Mike Brown

Kings Rumors: Sabonis, Fox, Ownership, Ranadives, Christie

March 7th, 2025 at 11:11pm CST by Luke Adams

After trading De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio last month, the Kings no longer have to worry about whether or not the star guard is confident in the direction of the franchise, but Fox wasn’t the only player in Sacramento with those concerns, according to Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

League sources tell The Athletic that Kings center Domantas Sabonis is expected to “seek clarity” this offseason about the team’s plans going forward.

Sabonis still has three years and $140MM left on his current contract after this season and won’t become extension-eligible until the 2026 offseason, so the Kings likely won’t have to make a decision about his future this year, like they did with Fox. However, like Fox, Sabonis and other members of the team’s core have questions about whose voices are loudest when it comes to key personnel decisions and whose counsel matters most to team owner Vivek Ranadive.

As Amick and Slater explain, Ranadive has frequently leaned on advisors outside of the standard front office hierarchy for advice on major team decisions. Former head coach Alvin Gentry is one such advisor, while John Calipari has also served as a sounding board. Veteran executives like chief operating officer Matina Kolokotronis and president of business operations John Rhinehart have had significant influence as well.

“What is the vision here?” a league source close to one core Kings player said. “It feels like it could be headed toward chaos.”

Here’s more on the Kings from Amick and Slater:

While Ranadive’s son Aneel Ranadive was heavily involved earlier in the earlier days of Vivek’s ownership, his daughter Anjali Ranadive is believed to have had more say in recent years, leading to speculation about whether she may be the “heir apparent” as the team’s governor. Anjali’s input was one reason why the Kings hesitated to sign head coach Mike Brown to a contract extension last offseason, team and league sources tell The Athletic.
Anjali Ranadive no longer has a formal basketball operations role in the organization after stepping down as the Stockton Kings’ general manager in January 2024, but she’s still believed to have influence throughout the organization, per Amick and Slater. She and former NBA player Jeremy Lamb “became a more visible part of the Kings’ decision-making tree early this season” after their relationship went public, though Lamb no longer seems as involved in organizational decisions as he was a few months ago, according to The Athletic’s duo.
It’s not yet clear whether Doug Christie, who was 19-11 in his first 30 games as Sacramento’s coach entering Friday, will have his interim tag removed and become the club’s permanent head coach. Team sources tell The Athletic that if the Kings continue to win at this rate, Christie would have a strong chance to land the permanent job. If the Kings go in a different direction, they’d be hiring their 14th head coach since Rick Adelman‘s exit in 2006.
Amick and Slater also dig in a little to the circumstances surrounding Fox’s departure from Sacramento, suggesting that the longtime Kings guard was worried about spending his prime years with a franchise that would be mired in “mediocrity and instability.”

De’Aaron Fox Talks Kings Exit, Loyalty To Mike Brown, More

March 7th, 2025 at 9:32pm CST by Luke Adams

Ahead of his first game against his former team on Friday night, Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox spoke to ESPN’s Michael C. Wright about his final days in Sacramento, telling Wright that he “never asked for a trade” and “loved” playing for the Kings.

“I truly wanted to play for one team my whole career,” Fox said. “I really did. … Everybody bled purple (in Sacramento). It was always great just going to the grocery store, going out to a restaurant. Everybody there was extremely kind. And when we started winning, then it was ‘light the beam’ everywhere. You really felt it around the city. So, it was definitely a great place to be for as long as I was.”

However, Fox wasn’t entirely convinced the franchise was on a path toward title contention and was put off by the number of head coaching changes that had occurred since he was drafted in 2017.

After playing for Dave Joerger, Luke Walton, and Alvin Gentry, the eighth-year guard liked what the Kings had in Mike Brown and says he advocated for the franchise to sign him to a contract extension last offseason in the hopes of establishing stability going forward, even as “some guys in the locker room” wanted Brown fired over the summer, according to Fox.

“I was like, ‘Yo, I’ve been here for going on my eighth year. If Mike gets fired, I’ll be going on my fifth coach,'” Fox told Wright. “And I told them, ‘I’m not going to play for another coach. I’m going to play for another team.'”

When the Kings got off to a 13-18 start and fired Brown, there was some speculation that Fox may have had a hand in the decision, which was made shortly after the veteran coach publicly criticized his star guard for a mistake that cost Sacramento a potential win.

