The Sacramento Kings have fired coach Mike Brown midway through his third season after the team struggled with a five-game losing streak.
General manager Monte McNair called the decision “difficult” and thanked Brown for his efforts. Assistant coach Doug Christie will step in as interim coach, starting with Saturday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Brown was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2022-23 after leading the Kings to end the longest playoff drought in NBA history, which lasted 16 seasons. However, Sacramento lost in the play-in tournament last year and struggled this season with a 13-18 record. This led to the decision to fire Brown, just months after he signed a contract extension through 2026-27.
The Kings have lost an NBA-worst nine games this season after leading in the fourth quarter. The most frustrating loss came in Brown’s final game as coach on Thursday night against Detroit.
Sacramento had a 10-point lead with under three minutes remaining but collapsed, with Jaden Ivey hitting a four-point play with three seconds left to give the Pistons a 114-113 victory. This left the Kings in 12th place in the Western Conference.
Sacramento had hopes of finishing in the top six of the West this season and avoiding the play-in tournament after adding DeMar DeRozan through a summer sign-and-trade deal, joining key players like Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and Keegan Murray.
Fox, in the second-to-last year of his five-year, $163 million contract, turned down an extension in the offseason. He said earlier this month on a podcast that he wanted to play for a team that could “compete at a high level.”
However, Sacramento has struggled this season, partly due to a league-worst 3-11 record in games decided by five points or fewer. Brown publicly criticized Fox for his role in the game-winning play against Detroit, saying he should have been closer to Ivey instead of committing a foul.
Brown had a 107-88 record in his two-plus seasons in Sacramento, with a winning record in both full seasons. Rick Adelman is the only other coach to post a winning record in a full season since the Kings moved to Sacramento.
Before Sacramento, Brown coached in Cleveland and Los Angeles, and he has a career record of 455-304 with seven playoff appearances in nine full seasons. He won Coach of the Year twice, including in Cleveland in 2008-09.
Christie will become the Kings’ eighth head coach since owner Vivek Ranadive took over in 2013. Under Ranadive, the Kings have the fourth-worst record in the NBA and have made the playoffs only once.
