Last Friday, the Sacramento Kings fired Coach Mike Brown just before the team boarded a flight to Los Angeles, right after he conducted practice and met with the media. That is a bad and dysfunctional but not surprising look for a team that has been bad and dysfunctional for the better part of the past 20 years. In his first season with the Kings, Brown was the unanimous selection as the 2023 NBA Coach of the Year after the Kings posted a 48-34 record--their first winning season since 2005-06, and their best winning percentage since 2004-05. Brown led the Kings to a 46-36 record last season--the first time the Kings had consecutive winning seasons since 2005-06--but the Kings let go of Brown after a 13-18 start this season, a .419 winning percentage that is better than the full season winning percentages of every Kings team from 2009-18. Brown's track record prior to arriving in Sacramento includes winning the 2009 NBA Coach of the Year award after leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to the best regular season record (66-16) in franchise history, a mark that still stands. Brown was an assistant coach on four NBA championship teams (San Antonio 2003, Golden State 2017-18, 2022), and it is a good bet that if he does not receive a head coaching offer soon then he will be on the bench of a top contender as an assistant coach.
Brown's brief Sacramento tenure is the only bright spot on the franchise's otherwise dismal track record of losing followed by coaching changes followed by more losing; the Kings have had 12 coaches since 2006, and Brown is the only one of those 12 coaches who posted a winning record (107-89) with the Kings. Four of those 12 coaches--Brown, Paul Westphal, George Karl, and Michael Malone--led other teams to the NBA Finals, and Malone's Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA title, a track record which strongly suggests that the Kings' problem is not bad coaching but mismanagement.
Brown took over a Kings team that ranked 29th in points allowed and 28th in defensive field goal percentage. The Kings ranked 17th and 21st respectively in those categories last season, and they ranked 19th and 15th respectively so far this season prior to Brown being fired. However, the Kings' leadership may not understand the importance of defense, and thus may not place sufficient value on the type of program Brown built. The Kings had a positive point differential this season despite their losing record, a statistic that suggests that over a larger sample size they would turn things around.
Vivek Ranadive has been the Kings' majority owner since 2013. In 2014, he suggested that it would be optimal for a team to keep one player on offense for the entire game and thus to play defense four on five--an idea that only sounds intelligent or reasonable to someone who made a lot of money outside of basketball but does not have a clue about what it takes to win basketball games.
Media members regularly display their ignorance of basketball history, and media members often have a poor understanding of the intricacies of high level NBA coaching, so don't hold your breath waiting for media members to produce intelligent and objective analysis of Brown's Sacramento tenure; such analysis was not forthcoming earlier in Brown's career, and it is even less likely to be forthcoming now in a media landscape dominated by loud mouths who confuse decibel level with IQ level and whose "hot takes" are devoid of intelligent analysis.
However, it is interesting and revealing to consider the comments made by Brown's coaching peers. Denver Coach Michael Malone did not mince words about Brown's firing: "I'm not surprised that Mike Brown got fired, because I got fired by the same person. 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."
Indiana Pacers Coach (and longtime President of the National Basketball Coaches Association) Rick Carlisle called the firing "shocking to me and I'm sure all the people in our profession." He added, "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."
Much like the New York Knicks spent decades stuck in mediocrity (or worse) until the owner hired smart people and then left the smart people alone to do their jobs, the Sacramento Kings will remain stuck in mediocrity (or worse) until the owner stops trying to prove that he is the smartest man in the room; there are few things more likely to destroy any group or organization than having someone in charge who is not nearly as smart as he thinks he is.