But Fox, who says he still talks to Brown regularly, wasn’t in favor of the move and didn’t appreciate the way the Kings handled it — no one from management or ownership discussed the coaching change with reporters until more than a month later, after the team had traded its star point guard to San Antonio.

“You fire the coach, and you don’t do an interview?” Fox said. “So, all the blame was on me. Did it weigh on me? No. I don’t give a f–k. But the fact y’all are supposed to be protecting your player and y’all let that happen. … I felt at the time the organization didn’t have my back.

“The energy shifted and what’s understood doesn’t need to be explained. If I finished my contract there, then they knew what was going to happen next and it was because y’all fired another coach. That’s why I said in the interview after Mike was fired and we were in L.A. [on Dec. 28], they knew where I stood and there was nothing more to be said.”

Fox had turned down multiple contract extension offers from the Kings last offseason, according to both Wright and Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic, but interim head coach Doug Christie wondered after the team got off to an 11-4 start under his watch if the guard’s thinking about opting for free agency had changed at all. On January 27, he spoke to his agent Rich Paul – who also represents Fox – to get a better sense of the 27-year-old’s position, per Amick and Slater.

Paul informed Christie that Fox’s stance was unchanged and that his preference to spend his prime years elsewhere was perhaps even stronger following the coaching change. Christie let management know about that conversation, and the front office in turn told Paul later that day that it would listen to trade offers for Fox, according to The Athletic and ESPN.

On January 28, before the news broke publicly, Kings management sought out Fox to inform him of their decision, per Wright. Fox didn’t reveal which member of the front office he spoke to, but suggested he felt like the conversation happened later than it should have.

“We’re sitting there trying to have the conversation, but I know what he’s about to tell me because Rich had already told me,” Fox said. “A reporter calls trying to break the story, but mind you, our GM hasn’t told me yet. So, it had already been told, even before I was told by our team.”

Here are a few more items of interest from Fox’s interview with Wright:

While San Antonio was framed in some late-January reports as the team atop a wish list of preferred destinations, Fox says that’s not quite accurate. “There was no f—ing list,” Fox told ESPN. “There was one team. I wanted to go to San Antonio. So, a lot of people are mad at me, saying I handcuffed the team by giving them a destination. Well, this is my career. If anybody else is in my position, you’d do the same thing. It’s not my job to help build your team. I’m not about to just go where they want me to go. I wanted to have a destination.”
Fox wanted the Kings to pursue dynamic wing players while he was in Sacramento, noting that most of the NBA’s best teams have high-level wings. “That’s all I ever asked (the Kings) for,” he said. “I told Keegan Murray, and I don’t know how many people would agree with me. But I’m like, ‘Yo, the best teams in the league outside of Steph (Curry and the Golden State Warriors), their best player is usually a wing. Wings win in this league.”
While Victor Wembanyama isn’t really a wing, he’s the kind of player Fox believes can be an exception to that general rule. Fox told Wright that Wembanyama’s superstar potential is “why I wanted to come” to San Antonio. The reigning Rookie of the Year, who is out for the season due to a blood clot in his shoulder, flew with the team on this road trip to support Fox in his return to Sacramento, Wright writes for ESPN.com. Team doctors deemed it safe for Wembanyama to fly due to the blood-thinning medication he’s taking, Wright adds.

Pacific Notes: Green, Poole, DeRozan, Nurkic, Finney-Smith

January 22nd, 2025 at 11:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Draymond Green offered another apology over the weekend for the punch he threw at former Warriors teammate Jordan Poole during training camp in October of 2022, but he also indicated that he wants to stop talking about the incident, writes Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.

The latest apology came after Poole and the Wizards visited Golden State on Saturday. Asked about his relationship with his former team following a positive reception from the Bay Area crowd, Poole said he loves “most of those guys over there.” Green understood the message from Poole and posted “I really am sorry” on social media.

“I responded because it’s been three years,” Green said Wednesday on the podcast he hosts with Baron Davis. “Like, let’s move on. We’ve moved on. I really am sorry. That statement [by Poole] was kind of like it was looking for some sympathy … kind of keep on make me out to be the bad guy. Move on, bro. It is what it is. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have punched him. But it happened. Let’s move on.”

