his third season with the franchise.
The Kings’ struggles to push their way up the standings while hitting a five-game skid have seemingly pushed Brown out of Sacramento. He was named the NBA Coach of the Year in his first year in 2022-23, which featured ending a 16-year playoff drought.
In his two-plus seasons, Brown had a 107-88 regular season while recording a winning record in each of his full seasons. He and Rick Adelman are the only coaches in team history to post a winning record in a full season since the franchise moved to Sacramento.
However, the Kings have headed south this season, starting on a 13-18 record while holding an NBA-worst losing nine games after leading in the fourth quarter.
The move comes around six months after he agreed to a contract extension through the 2026-27 season. According to ESPN‘s Shams Charania, the Kings told Brown of the firing via a phone call while he was driving to the team plane for the flight to Los Angeles for Saturday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
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Assistant Doug Christie will take over as the interim coach. Christie has served on the Kings’ coach staff since the 2021-22 season while he played with the team for five of his 15 NBA seasons.
After falling to the Lakers on Saturday, the Kings have lost seven out of their last 10 games and sit in the 12th spot in the Western Conference standings.
