Sacramento fires coach Mike Brown amid 5-game losing streak, AP source says

By JOSH DUBOW | AP Sports Writer

The Sacramento Kings have fired Coach Mike Brown less than halfway through his third season with the team mired in a five-game losing streak, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Friday because the firing hadn’t been announced by the team. ESPN first reported the firing.

Brown won NBA Coach of the Year in his first season in 2022-23 (in a unanimous vote), when he helped Sacramento end the longest playoff drought in NBA history at 16 seasons.

But Sacramento lost in the play-in tournament last year and was off to a 13-18 start this season, leading to the move to fire Brown about six months after he agreed to a contract extension through the 2026-27 season.

The Kings have lost an NBA-worst nine games this season after leading in the fourth quarter with the worst one coming in Brown’s final game as coach Thursday night against Detroit.

Sacramento led by 10 points with less than three minutes to play only to collapse down the stretch. Jaden Ivey converted a four-point play with three seconds left when he made a 3-pointer in the right corner and was fouled by De’Aaron Fox. That gave the Pistons a 114-113 win, leaving the Kings in 12th place in the Western Conference.

The Kings came into the season with hopes of finishing in the top six in the West and avoiding the play-in tournament after acquiring DeMar DeRozan in a sign-and-trade deal over the summer to add to a core that featured Fox, Domantas Sabonis and Keegan Murray.

Fox, who is in the second-to-last year of his five-year, $163 million contract, declined to sign an extension in the offseason. He said on a podcast with Draymond Green earlier this month that he wanted to be on a team that could “compete at a high level.”

Sacramento has been far from that this season, thanks in large part to an NBA-worst 3-11 record in games decided by five points or fewer. Brown publicly criticized Fox for his role in the game-winning play Thursday night, saying he should have been closer to Ivey instead of committing a foul on a close out.

“You should be hugged up to your man at the 3-point line,” Brown said. “Everybody should, and why there was a closeout by Fox, I’m not sure. I got to go back and watch the tape. But for sure 100% we told our guys, can’t give up a 3, can’t give up a 3, can’t give up a 3, stay on the high side, stay on the high side.”

Brown has a 107-88 record in two-plus seasons in Sacramento with a winning record in both of his full seasons. Rick Adelman is the only other coach to post a winning record in a full season since the Kings moved to Sacramento

Brown previously had two stints as coach in Cleveland and spent one-plus season as Lakers coach. He has a 455-304 record and has made the playoffs in seven of his nine full seasons. He won Coach of the Year twice, also getting the award in Cleveland in 2008-09.

NBA COACHES REACT

Not even two years ago, Rick Carlisle publicly lauded Brown for the job he did on the way to winning the Coach of the Year award.

And on Friday, Carlisle was among a slew of coaches reacting with dismay – some even with anger – that Brown was fired after back-to-back winning seasons, something the Kings franchise hadn’t managed in nearly two decades.

“The firing of Mike Brown today was just shocking to me and I’m sure all the people in our profession – men and women,” said Carlisle, the Indiana Pacers coach and longtime president of the National Basketball Coaches Association. “I had the privilege of working with Mike when I was in Indiana coaching the first time. I view him as one of the standard bearers for integrity for our profession. And I’m just absolutely shocked that that decision was made.”

Carlisle – who offered those sentiments, unprompted, to open his pregame media session before the Pacers visited Boston on Friday night – wasn’t alone on that front.

Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone – who was fired by Sacramento owner Vivek Ranadive in December 2014, and Brown was the sixth coach to hold that job in the decade since Malone’s departure – did not hold back in his reaction to the news, saying the firing was done with “no class.”

In discussing the news, Malone said Brown’s firing didn’t surprise him because of “who he works for.”

“I’m not surprised that Mike Brown got fired, because I got fired by the same person,” Malone said. “And what really pissed me off about it was the fact that they lost [Thursday] night, fifth game in a row, I believe. Tough loss. … They had practiced this morning. He does his postgame media, and he’s in his car going to the airport to fly to L.A. and they call him on the phone.

“No class, no balls. That’s what I’ll say about that.”

Still, he said all coaches understand they are often a target from the moment they get hired.

“As an NBA head coach, ultimately, you’re going to get the blame,” Malone added. “When they win, it’s going to go to (Domantas) Sabonis and (De’Aaron) Fox. When you lose, it’s going to go to Mike Brown. That’s the way it works.”

Orlando Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said coaches understand that the job is often thankless, and that when a team underachieves there’s a risk of firings. He said it’s not his place to discuss another team’s decision-making – but made clear what he thinks of Brown as a coach and as a person.

“He compiled a record of 107-88 while he was there,” Mosley said. “He changed a bit of that culture in what he was doing. And I say these things not as a fellow coach. I say this as a close friend. He’s been a mentor of mine. And I know how good he is, and I know how he cares, and I know how he’s helped pave the way for so many of us that are in this game right now.”

Less than two years after that unanimous Coach of the Year award, Brown was fired.

“You hate to see it,” said New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, who, like Brown, is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year. “You know, it’s part of what we go through. Mike’s a terrific person and a great coach. It’s unfortunate.”

Golden State coach Steve Kerr said he understands that the Kings were struggling of late, but still expressed disappointment that Brown – his former assistant and a longtime close friend – was let go.

“We all kind of know, this is the nature of the business,” Kerr said. “It just seems so shocking when a guy’s the unanimous Coach of the Year a year and a half ago and when you think about where that franchise was before Mike got there … really shocking.”

The change in Sacramento is the ninth head-coaching change in the NBA in 2024 alone – and the 300th in the NBA since Gregg Popovich, the league’s longest-tenured current coach, became coach in San Antonio in 1996. Popovich is currently away from the Spurs while recovering from a stroke.

Brown has had four different jobs in that span.

“He’ll certainly land on his feet,” Carlisle said. “But if you look at the job that he did and the turnaround that he had, it’s just really hard to believe that this decision was made. But teams have the right to do things like this, obviously. It’s their decision. But Mike’s a great man and a great basketball man. Really one of the pillars of our profession. Anyway. Onward.”

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds and AP sports writer Kyle Hightower contributed to this story.