The punch marked a turning point for the Warriors, who were coming off an NBA title in 2022. They weren’t able to repair the chemistry of the team, and Poole was traded to Washington after the season.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

DeMar DeRozan came to Sacramento to play for Mike Brown, but the Kings fired their head coach in late December. In an interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, DeRozan said it’s a first for him in his long NBA career. “That was the first time I ever dealt with the firing of a coach in the middle of the season,” DeRozan said. “It’s new for a lot of the guys who played for him for multiple years. It’s much different from my standpoint of still being new having to adjust to that. It’s hard to process it when you’re still going through it.”
Suns coach Mike Budenholzer doesn’t believe “benched” is the proper word to use with veteran center Jusuf Nurkic (Twitter video link from Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic). Nurkic was removed from the starting lineup on January 6 and hasn’t played since the following night. He’s currently getting back into game shape in Phoenix following a bout with the flu. “It’s a long season,” Budenholzer said. “He didn’t play a couple of games and now he’s been sick. He’s home reconditioning. We’ll see how he comes through when we go back.”
The Lakers have relaxed their minutes restriction for Dorian Finney-Smith, whose playing time has been limited by an ankle issue since he arrived in a trade with Brooklyn last month, per Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. Coach J.J. Redick talked Tuesday about the difficulty of getting Finney-Smith comfortable with his new teammates. “It’s been hard because he’s been on a minutes restriction since we got him, so just having to kind of navigate that and try to save him, save those like four or five minutes for the end of the game, it’s been challenging,” Redick said. “We got word [on Tuesday] that we can up his minutes from 20 to 24. So that helps, that helps.”

Kings’ McNair Talks Christie, Goals, Trade Deadline, More

January 10th, 2025 at 11:07pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking on Friday to NBC Sports California’s Mark Jones, Kings general manager Monte McNair briefly addressed the team’s decision to fire Mike Brown, stressing that he appreciates the veteran coach and has the “utmost respect” for him.

However, as Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports California writes, McNair was more focused on discussing the job that Doug Christie has done since taking the reins from Brown, praising the interim head coach for the love he has for the organization and the “passion” he has brought to the role.

“What I think he brings to the table is his optimism, his playing experience and what he feels he needs to give to those players because that’s what he needed when he played,” McNair said. “And right now, I think the guys have really responded to that.”

The Kings won their sixth straight game on Friday and are now back to .500 at 19-19, putting them firmly in the thick of the postseason race in the Western Conference. In his conversation with Jones, McNair made it clear that getting back to the playoffs after missing out last season is a priority for the team.

“I would say our goals haven’t changed,” McNair said, per Rodriguez. “We want to get to the playoffs. We want to continue to make noise there. I think what we’ve done is we’ve put ourselves in a bit of a hole. We’ve started to climb out of it but there’s more work to be done. We’re really right now on the fringes of the play-in, that’s certainly one way into the playoffs, we’ve seen teams take that path away and make some noise in the playoffs, so if that’s the pathway we have to go through, we’ll do that.

“But ideally, we’ll find a way to get into the top six and get a little rest going into the playoffs. But that’s what our goal continues to be, both this year and going forward.”

Here are a few more highlights from the Kings’ GM:

On the front office’s thought process with the February 6 trade deadline nearing:

“I think the first thing we’re looking at is we made a big change, so what does the team look like? We’ve seen a little bit of that, but we want to see a little bit more about how this team responds and exactly what we have. We’re always looking, that’s our job in the front office, we always got to find ways to improve this team especially in the Western Conference where it feels like every year there’s 10, 11, 12 teams that you got to compete with.

“Early returns have been good, we want to continue to see that. And then we’re about three or four weeks out from that decision point, and we’ll see if there’s a way to improve the team and keep climbing the standings.”

On whether the new CBA will make it difficult for the Kings to find a deal they like:

“I think teams are looking to improve, and there’s a lot of creative folks out there. We have quite a few in our front office. So it certainly puts some constraints on how you can maneuver, but I think we are well positioned with our current position and I think other teams continue to be creative to find ways that they can do it. You can’t stand still in this league for too long and you got to continue to find ways to make your team better.”

On the desire to add more talented defenders without sacrificing offense:

“I think we’ve seen Keon (Ellis) take some tougher assignments, so when he’s out there he can do it. At the same time, we’re continuing to look for two-way guys because what we don’t want to do is just solve one issue and open up another. So we want guys like Keegan (Murray), like Keon, like a lot of the other guys on our roster that can produce on the offensive end and then go and guard these tough guys on the defensive end. So we’ll continue to look for those guys. We’ll continue to challenge the guys that we have here to take on those responsibilities.

“And I think, certainly of late, we’re top five in defense over the last 10 days or so, and 15th or 16th on the season. Our goal is to be top half of the league and we’re right there.”

Kings Rumors: Fox, Brown, Ranadivé, Johnson, Ellis

January 2nd, 2025 at 8:00am CST by Luke Adams

In the wake of Mike Brown‘s dismissal, there has been plenty of speculation that De’Aaron Fox played a role in the Kings‘ decision, given that Brown was often critical of Fox when speaking to the media, including in the final days before he was let go. The Kings star was asked by one reporter over the weekend whether he felt “pressure or guilt” about Brown losing his job.

However, Fox has adamantly denied any involvement in the move, telling ESPN that he was on good terms with Brown and liked being coached hard by him. According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, team and league sources have backed up Fox’s account.

Brown himself is known to believe that Fox had nothing to do with the decision, league sources tell The Athletic. While general manager Monte McNair claimed responsibility for the coaching change, Amick writes that team owner Vivek Ranadivé was actually the “driving force” behind Brown’s ouster. Ranadivé has not spoken to the media.

Here’s more on the Kings:

The decision to fire a well-respected coach and then not adequately explain the decision to reporters is a textbook example of how to turn Fox into a “sympathetic figure” and perhaps make him more justified in seeking a change of scenery sooner or later, Amick observes. Fox has not asked for a trade, per league sources who spoke to The Athletic, but potential suitors are monitoring the situation closely. Among those teams, there’s a belief that the Kings point guard is more likely to become available in the offseason than prior to the February 6 trade deadline, Amick reports. Fox will be extension-eligible again next summer after passing on a new deal this past offseason.
According to Amick, the Spurs, Heat, and Lakers are atop the list of teams most frequently discussed as possible suitors for Fox if he becomes available via trade. The Magic and Rockets are among the other clubs thought to be considering the idea of pursuing Fox, though “the Spurs noise is the loudest,” Amick says.
For the time being, the Kings are focused on upgrading their current roster and don’t intend to entertain inquiries on Fox, according to Amick, who confirms that Nets forward Cameron Johnson is high on the team’s wish list, as Michael Scotto of HoopsHype previously reported. Sacramento has had “extensive” discussions with Brooklyn about Johnson, Amick writes.
The Kings moved to 2-1 under interim head coach Doug Christie with a 113-107 victory over Philadelphia on Wednesday. Defensive ace Keon Ellis earned a start and played a season-high 38 minutes, with Sacramento outscoring the Sixers by 17 points during Ellis’ time on the court. “He’s amazing,” Kings center Domantas Sabonis said of Ellis, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “He’s a professional. He stays ready, and he’s always there when we need him, especially on defense.”

Kings Notes: Trade Talks, Brown, Fox, Carter

December 30th, 2024 at 4:21pm CST by Rory Maher

As the Kings began to slide down the Western Conference standings over the past several weeks, the front office contemplated making smaller trades “just to change things up,” and also discussed larger deals involving Bulls wing Zach LaVine, Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram, Nets guard Cam Thomas, and Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma, league sources tell Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.

According to Shelburne, the Kings consulted with former head coach Mike Brown on whether to make roster or coaching staff changes prior to parting ways with the 2023 Coach of the Year.

“Nobody wanted to fire Mike,” one Kings source told Shelburne. “He’s a good coach. People here really care about him. Until the very last moment we were trying to make it work.”

Sources tell Shelburne that general manager Monte McNair, assistant GM Wes Wilcox, team president Matina Kolokotronis and owner Vivek Ranadive had “several calls and meetings” to discuss Brown’s future with the organization during Sacramento’s recent 0-5 homestand. McNair ultimately called Brown to inform him of the decision as Brown was driving to the airport to board a team flight to L.A. — the timing and execution of the move drew criticism from around the NBA.

After speaking to Brown, McNair and Wilcox called De’Aaron Fox, DeMar DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis to let them know, but none were consulted beforehand, Shelburne reports.

Shelburne also confirms a report from The Athletic stating that Kings players had grown weary of Brown publicly bashing the team in post-game press conferences.

For what it’s worth, Marc Stein writes that it’s a “struggle to find anyone around the league” who thinks the firing of Brown was justified (Substack link).

Here’s more on the Kings:

There has been some speculation that Fox may have been unhappy with Brown, in part because of the way the veteran coach criticized him for committing a disastrous foul in the closing seconds of Thursday’s loss to Detroit, but the former All-Star tells Shelburne he enjoys being coached hard and was on good terms with Brown. “I feel like there’s this perception that people thought that we were at odds,” Fox says. “You can ask anybody in this organization: me and Mike have never even had an argument. We could disagree with something. We talked about it and it was gone.”
According to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, there have been “grumblings in NBA circles” suggesting that Fox will ask to be traded before the February 6 deadline. With that in mind, Pincus comes up with a hypothetical deal that sees Fox land with the Rockets.
Rookie guard Devin Carter made his NBA G League debut with the Stockton Kings on Saturday and was recalled prior to Sunday’s matchup with the Lakers, though he didn’t end up playing in what would have been a back-to-back (Twitter link via Sean Cunningham of Fox 40 Sacramento). Still, it’s obviously a positive development, as Carter is inching closer to making his NBA regular season debut following offseason shoulder surgery.

Kings Players React To Sudden Coaching Change

December 28th, 2024 at 7:53pm CST by Arthur Hill

Interim Kings coach Doug Christie stressed the need for unity as he addressed the team following Friday’s surprise firing of Mike Brown, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Christie, who served as an assistant to Brown, will be in charge of trying to salvage a season that is spiraling out of control after an 0-5 homestand. Sacramento is 12th in West at 13-18 and needs a quick turnaround to climb back into the playoff race.

Christie spoke to his players before their flight departed Friday for tonight’s game against the Lakers and again at this morning’s shootaround, according to McMenamin.

“To come out and stick together, fight and just be us, be who we are and turn this thing around,” Domantas Sabonis said in sharing his new head coach’s message.

Malik Monk said “all the vibes were high” at the shootaround, as the team feels a renewed energy from the sudden coaching change. Sabonis exhibited that by arranging for his own travel to Los Angeles. He was considered questionable to play because of an illness that forced him to miss Thursday’s game, but he wanted to be there to display his commitment to Christie.

“I got here and went right onto the court,” Sabonis said. “We’re all focused on winning the game. But we obviously know we haven’t been performing at our best. And we have to do a better job. Me, as one of the leaders of the team, I got to make sure that that happens. We got to win all the games that we can.”

Brown appeared to have a long future in Sacramento after leading the team to the playoffs in 2023 and narrowly missing another playoff appearance in last season’s play-in tournament. He was rewarded with an offseason extension that runs through 2026/27 and gives him an extra $20MM in guaranteed money, but management quickly lost patience with the slow start. The offseason addition of DeMar DeRozan hasn’t work out as planned, and there was skepticism that the Kings could move up the standings with Brown in charge.

Sabonis and Monk expressed shock over the sudden move, while De’Aaron Fox told McMenamin that he was notified “a minute before everybody else.” Fox also pondered the players’ role in the coaching change when he was asked if he felt any “pressure or guilt” over Brown’s fate.

“Any pressure or guilt? I mean, obviously we all know the job that we have,” Fox responded. “You can be traded at any point. Released. Cut. Fired. Whatever it may be. I mean, I wouldn’t use the word ‘guilt.’ But that’s the nature of the job that we have. But I mean, obviously him signing his extension this summer, we felt like we would be together a whole lot longer but that’s the decision that they made. But at the end of the day, too, he’s still being paid. A great part of being an NBA player, being an NBA coach, is those things can happen, but these contracts are guaranteed.”

Although Brown’s dismissal seemed to come out of nowhere, there were already rumors about “waning confidence” from ownership even before he was given the extension, Jake Fischer states in his latest Substack story. Sources tell Fischer there were “internal disagreements” regarding the team’s starting lineup and the tradeoff in playing time between Keon Ellis and Kevin Huerter.

Fischer reported in 2022 that Mark Jackson was the preferred candidate of owner Vivek Ranadive before Brown was hired. Jackson was head coach of the Warriors when Ranadive became a minority owner of that team, and several NBA sources have told Fischer that Ranadive seems to prefer having a former player in that role. That may explain why Christie was chosen to run the team, although it’s not clear if there’s any commitment to him beyond the end of the season.

Pacific Notes: Brown, Christie, Kings, Fox, Schröder, Lakers

December 28th, 2024 at 11:49am CST by Tristan Tucker

Former Kings head coach Mike Brown tore into his team after another blown lead led to a loss against the Pistons on Thursday. However, Anthony Slater and Sam Amick of The Athletic write that Brown’s stern post-game news conferences began to wear on players, and that was part of the Kings’ decision to part with him.

Slater and Amick report that there was no malice or specific purpose intended with the timing of the firing, which came as Brown was getting ready for the team’s flight for their game in Los Angeles. Owner Vivek Ranadive was particularly upset with the Kings’ poor play and noted their fall from first in offense in 2022/23 to the middle of the pack last season, but the decision to let go of Brown was general manager Monte McNair‘s, according to Slater and Amick.

The Kings will have a chance to right the ship under interim replacement Doug Christie, with the team boasting the eighth-best offense in the league despite falling to 13-18.

We have more from the Pacific Division:

There is no immediate head coaching search planned for the Kings, Slater and Amick write in the same story. After being named interim coach, Christie will have an opportunity to make a case for the permanent position. Christie’s promotion was a long time coming. Ranadive once saw Christie as a viable alternative to Alvin Gentry (who was eventually named interim coach) after Luke Walton was fired in 2021. Christie has a strong relationship with players and staff and made a lasting impression in Sacramento during his time as a player, commentator and assistant, per The Athletic.
Choosing a starting lineup will be one of Christie’s first tasks as coach, Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee writes. The starting shooting guard position will likely come down to Malik Monk, Kevin Huerter or Keon Ellis.
De’Aaron Fox took accountability for his defensive mistake at the end of Thursday’s loss to the Pistons, Sean Cunningham of Fox 40 Sacramento reports (Twitter link). Fox spoke in front of his teammates and took ownership during the tough slide, teammate Keegan Murray relayed.
Warriors guard Dennis Schröder struggled through his first five games with Golden State after starting off the year hot with Brooklyn. In his last five games, Schröder averaged 8.2 points on 28.0% shooting as opposed to the 18.4 points on 45.2% shooting he posted with the Nets. However, coach Steve Kerr said he’s not worried about Schröder’s play, according to Slater (Twitter link). “You trust who the player has been. It’s a tiny sample size,” Kerr said. “He came to us at a time when we were ice cold. He needs shooting around him. He’s a pick-and-roll player. We were 7-for-38 tonight from three.”
The Lakers are getting healthier, providing Los Angeles a reason for optimism, Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times writes. Jaxson Hayes is now day-to-day and close to returning while head coach JJ Redick said there’s hope both Christian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt will be able to make their season debuts during an upcoming stretch that includes nine of 11 games at home.

Western Notes: Malone, Brown, Suns, Mavs, Pels, Morant, Kawamura

December 27th, 2024 at 11:22pm CST by Luke Adams

Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, who was the head coach in Sacramento for a season-and-a-half from 2013-14, didn’t hold back in his criticism of his former employer for the way the Kings handled Mike Brown‘s dismissal, as Bennett Durando of The Denver Post relays.

“What really pissed me off about it was that they lost (Thursday) night, fifth game in a row, I believe — tough loss, fouling a jump-shooter — they have practice this morning, he does his post-(practice) media, and he’s in his car going to the airport to fly to L.A.,” Malone said. “And they call him on the phone (to fire him). No class. No balls. That’s what I’ll say about that.”

Malone said he was initially “really shocked and surprised” when he heard that Brown had been fired, but quickly realized the news wasn’t all that unexpected for two reasons.

“One, because as an NBA head coach, ultimately you’re going to get the blame,” Malone said. “When they win, it’s going to go to (Domantas) Sabonis and (De’Aaron) Fox. When you lose, it’s gonna go to Mike Brown. That’s the way it works. And two, who he works for. So I’m not surprised that Mike Brown got fired, because I got fired by the same person.”

We have more from around the Western Conference:

Fines and/or suspensions could be coming after Suns center Jusuf Nurkic and Mavericks forwards Naji Marshall and P.J. Washington were ejected from Friday’s game for their roles in a fourth-quarter altercation (Twitter video link). As Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic details, Nurkic was called for an offensive foul and began heading toward his basket before turning back and exchanging words with Marshall and Washington. The incident escalated when Nurkic slapped Marshall in the side of the head. Marshall responded by throwing a punch at Nurkic as the Suns big man was shoved to the floor by Washington.
In the wake of Thursday’s 17-point home loss to Houston, Pelicans head coach Willie Green bemoaned his club’s “lack of competitiveness,” telling reporters, “We were just soft tonight. Period” (Twitter link via Will Guillory of The Athletic). New Orleans followed up that performance with another loss – its ninth in a row – on Friday at home vs. the Grizzlies and now has a 5-27 record.
Grizzlies star Ja Morant exited Friday’s win over New Orleans early due to a right shoulder ailment. While it didn’t look in the moment like a significant injury, it’s the same shoulder that Morant had surgically repaired last January, so the team figures to play it safe with its franchise player. According to head coach Taylor Jenkins, Morant will be reevaluated within the “next couple days” to determine the severity of the injury, tweets Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com.
Two-way guard Yuki Kawamura has only logged 41 total minutes across 14 outings for the Grizzlies, but the Japanese rookie has made Memphis the NBA’s most popular team in his home country this season. Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal has the story.

Kings Fire Mike Brown

December 27th, 2024 at 10:37pm CST by Rory Maher

10:37pm: The Kings have put out a press release officially confirming that Brown has been let go and that Christie will be the team’s interim head coach.

“This was a difficult decision, and I want to thank Mike for his many contributions to the organization,” general manager Monte McNair said in a statement.

3:39pm: The Kings are firing head coach Mike Brown, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). Sam Amick of The Athletic confirms the news (via Twitter).

Brown just signed a three-year contract extension in June. He will reportedly be owed $25.5MM through 2026/27.

In his first season with Sacramento in 2022/23, Brown guided the franchise to a 48-34 record and its first playoff berth since 2006, winning the NBA’s Coach of the Year award. Despite racking up 46 more regular season wins in ’23/24, he and the Kings finished outside the top eight in the conference and were eliminated in the second game of the play-in tournament.

The Kings have been in a tailspin of late, dropping their fifth straight game — all at home — after a fourth-quarter collapse on Thursday vs. Detroit, as Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee writes. Sacramento led by 15 points with under eight minutes remaining, but wound up losing after Jaden Ivey converted a four-point play when the Pistons were down three.

“To relax like that at that point in the game was tough,” Brown said. “I also don’t like the pace we had in the last six minutes. I kept telling our guys, ‘Push it, push it, push it, drive it, kick it,’ just like we did most of the game, and we come to a complete stop with about six minutes to go. Three minutes to go, we’re rolling the ball and walking it, going against a set defense every time. Somehow, someway, we have to pay attention to the little details.”

The Kings entered the season with playoff expectations, but are currently just 13-18, the No. 12 seed in the West — they’re three games behind the final play-in spot.

Overall, the 54-year-old compiled a 107-88 (.549) regular season record with Sacramento. The team lost its first-round playoff series to Golden State in 2023 in seven games.

As detailed by multiple local reporters (all Twitter links), Brown just ran a full practice and spoke to the media literally minutes before Charania broke the news.

It’s unclear who will serve as Sacramento’s interim head coach, but the team’s most experienced assistant (he’s technically an associate head coach) is Jay Triano. The 66-year-old had previous head coaching stints with Toronto and Phoenix.

[UPDATE: Doug Christie Will Be Kings’ Interim Head Coach]

Known for his defensive acumen, Brown was an assistant with Washington, San Antonio and Indiana before he got his first head coaching job with Cleveland in 2005. He also coached the Lakers and had a second one-year stint with the Cavs. Prior to being hired by Sacramento, he was the top assistant on Steve Kerr‘s staff with Golden State for six seasons.

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